Synaptic Self

[Joseph LeDoux]

NOW AVAILABLE!!!        PRESS RELEASE
			For more information please contact:
			Holly Watson at 212.366.2147 or via email at
			hwatson at penguinputnam.com



SYNAPTIC SELF
How Our Brains Become Who We Are

Joseph LeDoux
author of The Emotional Brain


"Synaptic Self represents a brilliant manifesto at the cutting edge of
psychology's evolution into a brain science.  Joseph LeDoux is one of
the field's pre-eminent, most important thinkers."
-Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

"In this pathbreaking synthesis, Joseph LeDoux draws on dazzling
insights from the cutting edge of neuroscience to generate a new
conception of an enduring mystery: the nature of the self. Enlightening
and engrossing, LeDoux's bold formulation will change the way you think
about who you are."
-Daniel L. Schacter, Chairman of Psychology at Harvard University,
and author of  The Seven Sins of Memory

"LeDoux offers a fascinating view into that 'most unaccountable of
machinery,' the human brain."	--Kirkus Reviews

"Synaptic Self is a wonderful tour of the brain circuitry behind some of
the critical aspects of the mind.  LeDoux is an expert tour guide and it
is well worth listening.  His perspective takes you deep into the
cellular basis of what it is to be a thinking being."
-Antonio R. Damasio, neuroscientist and author of The Feeling of What
Happens


How is the self, the personality which we present to other people on a
daily basis and through which we experience the world, actually
constructed?  Although nature and nurture have long been believed to
both participate, their contributions have remained vague. Joseph
LeDoux, author of  the SYNAPTIC SELF: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
(Viking; January 14, 2002; 400 pages), provides a detailed
explanation grounded in cutting edge brain science, arguing that nature
and nurture speak the same language-they construct our personality by
influencing synapses.

In SYNAPTIC SELF, LeDoux proposes an entirely new, biologically based
theory, one which does not exclude other ways of understanding the
self--whether spiritual, aesthetic, or moral--but rather enriches and
broadens these by grounding them in a neurological framework. LeDoux's
theory centers on synapses, the spaces between brain cells, which serve
as channels of communication between neurons and the means by which the
brain accomplishes most of its business, including the key component of
constructing a self.

According to LeDoux, synapses are not only the means by which we think,
act, imagine, feel, and remember, but also the means by which
interactions take place between these different mental processes.
Without such interactions, we wouldn't be able to attend to and remember
the important things in life better than the trivial. Synapses are
responsible for encoding the essence of the individual, allowing us to
be the same person from moment to moment, week to week, and year to
year.  Memory is thus a key process in constructing the self.  And
because many of the brain's systems form memories, either of the
conscious kind or, more often, of the implicit, unconscious kind,
synaptic interactions between the systems keeps the self together.

SYNAPTIC SELF is a dramatically new look at human personality as a
product of the integrated brain and represents an important breakthrough
in one of the last frontiers of brain research.


About the Author: Joseph LeDoux is a neuroscientist and Henry and Lucy
Moses Professor of Science at New York University's Center for Neural
Sciences.



SYNAPTIC SELF: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
By Joseph LeDoux
Viking On-Sale Date: January 14, 2002
Pages: 400; Price: $25.95; ISBN: 0-670-03028-7
Discovery Channel Book Club Selection



To find out more information, or schedule an interview with the author,
please contact


To obtain a review copy, please contact Dina Jordan via fax at
212.366.2952 or email at djordan at penguinputnam.com


For more information, please visit our website at www.penguinputnam.com


Penguin Putnam Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of the internationally
renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Putnam is one of the leading U.S. adult
and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints
and trademarks including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P.
Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin,
Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others.  The Penguin Group
is owned by Pearson plc, the international media group.