The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Norman Doidge, the author of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, is a Canadian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and poet famous for his research on neuroplasticity. Among his most acclaimed works of nonfiction are The Brain That Changes Itself (2007) and The Brain’s Way of Healing (2015), both becoming New York Times bestsellers within their first months of publication. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in classics and philosophy, and then returned to obtain a medical degree. Doidge then pursued a residency in psychiatry and psychoanalysis at Columbia University. He was granted a two-year research fellowship by the National Institute of Mental Health for his work. As of 2023, he has worked as faculty at both the University of Toronto and Columbia University for the last 30 years.

Doidge has received numerous awards for his writing. He was the winner of the E. J. Pratt Award in Poetry in 1969 at the age of 19. In 1994, he won the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Saturday Night Literary Award for his memoir. Doidge’s writing on neuroplasticity has been praised as crucial to changing people’s understanding of human nature.