Esther M. Sternberg

A somewhat irritating book, in that the subject matter is undermined by the manner of its expression. The interrelationship of the nervous system and the immune system is detailed by a medical researcher who has significantly contributed to our current level of understanding of the science of the “mind-body connection.” The discoveries of Dr. Sternberg and her colleagues are tremendously exciting in terms of medical science, but they also open doors to better understanding of the neurobiology underlying aesthetics, sociology and even theology. But why in the world did Dr. Sternberg have to adopt the artificial narrative strategy of casting her book in the form of a gothic detective tale? Time and again, the reader finds her/himself standing in some exotic locale from the past (the temple of Asclepius, St. Anthony’s cathedral at the University of Padua, the Royal Victoria Hospital at the Montreal Neurological Institute), waiting to be taken by the hand by Dr. Sternberg and given an exhaustive tour of some dank and dusky structure, only to wind up in either an operating theater or a laboratory in order to peek over the shoulder of someone just about to make a mind-bending discovery in the field of endocrinology, histology, immunology, neurology, rheumatology, microscopy… The material has its own fascination and is reasonably accessible without the faux romance.… (más)