The Healthy Aging Brain: Sustaining Attachment, Attaining Wisdom (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393705137 ISBN 13: 9780393705133

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

A neuroscientifically based account of how our brains age and change over time.

What would you do if you could live to 122, like the Frenchwoman Madame Calment, whose life span is the oldest ever recorded? What if you could do so and stave off dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other common ailments of aging? What would happen if we stopped thinking of ourselves as aging and in decline, and instead started thinking of ourselves as chronologically advantaged? More effective than age-defying creams and anti-aging pills is a concrete understanding of how our bodies and our brains age, and what we can do to work with this natural process to make life as long and as fulfilling as possible. This is just what The Healthy Aging Brain offers. Here, expert psychologist and veteran therapist Louis Cozolino reveals that groundbreaking brain research proves that our brains continue to grow and change throughout our lives. He offers a neuroscientifically-based account of just how our brains age and evolve over time. In short, Cozolino says, our individual health and longevity are inextricably linked to those around us. How we age is grounded in our human relationships.

About the Author:

Louis Cozolino, PhD, is a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University and a private practitioner. He is the author of The Healthy Aging Brain, The Neuroscience of Human Relationships, The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, and The Making of a Therapist. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Review:

“[E]xtremely well-written and communicates complex topics in a very understandable and entertaining manner. . . . [A] very useful reference resource for helping to educate aging adults and possibly their caregivers on cognitive changes, cognitive plasticity, and associated social functioning in later life.”
- Activities, Adaptation and Aging

“Weaving tales of his own psychology practice with plenty of science and specific exercises for keeping one’s brain pliant, Cozolino has moved the discourse on aging several leaps forward.”
- Shift

“I highly recommend reading The Healthy Aging Brain. This book, reassures readers that mental deterioration need not accompany growing old, and to that end, Cozolino even provides an appendix listing 52 different activities to keep older brains vibrant.”
- The Scientist

“This is the third book by Louis Cozolino that I have had the privilege to read and review. Each is golden in its own way....and I would recommend this book as well; not only to understand the brain and how it functions, but also because of the wisdom contained in it.”
- Journal of Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry