Mindsight
UCLA psychiatrist Daniel Siegel, the founder of the field he calls interpersonal neurobiology, introduces mindsight as the capacity to perceive the mind of yourself and others. The book argues that trauma is at heart a failure of brain integration, and that mindsight practice can rebuild what trauma fragmented. Siegel structures the book around clinical cases, including a patient who lost the ability to feel her body after a near-death experience, a teenager rebuilding after a suicide attempt, and a 92-year-old man working through grief. Each case pairs with a teaching chapter on the underlying brain science.
What you might want to know about Mindsight
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A UCLA psychiatrist introduces mindsight as the capacity to perceive your own mind, with clinical cases from his practice paired with the interpersonal neurobiology framework.
Mindsight was written by Daniel J. Siegel and published in 2010. Siegel is a UCLA psychiatrist and one of the leading figures in interpersonal neurobiology.
Both books address the relationship between the brain, mind, and trauma. Daniel Siegel focuses on his integration framework; Bessel van der Kolk focuses on body-based trauma treatment. They overlap but have different emphases.
Mindsight is 314 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Mindsight takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Mindsight is a standalone novel by Daniel J. Siegel, not part of a series.
Mindsight is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.