Rephrasing the title of Walt Whitman's poem "I Sing the Body Electric," Anand does for the mind what Whitman does for the body. In a lyrical book of non-fiction that reads like literature, she illustrates the importance of listening and respecting the stories of your patients as the best way to help and heal them.
Mining her family history and her own trials with brain issues, she traces her path from medical student to neurologist. She finds the field of the mind fascinating, as will the reader, when the smallest process goes awry, resulting in the takedown of the whole body. So many things can go wrong in the nervous system that one is amazed that it usually goes right.
Anand credits the work of Oliver Sacks as an inspiration for this book, and like Sacks, she presents case histories of the patients she sees in the hospital. She is especially intrigued by the state of "confabulation," where the mind constructs a narrative of a logical explanation for the bizarre symptoms of the body. She likens this to the story of Scheherazade, who under pain of death, is forced to tell a tale each night to delay her demise.
While the book notes the importance of listening and observation in general, her emphasis is on women, people of color and the poor who are often misdiagnosed or just brushed aside. The brain disorders in women were historically characterized as "hysteria" (or wandering uterus). In more modern times, female patient complaints are deemed "psychological," resulting in time lost in the psych ward, while the answer involves brain/blood leaks and out of control neurons.
The author's takeaway is very simple and also very complicated-the patient will tell the doctor what's wrong if the doctor will listen. Maybe it won't be in words, or in words that make sense, but if attention is really paid, the answer will often be there. First do no harm.
Reviewed by Donna Ballard
June 10, 2025
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