The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being,   ISBN:9780393704709

Customer Rating: 

I was very eager to read this book after hearing the author interviewed for an hour on episode 44 of Ginger Campbell's "Brain Science" podcast. However, I found the book a great disappointment.
Dan Siegel is obviously very interested in mindful meditation, but unfortunately he is not at all mindful of the needs of readers. His book struck me as an almost shapeless mess of repetitions over which a "structure" of chapter and section headings had been imposed with little or no discernible relation to the actual contents of each chapter or section. Some sections of the book are not even paragraphed logically.
For much of the book Siegel refers to what he calls "resonance circuits" in the brain, but it's not until you get near the end of the book that he explains what he means by this term, and why he has chosen to use it.
At one point in the book Siegel refers abruptly to some incident that occurred in Mexico where he fell off a horse, as if we already know about this (we don't). A hundred pages of so later he refers to an incident where he once experienced amnesia for a day (is this the horse incident, or another?). There's no introduction to his reference: it seems we're supposed to know about this already.
Siegel seems to be compelled to invent the most ludicrous acronyms. Thus we get COAL, for example, for "curiosity, openness, acceptance and love". It doesn't seem to have occurred to Siegel that COAL just might have other connotations for many of his readers.
This is all a pity, because there are some interesting ideas in this book (though many of the most interesting derive from authors whom Siegel cites, and are not his own). Siegel's own contributions mostly fall into the realm of the highly speculative (although, to be fair, he is very honest about this).
I would estimate that a good editor could reshape this book and formulate all the key ideas in about 40 pages. In other words, about four fifths of the book are simply redundant: Siegel repeating himself ad nauseam.
My advice: listen to the podcast (which will cost you nothing) and forget the book.

Customer Rating: 

I will probably have to read (devour) this book three times to get all I want for it. It is brilliant.

Customer Rating: 

I had gotten this book as a present from my sister. The book overall is a good book to read. It has great examples of experiences he went through to gain the knowledge that he has gained. But the downside is that it is hard reading. Its a book that you have to read the sections 2-3 times to understand it.

Some of the wording is very repetitive. And sometimes the wording is so confusing that you just want to close the book and move on to another one

Customer Rating: 

I got this CD to listen to while i drive around and i really enjoyed it. It brings clarity from the book though does not go into the depth of the book by any means. Get it for a relative who doesn't have the time or the openness to wrap their minds around the book. Get it for yourself

Customer Rating: 

This book has had an amazing impact on my life. It goes into the very depths of the brain and how it, combined with the body and possibly other sources, create the mind. You may have to read through it several times to really get what Dr. Siegel is really talking about but it will click soon enough. The thing about this book though is YOU have to figure out HOW to put mindfulness into your everyday life. He gives few suggestions on a few pages within the book but not in therapeutic depth. This book is more of a philosophy, or better, a science of how the mind senses the environment around itself and comes to "true knowing" by decoupling automatic activity through meta-cognition or mindfulness.

Highly enlightening. I recommend it