The Stress Test

The Brain and the Mind 

In the book Twilight of the Idols – one of the few volumes available when author Ian Robertson taught in a small town in Fiji – Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” He saw people as capable of managing their destiny. He didn’t see them as passive beings who are helpless or unable to challenge or reverse their fate.

Now a psychologist and a neuroscientist, Robertson tackles this issue. He began his professional life as a clinical psychologist and shifted to brain research. His career followed a different trajectory than that of most people in either of his fields: He brought the two specialties together. Robertson sought insight into how the “software” of the mind interacts with the “hardware” of the brain. He regarded his initial work treating people who had emotional issues as distinctly different from his later work as a neuroscientist. His colleagues agreed. Most neurologists rarely talk to psychologists. However, Robertson dealt with both the software and the hardware issues affecting the mind. He wanted to understand how people calibrate their minds and brains to cope ...