Review by Booklist Review
The opening pages of this memoir are not for the squeamish. Doty, a neurosurgery professor at Stanford University and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, describes in meticulous detail what happens during brain surgery, and, in particular, the sounds (like a large piece of Velcro tearing away from its source) and smells (summer sawdust) associated with it. He recalls his training to shut down all bodily responses when in the operating room. It's a form of hypervigilance, he writes, . . . almost like meditation. We train the mind, and the mind trains the body. Doty first learned to master this thinking when, at age 12, he visited a magic shop located in a nondescript strip mall in his hometown of Lancaster, California. This unusual memoir combines elements of self-help techniques magicians believe in their own magic, in the stories they are telling with anecdotes about Doty's own dysfunctional upbringing as the son of an abusive, alcoholic father. Using mindfulness and visualization helped him became a better surgeon, and he contends these techniques can assist anyone, in any walk of life.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Neurosurgeon Doty combines gut-wrenching memoir with meditative how-to in this well-told, grueling tale of his personal journey from frightened pre-teen with an alcoholic father and depressed mother to a respected doctor and philanthropist. He attributes his success to the ancient mindfulness and visualization techniques that "rewired" his brain and were taught to him in the back of a magic shop in 1968, when he was 12 years old. "When our brain changes, we change," Doty writes. "That is a truth proven by science. But an even greater truth is that when our heart changes, everything changes." It's the heart lesson that proves the hardest to learn for Doty as he boldly masters medical school to become a noted neurosurgeon and investment multimillionaire. Meditation and visualization are great for "journeying inward... but without wisdom and insight (opening the heart) the techniques can result in self-absorption, narcissism, and isolation." The inward voyage, he argues, is meant to lead a person to "go outward and connect with others." Doty's advice in this rags-to-riches tale is inspirational and the mindfulness techniques he advocates are clearly documented. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Stanford neurosurgeon and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education relates how to achieve lofty life goals by harnessing the power of both the brain and the heart. When Doty was an adolescent, he had a chance encounter at a magic shop with a benevolent older woman named Ruth, who over the next few weeks instructed him on a series of empowering mind-body exercises that would dramatically alter the direction of his life. Having grown up in impoverished circumstances in Lancaster, California, with an alcoholic father and depressed, suicidal mother, he would go on to achieve phenomenal success and wealth as a surgeon and entrepreneur. However, two episodes threatened to disrupt his future: a near-death experience from a car crash while still in medical residency and, later, a misguided business decision that led him to the brink of bankruptcy. By recalling Ruth's guided exercisesmost crucially, her instruction of first opening his heartDoty was able to regain momentum in his career and eventually realize a more richly profound destiny. In this well-meaning hybrid of inspirational self-help book and memoir, the author applies scientific investigation to the example of his life story, proving that you can overcome adversity and achieve meaningful success and enlightenment by embracing compassion along with focused willpower. "When our brains and our hearts are working in collaborationwe are happier, we are healthier, and we automatically express love, kindness, and care for one another," he writes. "I knew this intuitively, but I needed to validate it scientifically. This was the motivation to begin researching compassion and altruism. I wanted to understand the evolution of not only why we evolved such behavior but also how it affects the brain and ultimately our health." An optimistic and engagingly well-told life story that incorporates scientific investigation into its altruistic message. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
