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The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older
The Wisdom Paradox explores the aging of the mind from a unique, positive perspective. In an era of increasing fears about mental deterioration, world-renowned neuropsychologist Elkhonon Goldberg provides startling new evidence that though the brain diminishes in some tasks as it ages, it gains in many ways. Most notably, it increases in what he terms “wisdom”: the ability to draw upon knowledge and experience gained over a lifetime to make quick and effective decisions. Goldberg delves into the machinery of the mind, separating memory into two distinct singular (knowledge of a particular incident or fact) and generic (recognition of broader patterns). As the brain ages, the ability to use singular memory declines, but generic memory is unaffected—and its importance grows. As an individual accumulates generic memory, the brain can increasingly rely upon these stored patterns to solve problems effortlessly and instantaneously. Goldberg investigates the neurobiology of wisdom, and draws on historical examples of artists and leaders whose greatest achievements were realized late in life.
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Elkhonon Goldberg
34 books38 followersBorn 1946, Elkhonon Goldberg is a neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist known for his work in hemispheric specialization and the "novelty-routinization" theory.
Goldberg studied at Moscow State University with the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and moved to the United States in 1974. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of SharpBrains, an online brain fitness centre. He offers post-doctoral training in Neuropsychology at Fielding Graduate University. Elkhonon Goldberg is the Founding Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute (LNI), an organization founded with the purpose of advancing research and disseminating knowledge about the brain and the mind. He describes himself as an atheist "with agnostic tendencies".
From Wikipedia
Goldberg studied at Moscow State University with the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and moved to the United States in 1974. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of SharpBrains, an online brain fitness centre. He offers post-doctoral training in Neuropsychology at Fielding Graduate University. Elkhonon Goldberg is the Founding Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute (LNI), an organization founded with the purpose of advancing research and disseminating knowledge about the brain and the mind. He describes himself as an atheist "with agnostic tendencies".
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 9, 2023
This book was surprisingly well-written, if not a bit disconnected at times. The author writes with lucidity that is almost reminiscent of Oliver Sacks (which is a good thing, as he is one of my favorite authors). The main thread carrying us through the book is that with use, our brain "routinizes" novelty and the integrated patterns are what help us stay resilient to agree-related decay of cognition. His scientific evidence is backed up with personal anecdotes, relations to history, and insights into other aspects of cognition. Overall, I found it enlightening and an interesting insight into how our brain changes as we age. Unfortunately, I have to take a star off because the author seems to revere Ronald Regan :(
October 8, 2015
Subtitle: How your mind can grow stronger as your brain grows older.
So, what is the equivalent of a midlife crisis for a clinical professor of neurology, with a private practice in neuropsychology? Getting an MRI scan of your brain. And then writing a book about what it means for your brain to get older.
This is one of several books I have read to compare the scientific study of the mind/brain today, to the study of the planets and stars in Galileo's time, just after the invention of the telescope. It's not that no one studied astronomy before Galileo's time, or that no one studied the brain before now. But once you have a way to look directly at what you're talking about, it can clarify your theories considerably (or completely discredit them).
What Goldberg found, when he had his brain scanned (Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, was the scan used), was that by and large he was in good shape. But, his brain had changed a bit, in the normal way for a man in his fifties (i.e. it shrunk), and this got him thinking about the phenomenon of wisdom.
Crudely speaking, why do we tend to think of old people as being wiser? We now know that the brains of older people, even when they are not suffering from Alzheimer's or any similar condition, is somewhat smaller than that of young adults. At the same time, we tend to think of an intelligent old person as being wiser than that same person when they were twenty years younger.
One possibility, of course, is that this is just society being nice. Maybe older people are actually dumber, and we just feel it's rude to say, so we use the term 'wisdom' to hide the fact that they are less 'clever'. But if that were the case, we would never think of a young person being 'wise beyond their years' in a positive way, and anyway words which begin as euphemisms quickly become negative (e.g. 'recession' in economics), and the term 'wisdom' has been regarded positively in all English-speaking societies we know of, and most other languages have a similar term.
Goldberg's thesis, which he develops methodically and in an unhurried style and which I will give a spoiler for here, is that the difference rests in how our brain hemispheres divide up the task of thinking. It should be said that there have been a lot of different theories on this, and most have been discredited eventually, but Goldberg's is that our right brain is in charge of processing novel information or learning new things, and our left brain is in charge of storing skills and knowledge that is no longer novel. When learning a new skill, our right brain (and to a lesser degree front left) do most of the work, and over time the work load for this skill shifts to our left brain (and to a lesser degree back right).
