The Ghost in My Brain, Clark Elliott, Ph.D.
The Ghost in My Brain, Clark Elliott, Ph.D.
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The Ghost in My Brain
How a Concussion Stole My Life and How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Helped Me Get It Back

Author: Clark Elliott, Ph.D.

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 9 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/02/2015

Synopsis

The dramatic story of one man’s recovery offers new hope to those suffering from concussions and other brain traumas.In 1999, Clark Elliott suffered a concussion when his car was rear-ended. Overnight his life changed from that of a rising professor with a research career in artificial intelligence to a humbled man struggling to get through a single day. At times he couldn’t walk across a room, or even name his five children. Doctors told him he would never fully recover. After eight years, the cognitive demands of his job, and of being a single parent, finally became more than he could manage. As a result of one final effort to recover, he crossed paths with two brilliant Chicago-area research-clinicians—one a specialized optometrist, the other a cognitive psychologist—working on the leading edge of brain plasticity. He was substantially improved within weeks.Remarkably, Elliott kept detailed notes throughout his experience, from the moment of impact to the final stages of his recovery, astounding documentation that is the basis of this fascinating audiobook. The Ghost in My Brain gives hope to the millions who suffer from head injuries each year, and provides a unique and informative window into the world’s most complex computational device: the human brain.

About Clark Elliott, Ph.D.

Clark Elliott, Ph.D., has been a professor of artificial intelligence at DePaul University for twenty-seven years. He holds three teaching certificates for music; B.M. and M.M. (music) and M.S. (computer science) degrees; and a Ph.D. from Northwestern’s Institute for the Learning Sciences with an emphasis on computer simulations of human emotion. He lives with his wife and daughter in Evanston, Illinois. He has raised four other children, studies tai chi and music every day, and continues as a casual marathon runner.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Linda on September 08, 2015

The Ghost in My Brain is an intriguing trip through traumatic brain injury, written by a university professor who suffered a severe concussion in a car accident and dealt with confoundingly debilitating effects for years afterward, until he finally, serendipitously, came across two specialists who h......more

Goodreads review by Bacon on June 24, 2015

10 years ago I was involved in a "terrible accident" in which I experienced severe brain damage. Unconscious for 3 months, I, a former "gifted underachiever" awoke to a world of confusion. A world in which my humanity was gone. I've learned to control myself in order to function in the normal world......more

Goodreads review by Socraticgadfly on November 05, 2015

First 2/3 good; went off the rails after that Despite the fact that Norman Doidge, while not Daniel Amen, moves further away from actual science with each new book, I was willing to move past his highly enthusiastic blurb and read. Ditto, despite not knowing much about either doctor, or the claimed t......more

Goodreads review by Dana * on October 28, 2015

Do book editors still exist? If one did for this book, they would have condensed the first 240 pages into maybe 40 pages. This would have helped the author not sound so pompous, confused, non-sensical and contradictory. How does a person go from barely able to walk and speak to raising a 2 year old......more

Goodreads review by Bethany on March 29, 2021

Seems fitting that this was the first book I completed since I can read again post concussion. Elliott is a fascinating person and able to explain the inner workings of the brain. I found him explaining my concussion symptoms throughout the book. The science of brain plasticity is another reason to......more

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