The Mind Within the Brain: How We Make Decisions and How Those Decisions Go Wrong

In The Mind within the Brain, David Redish brings together cutting edge research in psychology, robotics, economics, neuroscience, and the new fields of neuroeconomics and computational psychiatry, to offer a unified theory of human decision-making. Most importantly, Redish shows how vulnerabilities, or "failure-modes," in the decision-making system can lead to serious dysfunctions, such as irrational behavior, addictions, problem gambling, and PTSD.

Told with verve and humor in an easily readable style, Redish makes these difficult concepts understandable. Ranging widely from the surprising roles of emotion, habit, and narrative in decision-making, to the larger philosophical questions of how mind and brain are related, what makes us human, the nature of morality, free will, and the conundrum of robotics and consciousness, The Mind within the Brain offers fresh insight into one of the most complex aspects of human behavior.

David Redish is a professor of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota. Trained in
computational, theoretical, and experimental neuroscience, he has contributed to our
understanding of decision-making and cognition. Dr. Redish received a dual-degree BA
in the writing seminars (poetry, plays) and computer science from The Johns Hopkins
University, and his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.