Why We Snap, R. Douglas Fields
Why We Snap, R. Douglas Fields
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Why We Snap
Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain

Author: R. Douglas Fields

Narrator: Graham Winton

Unabridged: 16 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/12/2016

Synopsis

The startling new science behind sudden acts of violence committed by ordinary, sane people from a leading neurobiologist According to R. Douglas Fields, PhD, we all have a rage circuit we can't fully control once it is engaged. The daily headlines are filled with examples of otherwise rational people with no history of violence or mental illness suddenly snapping in a domestic dispute, barroom brawl, or road rage attack. We all wish to believe that we are in control of our actions, but the fact is, in certain circumstances we are not. Something in our environment can unexpectedly unleash an automatic and complex rage response. Dr. Fields is an internationally recognized neurobiologist and authority on the brain and the cellular mechanisms of memory. He has spent years trying to understand the biological basis of rage and anomalous violence, and he has concluded that our culture's understanding of the problem is based on an erroneous assumption: that rage attacks are the product of morally or mentally defective individuals, rather than a capacity that we all possess. The sad truth is that the right trigger in the right circumstance can unleash a fit of rage in almost anyone. And as Dr. Fields reveals and details for the first time, there are precisely nine triggers. Fields shows that violent behavior is the result of the clash between our evolutionary hardwiring and triggers in our contemporary world. Our personal space is more crowded than ever, we get less sleep, and we just aren't as fit as our ancestors. We need to understand how the hardwiring works and how to recognize the nine triggers. With a totally new perspective, engaging narrative, and practical advice, Why We Snap uncovers the biological roots of the rage response and how we can protect ourselves-and others.

About R. Douglas Fields

Douglas Fields, PhD, is a neuroscientist and an international authority on nervous system development and plasticity. He received advanced degrees from UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, UC San Diego, and he held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Yale Universities before joining the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has published over 150 articles in scientific journals and books from his experimental research into how the brain is modified by experience, and the cellular mechanisms of memory. His scientific research has been featured internationally in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, including the National Geographic, ABC News Nightline, andNPR Morning Edition. His research on nervous system plasticity involving non-neuronal cells (glia) in white matter regions of the brain, is recognized as pioneering a new non-synaptic mechanism of nervous system plasticity. In 2004, he founded the scientific journal Neuron Glia Biology, to advance research on interactions between neurons and glia, and he serves on the editorial boards of several neuroscience journals. In addition to his scientific research, Dr. Fields is author of numerous books and magazine article about the brain written for the general reader, including The Other Brain, about brain cells that communicate without using electricity (glia), and Why We Snap, about the neuroscience of sudden aggression, as well as numerous articles in popular magazines including Outside Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Scientific American and Scientific American Mind, Time, Undark, Quanta, and on-line columns for The Huffington Post, Psychology Today, Scientific American, the Society for Neuroscience, BrainFacts, and others, and he is scientific advisor to Scientific American Mind.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Daniel

The book is intended as a ‘grand unifying theory’ of human aggression (rage), along with some suggestions on how to manage it, with a particular emphasis on when people snap in an instant. For me, it didn’t get 100% of the way there, but it’s a fascinating ride. 50% observations about aggression 50% po......more

Goodreads review by Lola

I read this for character research and I did gain some insight to the character/project, but this book is so problematic. For one thing, the book is overwritten. When the author "set the scene" for introducing individuals to illustrate some point or another, it was like reading a non-romance reader......more

Goodreads review by Major

Listened to this book: completely mis-titled, poorly dubbed, confusingly organized; interesting anecdotes.......more

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