Welcome

Éric Kandel

In Search of Memory The Emergence of a New Science of Mind Publication date : May 16, 2007

Memory is the key to our mental life. If we are what we are, it is mainly because of what we have leaned and what we remember.
Whether reassuring or obsessive, vivid or vague, our memories constitute a sort of journey through time. How does the brain create memories? A few decades ago, the notion that memory and other aspects of the human mind could be explained by biology and molecular interaction was unimaginable. Since then, the biological exploration of the mind has become not just a possibility but also a reality.
A major contributor to this revolution, Eric Kandel charts its history and shows how psychology, neuroscience and molecular biology have converged to create a new science of mind. Through its profound insights into perception, thought, emotions, recollection, as well as schizophrenia, depression, and age-related memory loss, this new science is pointing the way to more effective healing.
In recounting his quest to understand memory, Kandel describes his career; he shows how the young man with a fascination for history and psychoanalysis became one of the scientists who revealed the cellular and molecular processes of memory, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.


“In Search of Memory is a scintillating mix of memoir, history of science, and fundamental biology without peer. It shows compellingly what first-rate science is and how it is created.”
E. O. Wilson


“Written with talent and grace, this extraordinary book by one of the greatest scientists of the mind alive will be read with delight by general readers as well as by students and scholars.”
Elie Wiesel


“An extraordinary picture of this last incredible half-century of neuroscience.”
Oliver Sacks


Eric Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2000. He is University Professor at Columbia University, director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences, and a senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was born in Vienna and has lived in the United States since 1939.