The Balanced Brain

A fascinating read, one that is able to make sense of unexpected connections … Nord makes a compelling case for rejecting any clear distinction between mental and physical illness – Sophie McBain * The Times *Compelling, revolutionary, compassionate … sharp-witted and intelligent … both down-to-earth and insightful … Nord provides an understanding of the brain which readers can leverage to conduct their own mental-health enhancing experiments – Niamh Jimenez * The Irish Times *Engaging, refreshingly open and fair-minded … Explains how our brains come to experience the world as they do, considering pain, pleasure, the mind-body connection and how events shape our outlook – Pippa Bailey * New Statesman *Highly accessible and elegantly crafted … It wasn’t until reading Camilla Nord’s The Balanced Brain that I felt excited about the contributions that neuroscience is making to mental health … Nord masterfully distils what seems like a lifetime’s worth of research into a synthesis that is both readable and engaging … it has the potential to be the foundational popular text in the field – Toby Engelking * The Psychologist *Rigorous, engagingly personal … provides an exciting snapshot of what we know so far about this vital organ’s importance for maintaining our mental health – Peter Carty * iNews *Compelling…optimistic…her writing is masterfully nuanced in its treatment of depression, without sacrificing the clarity of her argument – David Robson * the Observer *Simply brilliant. This is science writing at its best. If you want to understand mental health - really understand it - read this book – Nichola Raihani * author of The Social Instinct *This excellent book is a breath of fresh air … anyone reading it will come away with a kinder, better understanding of themselves. A clear-thinking tour of the latest research from a leading mental health scientist and an accessible exploration of how our bodies and minds make us feel the way we do - for better or worse – Lucy Foulkes * author of What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t) *Extremely relevant … a highly readable synthesis of the neuroscience underpinning mental health and its treatment – Simon Baron-CohenFascinating … Camilla Nord, one of our most original thinkers, writes compellingly about the complexities of the brain and mental health. She presents new insights from neuroscience about how the brain generates our mental state, thoughts, moods and feelings, and what happens when things go wrong. This thought-provoking book is an essential resource – Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of INVENTING OURSELVES

Camilla Nord leads the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge. Her work has been featured in the New Statesman, on Sky News and BBC Radio Four’s The Naked Scientist. The Balanced Brain is her first book.