The Odd Brain provides fascinating explanations as to why we sometimes experience deja vu, are obsessed by a body flaw, crave chocolate, think we're possessed, think we have a "double" following us, or believe we are invisible. Why is the brain the body's cleanest organ? Why are some people addicted to thrill-seeking or self-mutilation? Are there really vampires and were wolves? What is the Svengali Effect? Savant Syndrome? Capras Disorder? These are some of the 36 strange psychological conditions explained in The Odd Brain.

A study of a momentous scientific breakthrough describes British physician Thomas Willis's first examination of an intact human brain in 1663; the revolutionary discovery that the brain was the central organ that governed the human body, memory, reasoning, and emotion; and the influence of that discovery on modern science. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.