A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback

Rating:
Summary: Biofeedback is the future
Review: Allthough the book was written somewhat poorly, it did offer some extremly interesting history of bio/neurofeeback. Neurofeedback is an entirely different approch to treating brain disorders and disorders that stem from brain disharmany.
There is a new model for the brain, instead of directly treating the chemicals in the brain with hundreds of different types of drugs which always have side effects, neurofeedback is a thearepie that works on a frequency model of the brain. The cells in the brain all resonate at different frequencies and it is thought that many if not all brain disorders are caused by having the cells operating in abnormal frequency ranges and uneven amplitudes. By Monitoring the brain with EEG monitors patients are able to have an awarness of their own brainwave activity and consciouly able to attempt to change them into optimal ranges and maintain these ranges to promote healing by retraining the brain to remain in the proper frequencies, which in turn balences the chemicals in the brain WITHOUT DRUGS!!!!!

I'm not some insider trying to promote this book, my name is David S. Stasuk, I live in Vancouver, BC Canada and I'm a second year Electronics Engineering student who has a big interest in this type of technology. I'm also in the process of building my own EEG to monitor my brainwave activity, because I realise that drugs barely work and the future of the medical industry is not in making more drugs that screw peoples chemicals up more, the future is in non-invasive techniques such as brainwave training that fix the problems without causing more problems and balence out the brains electrical activity.

Rating:
Summary: Parents of ADD/ADHD children should read this book
Review: As a parent, it is my responsibility to understand every option before sending my child on the pharmaceutical train simply because it's quick and available. I feel very fortunate that this book was recommended to me, because not only do I now have information about a safe alternative to drugs, but am fortunate enough to have two neurofeedback practitioners within driving distance. Jim Robbins is compelling in his story of the history, present and potential future of a technique whose time has come. And as a non-medical, non-scientific reader, it was a relief to open this book and discover easily digestible information. I have already recommended this book to many people and now believe that neurofeedback will play an important role in the lives of many.

Rating:
Summary: Parents of ADD/ADHD children should read this book
Review: As a parent, it is my responsibility to understand every option before sending my child on the pharmaceutical train simply because it's quick and available. I feel very fortunate that this book was recommended to me, because not only do I now have information about a safe alternative to drugs, but am fortunate enough to have two neurofeedback practitioners within driving distance. Jim Robbins is compelling in his story of the history, present and potential future of a technique whose time has come. And as a non-medical, non-scientific reader, it was a relief to open this book and discover easily digestible information. I have already recommended this book to many people and now believe that neurofeedback will play an important role in the lives of many.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply Disappointing
Review: Because this book is written by a journalist and not funded by or affiliated with any particular manufacturer or provider, I found this book a great overview of all areas of neurofeedback. Robbins includes a detailed history of how neurofeedback was discovered and has evolved, as well as a basic description of brainwaves and brain function. He presents information from personal interviews with many of the prominent people in the field, and includes both sides of the controversies. Later in the book he shares his own personal experience with neurofeedback which he felt necessary in order to report on the subject. Information is recent since the copyright date is 2000. The appendices are extensive, listing phone numbers, addresses, and websites of providers, organizations, and manufacturers of neurofeedback equipment. I felt better informed to decide what types of neurofeedback could be useful, where to look for providers, and what to ask.

Rating:
Summary: A very good history of NeuroFeedback
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

However be forewarned, this is not a technical book about how or why Neurofeedback is effective. It is a storybook about the history, players and maturing of the field of Neurofeedback. As well, it does not really cover the past two years of software development or the newer protocols being used.

I was expecting a history lesson and was not disappointed.

Anyone just starting to learn about Neurofeedback should give this book a read. It is light and enjoyable, not technical at all.

...

Rating:
Summary: A New Kind of Learning Frontier
Review: Jim Robbins' new book is a must read for anyone tracking the most promising new frontiers in science and healing. Neurofeedback or "braintraining" is a complicated offshoot of biofeedback, based on teaching all or parts of our brains to operate more effectively or at a desired frequency with new high tech brain monitoring and computer software programs.

While the government and mainstream medicine have been, for whatever reasons, reluctant to fund research on neurofeedback, a handful of dedicated researchers and practitioners have amassed tons of data and demonstrated remarkable results. Seems like we should be spending some of our "War on Drugs" budget to investigate such a promising way to get kids off Ritalin.

The treatment successes are impressive, everything from stroke and brain injury to alcoholism and criminal behavior, but this is not just about treating pathology. It is also about the potential to develop extended human capacities; for optimizing our brain functioning, accessing creativity and deep meditative states, and attaining new levels of mental and physical health.

The book is balanced and thoroughly-researched, yet the author is also willing to reflect a little on where this amazing new technology could take us, and its quite a ride.

This is the future. If you like to know what's coming, I heartily recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary!
Review: Like Dr. John Sarno's revelations about TMS in the Mindbody Connection and Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection, Jim Robbins' book has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of many conditions of the mind such as ADD, depression, alcoholism, epilepsy, anxiety and more.

The book surveys the fascinating history of the EEG neurofeedback profession, a history made up of equally fascinating, 'out-of-the-box' practitioners. Robbins is a journalist and keeps the reader enthralled to the extent that you can't put the book down as you read case histories of real people whom the medical profession couldn't heal, but miraculously found real, lasting cures through neurofeedback.

Subsequent to being inspired by this book I trained how to perform neuro-biofeedback with Dr. Valdeane Brown and now I use his cutting-edge software, NeuroCare Pro. It is very effective! See the results yourself by reading the messages in Yahoo Groups (search for NeuroCare Pro).

