We all understand the importance of daily exercise in keeping physically fit. But mental exercise is just as essential to our health and well-being€”especially when it comes to defending against forgetfulness, memory loss, and even dementia. These and other age-associated afflictions were once regarded as all but inevitable, but in fact, as this eye-opening, inspiring book shows, there is much we can do to protect ourselves as we grow older. With the right tools, we can all maximize our brainpower and keep our minds sharp, healthy, and cognitively fit throughout life. Written by internationally renowned cognitive psychologist Shlomo Breznitz and technologist Collins Hemingway, Maximum Brainpower provides both an in-depth look at how the brain works and proven methods to increase its capabilities. Armed with the results of cutting-edge research, Breznitz and Hemingway champion in compelling detail the challenge and stimulus of continual change over th

Maximum Brainpower: Challenging the Brain for Health and Wisdom

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Breznitz, Shlomo

Hemingway, Collins

Mental Health

Ballantine Books

“A wonderfully helpful book . . . After reading it, you will understand what you must do for your brain, and why you must do it.”—Norman Doidge, M.D., New York Timesbestselling author of The Brain That Changes Itself Did you know that experts are often less mentally agile than jacks-of-all-trades? That crossword puzzles and sudoku are of minimal help in building brainpower? That multitasking poses unique dangers to the brain? Cognitive psychologist Shlomo Breznitz knows—and what’s more, he knows what to do about it. In Maximum Brainpower, Breznitz and technologist Collins Hemingway provide both an in-depth look at how the brain works and proven methods to increase its capabilities. Armed with the results of cutting-edge research, they champion the stimulus of continual change over the deadening effects of comfortable routine, show how to separate good mental stress from bad, and demonstrate how hope and socialization can help defend against forgetfulness, memory loss, even dementia. Filled with colorful real-life stories and fascinating psychological experiments, thisrevelatory work will help adults of any age keep their minds sharp, healthy, and cognitively fit throughout life. It’s a no-brainer! Praise for Maximum Brainpower “Everyone knows the importance of physical fitness; less appreciated is the necessity of cognitive fitness. How do you maintain an exercised, stimulated, flexible brain? Start by reading this book.”—David Eagleman, New York Times bestselling author of Incognito “Profound, rich, and enriching . . . Because of its forceful suggestions, its analyses, and its wide knowledge, this book is well worth reading. And rereading.”—Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and author “Many of us are petrified of Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, and other maladies that impair the functioning of the brain. Breznitz and Hemingway can deliver no ‘magic bullet’ to prevent dementia. But their book does get you thinking about what you can do to develop and maintain your gray matter, build on the plasticity of the brain, and increase the likelihood that you’ll live not just a longer but a fuller life.”—The Huffington Post “Most books about healthy brain maintenance just give you the ‘how’; this one tells you why. And it helps you do it.”—Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind

Recounting his experiences during World War II, a Holocaust survivor describes his experiences hiding from the Nazis in a convent orphanage in Czechoslovakia, his feelings of isolation and loneliness, and his dread of discovery

