The 21st Century Brain: Explaining, Mending and Manipulating the Mind

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7502.1276-a

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Iain McClure (imcclure@vol.scot.nhs.uk), consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist1

¹Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria

Perhaps “zeitgeist” is the word for it; “the spirit of the age” is how my dictionary translates it; and Steven Rose dissects and unfolds it, as possibly no other writer in his field can, in this awesome account of the most complex structure in the known universe. What is it? It is that sense that many of us have, at whatever level of understanding, that our cumulated edifice of scientific knowledge will soon empower humanity with the simultaneously thrilling, yet terrifying, ability—to fully explain, mend, and manipulate the mind.