Unless, of course, your right brain has partially atrophied, or you are one of those left-handed people who divide up work differently between hemispheres than most of us do. But however the work is divided, Goldberg's contention is that different parts of the brain are dominant in early childhood (when most of what we encounter is novel) and later in life (when most of what we encounter is not novel). As we age, most of us begin to avoid topics which require us to use our right brain, and rely on the skills we have already built up. 'Wisdom' is our word for these already developed skills of recognizing a pattern which we already know how to deal with. If you're wise, you've memorized a lot of patterns, and at a high level of abstraction.
Goldberg's exposition, of course, is not nearly as simplistic as this, and he delivers a great deal of evidence from many different fields of study in support of his view. Then, we come to the part of the book where we may ask ourselves, "so what?"
The answer depends on whether you are a fatalist about this atrophy of the right hemisphere. If you are not, then the prescription is to intentionally put yourself into novel situations which you do not know well how to handle (e.g. learning a new language, or hobby, or career). The way to prevent any part of the brain (or for that matter, the entire body) from atrophying from disuse, is to use it. Take the stairs, not the elevator. Walk, don't drive. Read it in the original language, not the translation. Learn a new programming language every year. Travel in foreign countries. Join a book club where you read things you wouldn't normally choose on your own.
Such as, for example, this book!
So, what is the equivalent of a midlife crisis for a clinical professor of neurology, with a private practice in neuropsychology? Getting an MRI scan of your brain. And then writing a book about what it means for your brain to get older.
This is one of several books I have read to compare the scientific study of the mind/brain today, to the study of the planets and stars in Galileo's time, just after the invention of the telescope. It's not that no one studied astronomy before Galileo's time, or that no one studied the brain before now. But once you have a way to look directly at what you're talking about, it can clarify your theories considerably (or completely discredit them).
What Goldberg found, when he had his brain scanned (Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, was the scan used), was that by and large he was in good shape. But, his brain had changed a bit, in the normal way for a man in his fifties (i.e. it shrunk), and this got him thinking about the phenomenon of wisdom.
Crudely speaking, why do we tend to think of old people as being wiser? We now know that the brains of older people, even when they are not suffering from Alzheimer's or any similar condition, is somewhat smaller than that of young adults. At the same time, we tend to think of an intelligent old person as being wiser than that same person when they were twenty years younger.
One possibility, of course, is that this is just society being nice. Maybe older people are actually dumber, and we just feel it's rude to say, so we use the term 'wisdom' to hide the fact that they are less 'clever'. But if that were the case, we would never think of a young person being 'wise beyond their years' in a positive way, and anyway words which begin as euphemisms quickly become negative (e.g. 'recession' in economics), and the term 'wisdom' has been regarded positively in all English-speaking societies we know of, and most other languages have a similar term.
Goldberg's thesis, which he develops methodically and in an unhurried style and which I will give a spoiler for here, is that the difference rests in how our brain hemispheres divide up the task of thinking. It should be said that there have been a lot of different theories on this, and most have been discredited eventually, but Goldberg's is that our right brain is in charge of processing novel information or learning new things, and our left brain is in charge of storing skills and knowledge that is no longer novel. When learning a new skill, our right brain (and to a lesser degree front left) do most of the work, and over time the work load for this skill shifts to our left brain (and to a lesser degree back right).
Unless, of course, your right brain has partially atrophied, or you are one of those left-handed people who divide up work differently between hemispheres than most of us do. But however the work is divided, Goldberg's contention is that different parts of the brain are dominant in early childhood (when most of what we encounter is novel) and later in life (when most of what we encounter is not novel). As we age, most of us begin to avoid topics which require us to use our right brain, and rely on the skills we have already built up. 'Wisdom' is our word for these already developed skills of recognizing a pattern which we already know how to deal with. If you're wise, you've memorized a lot of patterns, and at a high level of abstraction.
Goldberg's exposition, of course, is not nearly as simplistic as this, and he delivers a great deal of evidence from many different fields of study in support of his view. Then, we come to the part of the book where we may ask ourselves, "so what?"
The answer depends on whether you are a fatalist about this atrophy of the right hemisphere. If you are not, then the prescription is to intentionally put yourself into novel situations which you do not know well how to handle (e.g. learning a new language, or hobby, or career). The way to prevent any part of the brain (or for that matter, the entire body) from atrophying from disuse, is to use it. Take the stairs, not the elevator. Walk, don't drive. Read it in the original language, not the translation. Learn a new programming language every year. Travel in foreign countries. Join a book club where you read things you wouldn't normally choose on your own.
Such as, for example, this book!
May 20, 2018
I picked this book up, second hand, at a tiny bookstore in a random place on the Cape Peninsula. How it wound up there, I do not know, but I'm very glad that I found it.
