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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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THE GHOST IN MY BRAIN

Clark Elliott

How a Concussion Stole my Life and how the new Science of Brain Plasticity helped me Get it Back

From a professor of artificial intelligence comes a powerful, timely and rare source of hope for the millions suffering concussions: the remarkable story of how, by retraining the neural optic paths in his brain, one man’s life was restored after 8 years of cognitive impairment.
In the tradition of Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight (Viking 2008), Clark writes about his concussion from a car accident and the eight years in which he suffered short term memory loss, sensitivity to light, and balance issues. As a professor of Artificial Intelligence at DePaul University, he knew something was wrong, yet was unable to find a doctor who could treat him. He kept more than 1900 pages of notes over the course of his suffering, including details of how his brain was failing him, and how he could recover enough to make it through each day. He no longer felt human.

As a last resort, he found a pair of pioneering researcher-clinicians in Chicago who are using innovative treatments based on new research in brain plasticity (the science Norman Doidge made famous in The Brain that Changes Itself). Through exercises that are detailed in the book, they helped him train other parts of his brain (primarily his visual pathways) to compensate for the injured parts. He’s now fully recovered – the “ghost”, that is, his sense of being a person, returned.

There isn’t a book out there that explains in such depth and clarity what it is to be a “concussive.” And his recovery will inspire the many millions who suffer every day from undiagnosed symptoms.

Clark Elliott, PhD., is Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence at DePaul University. His work involves artificially recreating brain function.
Available products
Book

Published 2015-06-01 by Viking

Book

Published 2015-06-01 by Viking

Comments

This wonderful story is inspiring. A professor of artificial intelligence loses much of his higher function after an auto accident. Numerous specialists diagnose a concussion and tell him to "get over it"---no small assignment for a professor and single father. He is ultimately referred to a neurooptometrist who studies both the visual and the non-visual roles of the retina for the brain. Through exercises and progressive changes of glasses, his visual and mental function are restored and his professional and personal life regained. Read it, first weep, then smile broadly!

For anyone who has struggled to explain cognition or to understand what it feels like to suffer from traumatic brain injury, Clark Elliott’s fascinating account of his injury, diagnosis and then painstaking determination to heal himself reads like a how-to manual of how our brains work . . . His story gives hope to everyone out there and shines a light on the neuroplastic possibilities that exist for us all in the future.

Up-close view of living with the harrowing effects of a concussion... With concussions from sports injuries making the news, Elliott's easy-to-read account of his experiences is a valuable contribution to a better understanding of the condition.

Elliott’s transformative tale will be invaluable for patients with traumatic brain injury, families, and caregivers. Read more...

Article about the link between concussion and suicides Read more...

This is a remarkable document, by a remarkable person, the most meticulous and informative account I have ever read of the effects of a traumatic brain injury on a single mind. It should be mined for years to come by all who care about the subject, and is filled with almost Proustian detail about how the brain and mind and heart respond to injury. It would have been just another tragedy, but instead, it turns into an exciting triumph, because of the tireless, ingenious, and utterly creative work of Clark Elliott and his healers—one inspired by the work of the Israeli pioneer, Reuven Feurstein, the other by a little known tradition of behavioral optometry, which can literally use light shone into the eyes, to treat and rewire the brain.

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Japanese: Seidosha

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Through Dr. Elliott’s meticulous records of his experience and unusual perseverance, we see not only the difficulties current healthcare practices have in the diagnosis, counseling, and treatment of such a debilitating condition, but he sheds light into fascinating ways our brains can recover. The book is a must read for anyone in emergency medicine, trauma care, neurology, and primary care, as well as concussion sufferers and their families. This book will change how healthcare workers care for patients with both mild and serious head injuries, as well as provide better understanding by those that are close to the concussed. It has made me a better clinical instructor and diagnostician by improving my index of suspicion for brain injury, helped me provide better advice to patients and their loved ones, and motivated me to develop a better standard of care in my practice.

Dr. Clark Elliott does an incredible job of captivating his reading audience and then skillfully introduces them to the altered world of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) patient. His comprehensive and creative analysis of this pathological epidemic is uniquely insightful, accurate, scary—and most importantly encouraging—for those who are afflicted with this disorder. If you are a health care provider that treats trauma cases this is a 'Must Read'.... Dr. Elliott's remarkable descriptions bring to life the most vivid experience of this kind of trauma--from the peculiar sense of alienation, to strange symptoms like OCD, and even to the loss of one's spiritual life. Together they form a clear roadmap for parents, spouses, coaches, and physicians alike to understand MTBI.

This is a remarkable document, by a remarkable person, the most meticulous and informative account I have ever read of the effects of a traumatic brain injury on a single mind.

It is not often that one can gain some genuine insight into the soul-destroying and debilitating experiential world of victims of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). But through the brilliant descriptions that Clark Elliott provides, we can at least begin to grasp its devastating perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral consequences—its profound disruption of every aspect of normal daily life, of thinking and deciding, feeling and wanting, seeing and hearing, moving, and of our very sense of who we are. This is an extraordinary book about the brain and the mind—a book that is hard to stop reading.

The awesome challenge of merely getting back to normal. Read more...

NFL concussion coverage in the NYTIMES Read more...

Discover magazine (6.5 million readers, 2.1 million online visitors) has also picked up first serial rights for THE GHOST IN MY BRAIN — they’ll run 3,000 words in their May issue “Evolution” on sale April 14th. Clark Elliott’s THE GHOST IN MY BRAIN excerpt in DISCOVER magazine, on stands now - with a cover mention! 23.4.15 Read more...