Memory Fields

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

KNOPF

Denial of Stress

Self-Help

Stress Management

Intl Universities Pr Inc

In Memory Fields, Shlomo Breznitz shifts from past to present, from a child's perspective to an adult's, to tell a poignant, gripping, and often terrifying story. Caught in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust, Breznitz's family moved from village to village until it became clear that there was no escaping the Nazis. Before they were sent to Auschwitz, however, Breznitz's parents persuaded the Sisters of Saint Vincent to take their two recently converted children into the convent's orphanage. Shlomo called Juri was just eight years old. Separated from his parents and from his sister Judith (the nuns segregated the sexes, and communication between them was rarely allowed), Juri recounts his often devastating experiences with the other orphans, the nuns, his teacher and classmates at the village school, the prelate and the mother superior, and the Nazi officers who periodically visited the orphanage. He describes his overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness, his persistent dread of being found out as a "stinking Jew" (constantly hiding his circumcision), his earnest determination to be a good Catholic, and the crushing sense of danger that loomed over him at every moment. Memory Fields, however, goes beyond its recollections of childhood. It speaks also for Breznitz the psychologist, as he explores the nature of cruelty and kindness, of stifling fear and outstanding courage, of memory and the ways in which it shapes our lives. In the last chapter of the book, almost fifty years later Breznitz writes of returning to Czechoslovakia and revisiting the places so vivid in his memory, in hopes of finding the nuns who saved his and his sister's life. Helen Epstein reviewed the first edition of the book in the Boston Globe, December 27, 1992. She wrote: "[The] majority of child survivors [of the Holocaust] were carefully hidden with Gentile friends, with strangers or in the orphanages of Christian religious orders that offered them protection, sometimes with the stipulation that they convert. "Shlomo Breznitz was 8 years old in 1944, and recently converted to Catholicism, when his parents took him to the orphanage run by the sisters of St. Vincent in Zilina, just across the Slovak-Polish border from Auschwitz. Breznitz is now a professor of psychology , and one of a small number of child survivors to write about their experiences during the Holocaust. Like others of the current generation of psychologists, historians, literary critics and memoirists addressing the Holocaust, Breznitz is concerned with more than recollecting people and events. He examines how extreme trauma affects memory. He adds to what we know of children's behavior in situations of extremity. And he meditates on the experience of surviving catastrophe and trying to draw meaning from it. "'For many years, the memories of these events have toyed with me,' Breznitz writes in the prologue. 'While some loose fragments were always available and could be summoned at will, others were more elusive; they would surface briefly, tempting pursuit, only to be lost the next moment. And then there was another type of memory whose existence was suggested by the gaping holes in the story of my childhood. The fields of memory are like a rich archeological site, with layer upon layer of artifacts from different periods, which, through some geological upheaval, got mixed up. Since it is the upheaval itself that is the stuff my story is made of, only part of the truth survived.' "The memoir begins in 1942, and the broken narrative that follows is clearly not only an artistic strategy but a necessity. As an adult, Breznitz has only limited access to both the raw material with which to construct a chronology of events and the interlocking pieces of cause and effect that are the underpinning of narrative. It's short, sometimes sharp, sometimes cloudy sections chop back and forth in time, heralded by such titles as 'First Game of Chess' or 'In

AuthorHouse

Memory Fields: The Legacy of a Wartime Childhood in Czechoslovakia

Memoirs

Written by internationally renowned cognitive psychologist Shlomo Breznitz and technologist Collins Hemingway, Maximum Brainpower is filled with colourful real-life stories and fascinating psychological experiments that show you how to make the most of your grey matter. This book is not only a fascinating tour of the science of the mind, it also shows how you can improve your mental abilities, extend your thinking to its highest levels and ensure your brain fitness in the future. - Why challenge and stimulus improves your brain and how to harness this process - How to separate good stress from bad - What role hope and socialising play in fighting off the worst symptoms of dementia. - How sudoku and crossword puzzles are actually little help to your brain power - Why multitasking can be detrimental to your mental health. This revelatory work will help adults of any age build and retain their mental acuity. Expand your brainwidth to think better, live better, be better with Maximum Brainpower.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

HAY HOUSE *

Memory Fields recounts Shlomo Breznitz's devastating experiences upon being placed in a Sisters of Saint Vincent orphanage just hours before his parents were sent to Auschwitz. He tells of events with other orphans, his teacher, classmates, the prelate and dreaded visits by Nazi officers periodically searching for Jewish children. He describes overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness, and persistent dread of being discovered. Interwoven throughout the book, Breznitz, the psychologist, draws on his history and explores the nature of cruelty and kindness, of stifling fear and outstanding courage, and the ways in which memory shapes our lives.University of Haifa psychology professor Breznitz, who was caught up in the Holocaust as a child, has written a spare and eloquent memoir of his experiences. Born into a Jewish family in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, he narrowly avoided transport to a concentration camp, because his parents, who were soon shipped to Auschwitz, managed to place the six-year-old Shlomo and his 10-year-old sister, Judith, in a Catholic orphanage, where they remained until the end of the war. There Shlomo strove to become a good Christian, hiding his circumcision from the other boys, who frequently treated him cruelly, and memorizing the Catholic litany so well that he was chosen to recite for the prelate. The pain of his memories of the convent was reinforced by an anti-Semitic incident that took place in 1959 when the author was traveling through Hungary as a member of the Israeli student chess team. The book is a moving contribution to Holocaust literature.

Memory Fields: The Legacy of a Wartime Childhood in Czechoslovakia (New Edition)

History

World

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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