Re-reading the many highlights I made in the book reminded me of just how much I had learned in the process of reading it. Admittedly the task was hard-going at times, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality and accessibility of Goldberg's writing given his hard science background. At times it's even quite amusing, and I appreciated his occasional references to arts, culture and philosophy.
The book offers a cursory education in some of the most pertinent parts of brain function and mechanics. It also sheds light on what happens to the brain while it ages, and what you can do to go through that process more successfully.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a tendency towards a reflection, a reliance on their cognitive faculties for work, or just an interest in the mind. While Goldberg dedicated the book to middle-aged baby boomers, I think the best time to read it would be in your thirties or even earlier, so that you can take the learnings with you into those later stages in life.
Re-reading the many highlights I made in the book reminded me of just how much I had learned in the process of reading it. Admittedly the task was hard-going at times, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality and accessibility of Goldberg's writing given his hard science background. At times it's even quite amusing, and I appreciated his occasional references to arts, culture and philosophy.
The book offers a cursory education in some of the most pertinent parts of brain function and mechanics. It also sheds light on what happens to the brain while it ages, and what you can do to go through that process more successfully.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a tendency towards a reflection, a reliance on their cognitive faculties for work, or just an interest in the mind. While Goldberg dedicated the book to middle-aged baby boomers, I think the best time to read it would be in your thirties or even earlier, so that you can take the learnings with you into those later stages in life.
August 29, 2020
I started reading this book today.
On page 62 (softcover), the following statement:
"My hunch about Reagan was strengthened some time later, during the last day of his presidency, as I was watching George Bush's inauguration on TV. Reagan walked past the honor guard, approached the imposing leather chair prepared for him, slumped into the chair, and was immediately asleep, his head dropping on his chest instantaneously."
This video recording is easy to find online, I skipped through the whole thing, and it never happens. I also can't find any other reference to Reagan falling asleep during George HW Bush's inauguration.
This is very bizarre, and I will not continue reading.
On page 62 (softcover), the following statement:
"My hunch about Reagan was strengthened some time later, during the last day of his presidency, as I was watching George Bush's inauguration on TV. Reagan walked past the honor guard, approached the imposing leather chair prepared for him, slumped into the chair, and was immediately asleep, his head dropping on his chest instantaneously."
This video recording is easy to find online, I skipped through the whole thing, and it never happens. I also can't find any other reference to Reagan falling asleep during George HW Bush's inauguration.
This is very bizarre, and I will not continue reading.
Read
November 2, 2023The title caught my attention initially, and I must admit that exploring subjects from different and innovative angles is always a great endeavor. Many people tend to approach the same topics with only slight variations, but I was fascinated by the author's detailed exploration of a lesser-known field.
August 7, 2017
Yet, some more evidences from a top neuropsychologist that we can change our brain: 'biology' is not fixed, it is a range; but more importantly - the message about attractors and aging give me some sort of relief, joy. Thank you Dr. Goldberg.
August 12, 2017
leggendolo ho scoperto perchè diavolo perdo un sacco di tempo a somministrare il test degli occhi, quindi assolutamente promosso!
July 25, 2021
*Larry David voice* "pretty, pretttttty, prettttty, prettttty good."
July 30, 2021
Meh. Parts of this were really dry. Could be much more succinct.
April 25, 2022
是一本能清楚地認識大腦基本構造與功能的書，滿喜歡的這種從大腦去討論「記憶」的方式，能夠減少自己對於失去能力的未知恐懼感。
November 20, 2023
See my review and appreciation here in my blog essay on "Eros and Thanatos," written in 2019:
http://geoffreyfox.blogspot.com/2009/...
http://geoffreyfox.blogspot.com/2009/...
April 24, 2019
I was glad when I realized that this was not just a book on aging and the wisdom that sometimes accompanies it. This book was neither just another boring book about the neuroscience of the brain. Rather, I would characterize it as an entertaining and insightful journey into the aging mind, how it functions with memory, how that is connected to what we think about wisdom and then how to comprehend the science of the brain in the light of this. Elkhonon Goldberg has indeed written a great book, but not without a few weaknesses. He does let his scientific mind get ahead sometimes and goes into details a mere mortal could easily skip because it is impossible to retain. There is a lot of talk about the right and left hemisphere, but I think in the whole it is defendable as Goldberg does circle it back to the topic at hand. I could also do without some of the mentions about diseases, but it does have its place in order to explain cognitive decay and brain functions. I think this may be the most accessible neuroscience book I've read so far and it was even better the second time reading it.
March 7, 2016
"How" becomes the title word to parse. If you are looking for a scientific look at brain function, a physiology lesson, and an evaluation if the scientific community, to a degree, this is the book for you. In 2005 it may have been a breakthrough, but in 2014 it seems obvious the brain can be strengthened. Still, the various roles and interactions in the areas of both hemispheres us interesting.