One is left wondering: "When will this treatment become mainstream and wide-spread?" Because NF is a threat to the established, multi-billion dollar medical and pharmaceutical industries, it could be a long, uphill battle. It is up to us as informed patients to do the research and lead the revolution to better mental health without drugs.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply Disappointing
Review: Reads like a bad script for an infomercial on Coral Calcium. I grew weary of the persistant defensiveness of those in the industry (No, no, it's real Science!) as well as the attacks on an ambiguously-defined, western, medical machine that won't fund clinical trials that would dispell all doubt.

Honestly, this book was recommended by a clinician as an introduction prior to therapy. I can truly say that I am far less inclined to undergo EEG Neurobiofeedback after reading this book than I was walking in with no prior knowledge of the therapy.

I can't speak to Robbins' coverage of the history of the field. However, as for the tecnology itself, he does little more than relate a few glowing case studies, echo the claims of practicioners, and sumarize his own minimal experience. Absent a single citation from another publication (peer reviewed or otherwise) I am left in search of further reading for guidance.

Rating:
Summary: A Riveting Story about an Amazing, Life Changing Approach
Review: There are so many self-help books which just ploddingly go along giving tips and data. This isn't like that. WHile reading it could start you on the path to really making major positive changes in your life, the book is more of a story about the history of the field and description of its promise and potential than a how-to book. I've been in the field of neurofedback since 1972, but I still learned alot from the big picture, in depth story Jim Robbins spent several years researching and telling. This book tells of the promise, the potential of the new brainwave biofeedback, and it tells a history of its development that could easily be made into a movie, with fascinating characters and multiple plots. I recommend it to people to read so they will learn all the different aspects and potentials of neurofeedback, since it does such a thorough job. But I have to warn them that it is not all pretty. The people who have moved the field forward are human, with flaws. But that makes the STORY even better. Since it came out, articles in the New York Times Book Review and Newsweek, and more have referred positively to the book. It's a good way to find out if you or someone you care about is a potential candidate for neurofeedback, because in all likelihood, your doctor is not going to mention it.

Of course the wild history of neurofeedback continues to go on. Rob Kall [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A waste of paper...
Review: Well, I don't usually bother typing up a review if it's not somewhat positive but...in this case I feel that some important points about this book need to be brought to light. This book represents the worst of a type of genre and was really, really disappointing.

Robbins has obviously read other books such as Gleick's "Chaos: Making a New Science" and decided he could do something similar for biofeedback. Specifically, I think Robbins believed he could generate some hype and ride a "wave" of publicity for biofeedback. Unfortunately, Robbins "pseudo-science" book represents the worst of this genre and is not likely to help the cause of biofeedback.

First, if you're going to write one of these books, you need a peppy title and this one has it. Second, you need to make your story sound scientific (although it is obvious you know nothing more than some terms) and finally you need to toss in some human controversy to make it more "interesting". Well, Robbins has put them together in a way that would make it a simple cut-and-paste from the book to a newspaper.

First, if you're going to do a book that popularizes a subject and want to talk about science then you need to do some reading to gain an basic understanding of the area. Certainly talking only to the self-proclaimed "experts" and taking their word as gospel is not the way to proceed; you need to be able to judge a bit for yourself.

Well, Robbins appears to have talked to a few people and left his research at that. To start with, he continually mentions things like "double blind studies". This debate has raged on for years in various fields and it is acknowledged that this paradigm creates a lot more problems than it solves in a similar fashion to the issues surrounding null-hypothesis analysis of statistics. Then there is the mixing of theories of how brainwaves are connected to thought as well as how the brain's structure is connected to thought.

Worse still are his discussions about data collected from animal trials. It is apparent that there is a mentality that only reason animals exist is provide a good platform for studies; this is really rather sad. I cannot fathom why so few seem to acknowledge the debt we owe animals for the various tortures we have put them through; even more so I find it hard to believe that people still think this is the ONLY true "scientific" method available for studies.

Ignoring these problems, one is still left to confront the fact that Robbins has taken such a breathtakingly thin skim of the material and people involved in biofeedback that it almost feels like the book is years older than its publishing date. A quick search on the internet produces many people within North America alone who are not even mentioned in Robbins' book. And that is really the root of the problem here.

There are a number of practitioners out there who are not even mentioned in passing here. There is also a long history of biofeedback in Europe that is not even mentioned (after a certain point). These omissions would be forgiven 10 years ago but with access to the internet, in particular, there is no excuse now. If only Robbins had interviewed a few more people and checked a few more references then the book might actually have some value.

To top it off Robbins commits the most typical error that a number of the "scientific" biofeedback community seem to perpetuate: ignoring the rich history of Eastern meditative traditions. Considering that the entire field got its start from people monitoring meditators then it seems obvious that it owes much to meditation. Unfortunately the is only passing reference to meditation; as if this field has now progressed to somethine new and "scientific". The arrogance is incredible and the lack of knowledge even more amazing.

With over 2000 years of history one would think that those dabbling in "scientific" biofeedback would spend some more time with the real tradition; this is sadly not the case. There really are few who acknowledge the meditative traditions (Zen, Taoism, shamanism to name but a few) and their rich history. This is, in my opinion, a very serious oversight. There is a reason that these traditions have their methods and only after biofeedback has been around for that length of time is it likely to uncover some of the same depth of knowledge.

Spend your money on Anna Wise or Max Cade if you want a useful book. Otherwise you are better off trying a few of the traditional methods and finding one that is right for your personality. If you want science then Evans' "Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback" is a much better choice.