We Are Our Brains with Prof. Dick Swaab

Everything we think, do and refrain from doing is determined by our brain. From religion to sexuality, it shapes our potential, our desires and our characters. Taking us through every stage in our lives, from the womb to falling in love to old age, Dr. Swaab shows that we don’t just have brains: we are our brains. Then the big question, “Do we control our brains or do our brains control us?” Dick Swaab was Director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research from 1978 to 2005. Since 1979 he is Professor of Neurobiology at the Medical Faculty, University of Amsterdam. In 1985 he founded the Netherlands Brain Bank and was Director until 2005. He is Leader Research team Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Neth. Inst for Neuroscience, an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and is appointed since 2011 Chao Kuang Piu Chair of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R. China. His major research interests focus on sexual differentiation of the human brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation, aging of the brain and Alzheimer’s disease and the neurobiological basis of depression and suicide. He has published over 560 papers in SCI journals, authored more than 200 chapters in books, and edited more than 60 books. Swaab mentored 84 PhD students from which 20 are now full professor. He is author of the 2 volume monograph The Human Hypothalamus that appeared in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series, Elsevier and of the Dutch best seller We are our Brains, that sold more than 450.000 copies in the Netherlands that is translated in 15 languages. There is also a children’s version of the book (You are your brain) that is translated in Russian and Thai. To learn more about Provocative Enlightenment Radio, go to www.provocativeenlightenment.com