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The Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupted Mind (2022), is the latest book by philosopher and historian, Noga Arikha. The author writes about the interconnection between our bodies and our minds, particularly at moments of great psychical difficulty. Her studies are based upon the stories of neuropsychiatric patients and embark upon an exploration of the brain, the self, dementia and medicine.
The book is comprised of studies of patients and their confounding symptoms, as well as her experience of her own mother developing Alzheimer’s Disease, eloquently weaving together her observations. She searches for meaning in science as she investigates how deeply interconnected our minds and bodies are.
The discussion will be guided by author and former Chair of the Freud Museum’s Trustees, Lisa Appignanesi.
“Noga Arikha is that rare author whose deep knowledge of philosophy, science, and the arts allows her to move deftly from the quandaries of medical diagnosis and the scientific ideas that inform them to the intimate narratives of people afflicted with illnesses that threaten the coherence of that mysterious thing we call ‘a self.’ Astute, compassionate, and brilliant, The Ceiling Outside is finally an adventure story in the bewildering drama of being.”
– Siri Hustvedt, acclaimed author of Memories of the Future
Speakers bios
Noga Arikha is a philosopher and historian of ideas. The author of Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours (2007), she is associate fellow of the Warburg Institute and honorary fellow of the Center for the Politics of Feelings, London, and research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod, Paris. She is based in Florence, Italy. nogaarikha.com
Lisa Appignanesi OBE is a prize-winning writer, novelist, cultural commentator. She was President of English PEN, Chair of the Freud Museum London, and until 2020 Chair of the Royal Society of Literature of which she is now a vice-president. Her non-fiction includes Everyday Madness, Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness, All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion, the prize-winning Mad Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800; Freud’s Women (with John Forrester) and a biographical portrait of Simone de Beauvoir.
