Norman Doidge Quotes

• The brain is a far more open system than we ever imagined, and nature has gone very far to help us perceive and take in the world around us. It has given us a brain that survives in a changing world by changing itself.

  Norman Doidge

  Brain, Gone, World

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.26, Penguin

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• Thought changes structure... I saw people rewire their brains with their thoughts, to cure previously incurable obsessions and trauma.

  Norman Doidge

  People, Brain, Saws

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• Mind training matters. It is not just a luxury, or a supplementary vitamin for the soul. It determines the quality of every instant of our lives.

  Norman Doidge

  Life, Luxury, Soul

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• Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment.

  Norman Doidge

  Brain, Environment, Speed

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.256, Penguin

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• Everything having to do with human training and education has to be re-examined in light of neuroplasticity.

  Norman Doidge

  Education, Light, Training

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• After the initial critical learning period of youth is over, the areas of the brain that need to be 'turned on' to allow enhanced, long lasting learning can only be activated when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, or if we make the effort to pay close attention.

  Norman Doidge

  Knowledge, Long, Effort

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• Ironically, some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity.

  Norman Doidge

  Stubborn, Habit, Disorder

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.20, Penguin

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• If you want to lift a hundred pounds, you don't expect to succeed the first time. You start with a lighter weight and work up little by little. You actually fail to life a hundred pounds, every day, until the day you succeed. But it is in the days when you are exerting yourself that the growth is occurring.

  Norman Doidge

  Growth, Littles, Firsts

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• ...an effective psychotherapist or psychoanalyst is a "microsurgeon of the mind" who helps patients make needed alterations in neuronal networks.

  Norman Doidge

  Mind, Helping, Patient

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.221, Penguin

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• Because it is a 'use it or lose it' brain, when we develop a map area [in the brain], we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we've been sitting all day.

  Norman Doidge

  Exercise, Use It Or Lose It, Long

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.108, Penguin

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• We must be learning if we are to feel fully alive, and when life, or love, becomes too predictable and it seems like there is little left to learn, we become restless - a protest, perhaps, of the plastic brain when it can no longer perform its essential task.

  Norman Doidge

  Love Is, Brain, Essentials

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.116, Penguin

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• All of us have worries. We worry because we are intelligent beings. Intelligence predicts, that is its essence; the same intelligence that allows us to plan, hope, imagine, and hypothesize also allows us to worry and anticipate negative outcomes.

  Norman Doidge

  Intelligent, Essence, Worry

  "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science". Book by Norman Doidge, 2007.

  15 Copy quote

• Neuroplasticity contributes to both the constrained and unconstrained aspects of our nature. It renders our brains not only more resourceful, but also more vulnerable to outside influences.

  Norman Doidge

  Brain, Neuroplasticity, Influence

  13 Copy quote

• Not all activities are equal in this regard. Those that involve genuine concentration—studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing—are associated with a lower risk for dementia. Dancing, which requires learning new moves, is both physically and mentally challenging and requires much concentration. Less intense activities, such as bowling, babysitting, and golfing, are not associated with a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s. (254)

  Norman Doidge

  Moving, Reading, Games

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.254, Penguin

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• Analysis helps patients put their unconscious procedural memories and actions into words and into context, so they can better understand them. In the process they plastically retranscribe these procedural memories, so that they become conscious explicit memories, sometimes for the first time, and patients no longer need to "relive" or "reenact" them, especially if they were traumatic.

  Norman Doidge

  Memories, Needs, Analysis

  "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science". Book by Norman Doidge (pp. 229-230), March 15, 2007.

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• Not all activities are equal... Those that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing - are associated with a lower risk for dementia.

  Norman Doidge

  Reading, Health, Games

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• We all have what might be called a culturally modified brain, and as cultures evolve, they continually lead to new changes in the brain.

  Norman Doidge

  Brain, Might, Culture

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• Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors, even for patients who have not lost loved ones to death. We are often haunted by important relationships from the past that influence us unconsciously in the present. As we work them through, they go from haunting us to becoming simply part of our history. (243)

  Norman Doidge

  Past, Important Relationships, Haunting

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.243, Penguin

  14 Copy quote

• Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors.

  Norman Doidge

  Fear, Ghost, Ancestor

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.243, Penguin

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• Language development, for instance, has a critical period that begins in infancy and ends between eight years and puberty. After this critical period closes, a person’s ability to learn a second language without an accent is limited. In fact, second languages learned after the critical period are not processed in the same part of the brain as is the native tongue.

  Norman Doidge

  Eight, Years, Brain

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.52, Penguin

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• Analysis helps patients put their unconscious procedural memories and actions into words and into context, so they can better understand them.

  Norman Doidge

  Memories, Analysis, Action

  Norman Doidge (2007). “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science”, p.229, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• We often praise 'the ability to multi-task.' While you can learn when you divide your attention, divided attention doesn't lead to aiding change in your brain maps [lasting changes].

  Norman Doidge

  Lasting Change, Brain, Attention

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