If you are looking for any practical advice in "how" to strengthen a brain, well, the only solution is to move to NYC, unless you are already smart enough to live there, and attend the author's cognition exercise sessions. Exercise your mind. That's the generic advice, and you better have starter as a child.
There's a lot if ego to get through here, likely related to being top if one's field and superior in many ways, as we learn, so perhaps a more recent book would be a better choice as science has advanced.
If you are looking for any practical advice in "how" to strengthen a brain, well, the only solution is to move to NYC, unless you are already smart enough to live there, and attend the author's cognition exercise sessions. Exercise your mind. That's the generic advice, and you better have starter as a child.
There's a lot if ego to get through here, likely related to being top if one's field and superior in many ways, as we learn, so perhaps a more recent book would be a better choice as science has advanced.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 11, 2010
My gosh, I love this book! I need to take the time to do a good review, but I just spent too much time blasting Franzen's new book, so perhaps later. Goldberg is awesome. This is not exactly a pop-neuro book, but it is (I think) very, very accessible. Goldberg's work on the gradiential model (proposed opposite to a strictly modular model) is present in what he writes here, as well as other principles he expounds in less accessible forms in The New Executive Brain, and he is able to bring that down to a pretty dang readable level in this book. He makes, to my mind, an entirely convincing case for cognitive fitness and exercise. I get so excited about this idea. How liberating! How empowering! And this isn't some wishy-washy, feel-good, soft science idea. This is science - researched, elaborated, defended, explored, and packaged beautifully. Ya, I love this stuff.
January 11, 2013
A very enjoyable read in the field of neuropsychology. The author was a student of Luria. Luria was a very famous neuropsychologist from Russia. After training under Luria, the author left Russia and eventually came to the U.S. where he works as a neuropsychologist.
In this text, he examined the attributes of wisdom and genius. Much time was spent on on the underlying neural architecture, connections and processes that have an impact on how we learn, remember and problem solve. Hemispheric, cortical vs subcortical, emotion, disease and trauma, neuroplasticity, language, types of memory, cognitive training, resiliency, and age-related changes are a few of the areas that are covered.
Very fascinating and informative. It could be quite useful information if you do any work with patients experiencing cognitive problems.
In this text, he examined the attributes of wisdom and genius. Much time was spent on on the underlying neural architecture, connections and processes that have an impact on how we learn, remember and problem solve. Hemispheric, cortical vs subcortical, emotion, disease and trauma, neuroplasticity, language, types of memory, cognitive training, resiliency, and age-related changes are a few of the areas that are covered.
Very fascinating and informative. It could be quite useful information if you do any work with patients experiencing cognitive problems.
August 11, 2014
Couldn't decide between 3 or 4, it's a solid 3.5. Basically it explores what wisdom is -- what wisdom means, how it's defined, and also a scientific view of it, where does wisdom come from within the brain? What role does memory play in wisdom? etc. The author is a neuropsychologist, so it's certainly qualified to talk on the subject. It's very interesting, but then again, I find this topic in general pretty fascinating.
"...in order to make an impact, both genius and wisdom must be ahead of society, but not so far ahead as to be incomprehensible." p 75
"...in order to make an impact, both genius and wisdom must be ahead of society, but not so far ahead as to be incomprehensible." p 75
January 7, 2009
Now this book took me about 3 months to read, and the reason is because, I one day found myself wondering around the bookstore not knowing what to read but I knew I wanted to read something intriguing so I stumbled upon this book, and it was a slow read but it put allot of things in perspective for me as far as the Brain Mind goes.
February 8, 2010
paradigmatic shift: mind opener to viewing fn of hemispheric lateralization [pulled me out of the viscous swamp of pop-psych fallacies:]
lorenz attractors: buffering for aging
pattern recognition: reinforcement thru repetition
lorenz attractors: buffering for aging
pattern recognition: reinforcement thru repetition
July 8, 2014
A bit harder to read than I expected - it might have been easier in a paper version, in which you can browse to retrieve things read previously.
I wonder if there are new findings supporting his theory...
I wonder if there are new findings supporting his theory...
March 2, 2012
*the flexibility of brain divided by habit vs strangeness
August 16, 2007
a hard read unless you're a brain expert.
January 27, 2008
A bit too materialistic in scientific thought. didn't include enough of the mind and brain dualism for me. Well written by a well respected neuropsychologist though....pretty interesting
July 10, 2008
I really decent read for the intermediate neurohack.
June 28, 2016
Good read - even if you don't have any medical background
September 17, 2015
Things we need to know as we grow older.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews