Capture, David A. Kessler
Capture, David A. Kessler
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Capture
Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering

Author: David A. Kessler

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Unabridged: 9 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 04/12/2016


Synopsis

""A breakthrough book. In a world of increasingly specialized knowledge, it takes a particular gift and some stubbornness to cut across the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why it is that we can allow our best selves to be captured by and torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us?. . . . [Kessler's] ultimate answer is profound and one that could be life-changing and life-saving. I know I will be handing this book out for just that reason.” — Abraham Verghese, MD, author of Cutting for StoneIn Capture, New York Times bestselling author Dr. David A. Kessler considers some of the most profound questions we face as human beings: What are the origins of mental afflictions, from everyday unhappiness to addiction and depression—and how are they connected? Where does healing and transcendence fit into this realm of emotional experience?Analyzing an array of insights from psychology, medicine, neuroscience, literature, philosophy, and theology, Dr. Kessler deconstructs centuries of thinking, examining the central role of capture in mental illness and questioning traditional labels that have obscured our understanding of it. Looking to the emotionally resonant lives of figures such as David Foster Wallace, Virginia Woolf, William James, Tennessee Williams, John Belushi, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell, among others, he explains how this concept is at play in their lives and—by extension—our own.Ultimately, Capture offers insight into how we form thoughts and emotions, manage trauma, and heal. For the first time, we can begin to understand the underpinnings not only of mental illness but also of our everyday worries and anxieties. Capture is an intimate and critical exploration of the most enduring human mystery of all: the mind.

About David A. Kessler

David. A. Kessler, MD, served as Chief Science Officer of the White House Covid-19 Response Team under President Joe Biden and previously served as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Overeating and Capture and two other books: Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs and A Question of Intent. Dr. Kessler is a pediatrician and has been the dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco. He is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Chicago Law School, and Harvard Medical School.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Debra

I am genuinely struggling to figure out what the point of this book is. It begins with great promise: an introduction on David Foster Wallace and what drove him to suicide. Interesting stuff. Then there are two chapters of scattered thoughts on the history of psychology. Then a series of chapters in......more

It means a lot for one’s life experience to be understood - to be able to read a book like this one and say, “Yes, that is what happened to me.” I’ve written about the way we can get caught up in cognitive negative feedback loops, for instance if we feel guilty about being selfish then the suffering......more

Goodreads review by Gary

We our captured by the recursive narrative we use to view the world. Mindfulness allows us to become aware of our own awareness and permits us to step out of the trap we often create for ourselves. Some people fall into a self reinforcing iterative loop and that leads to one of four categorical prob......more

I wasn't sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. Kessler never really gave a definitive answer on why some people are "captured" more than others. However, I really enjoyed his approach to the question. Using the stories of people like Infinite Jest Author David Foster Wallace who committed suicide,......more

Goodreads review by Gemma

Some really interesting stories, but overall the book lacked a central narrative to bind those stories together. Indeed, the theory of capture is only briefly explained and there is little sophistication to what is said.......more