Capture: Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering

by David A. Kessler

Overview

"A breakthrough book. In a world of increasingly specialized knowledge, it takes a particular gift and some stubbornness to cut across the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why it is that we can allow our best selves to be captured by and torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us?. . . . [Kessler's] ultimate answer is profound and one that could be life-changing and life-saving. I know I will be handing this book out for just that reason.” — Abraham Verghese, MD, author of Cutting for Stone

In Capture, New York Times bestselling author Dr. David A. Kessler considers some of the most profound questions we face as human beings: What are the origins of mental afflictions, from everyday unhappiness to addiction and depression—and how are they connected? Where does healing and transcendence fit into this realm of emotional experience?

Analyzing an array of insights from psychology, medicine, neuroscience, literature, philosophy, and theology, Dr. Kessler deconstructs centuries of thinking, examining the central role of capture in mental illness and questioning traditional labels that have obscured our understanding of it. Looking to the emotionally resonant lives of figures such as David Foster Wallace, Virginia Woolf, William James, Tennessee Williams, John Belushi, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell, among others, he explains how this concept is at play in their lives and—by extension—our own.

Ultimately, Capture offers insight into how we form thoughts and emotions, manage trauma, and heal. For the first time, we can begin to understand the underpinnings not only of mental illness but also of our everyday worries and anxieties. Capture is an intimate and critical exploration of the most enduring human mystery of all: the mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062388520
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/07/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	451,459
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

David. A. Kessler, MD, served as Chief Science Officer of the White House Covid-19 Response Team under President Joe Biden and previously served as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Overeating and Capture and two other books: Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs and A Question of Intent. Dr. Kessler is a pediatrician and has been the dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco. He is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Chicago Law School, and Harvard Medical School.

Table of Contents

Part I

1 A Human Mystery 3

The Terrible Master 3

Capture 6

The Nature of Mental Distress 9

The Search for a Common Mechanism 14

2 The Historical and Scientific Context of Capture 18

William James and Attention 20

Freud and Drive 29

The Science Underlying Capture 35

3 What Captures? 45

A Continuum from the Ordinary to Mental Illness 45

Rejection 46

A Brutish Father 48

Drink 51

Physical Pain 53

Childhood Trauma 55

Blind Love 59

Obscene Fascination 65

Gambling 67

The Body 70

A Work of Art 72

Death 74

A Threat 78

Two Addicts 83

Control 91

Sadness 95

Grandeur 99

Abandonment 102

Going Mad 107

Accumulation of Burdens 111

A Unified Theory 116

4 When Capture Turns on the Self 121

David Foster Wallace 121

Part II

5 When Capture Leads to Violence 151

Striking Out 152

The Assassination of Robert Kennedy 157

The Columbine School Shootings 160

The Murder of John Lennon 164

The Murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School 169

A Theory of Human Capital 176

6 Capture and Ideology 184

The America I Have Seen 186

The Obligation of Our Time 191

I'm Going Traveling 195

®SlaveOfAllah 199

Part III

7 Capture and Spirituality 205

Capture by the Divine 208

Paying Attention 211

Captured by a Message 214

The Revelation of Nature 219

8 Capture and Change 223

Martin Luther's Anfechtungen 224

Meaningful Association 229

Moments of Clarity 233

A Creative Life 235

Compelled to Be Different 240

Being in the Right Place 243

Distracting the Black Dog 245

Belief 248

Good-Bye to All That 250

Reconciliation and Forgiveness 252

A Toolkit Borrowed from Buddhism 257

Is There Freedom from Capture? 262

A Modest Form of Autonomy 265

Notes 269

Acknowledgments 389

Index 393

Editorial Reviews

In this richly documented, beautifully written, and original work, David Kessler has given us an idea that explains one of the most strange and most powerful processes in the human brain.” — E. O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

“This book offers a bold, overarching explanation for many of the great problems of the mind, problems that are often merely named. Dr. Kessler writes persuasively and with unusual clarity. Capture is an engrossing book, impressive in its cultural as well as its scientific reach.” — Tracy Kidder, New York Times best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains and The Soul of a New Machine

“Kessler’s cogent argument is that a great deal of the apparently inexplicable behavior is the result of impulses, drives, and obsessions that may share fundamental neural and psychodynamic mechanisms. This carefully researched book is both startling and engaging, and written with brio.” — Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon

“Capture is a breakthrough book. It takes a particular gift to cut across neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why do we allow our best selves to torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us? His answer is profound, life-changing, and life-saving.” — Abraham Verghese, MD, author of Cutting for Stone

“Capture definies a shape of human experience that seems to inform everything from the smallest action to the largest life aim, a unified-field theory of human activity that draws in how we form thoughts, manage trauma, and even try to reconcile will and cause.” — Chris Ware, author of Building Stories

“Kessler writes about the concept of capture, or forces that strongly influence the mind, overriding reason and will. Invoking novelists, Freudian drives, and current neuroscience, Kessler explains how capture motivates, clarifies thoughts, and provides insight. A challenging and rewarding book for both scholars and lay readers.” — Library Journal

“Kessler is an excellent storyteller, and Capture is bursting with human drama drawn from real lives rather than the bland, composite case studies that clinicians tend to favor.” — Washington Post

“[A] Big Idea about how to conceptualize the mind and the brain… capture offers a new lens through which to understand human behavior.” — New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

Capture is a breakthrough book. It takes a particular gift to cut across neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology and to ask the fundamental question: Why do we allow our best selves to torpedoed by thoughts and actions that sink us? His answer is profound, life-changing, and life-saving.

Abraham Verghese

Capture definies a shape of human experience that seems to inform everything from the smallest action to the largest life aim, a unified-field theory of human activity that draws in how we form thoughts, manage trauma, and even try to reconcile will and cause.

Chris Ware

This book offers a bold, overarching explanation for many of the great problems of the mind, problems that are often merely named. Dr. Kessler writes persuasively and with unusual clarity. Capture is an engrossing book, impressive in its cultural as well as its scientific reach.

Tracy Kidder

In this richly documented, beautifully written, and original work, David Kessler has given us an idea that explains one of the most strange and most powerful processes in the human brain.

E. O. Wilson

[A] Big Idea about how to conceptualize the mind and the brain… capture offers a new lens through which to understand human behavior.

New York Times Book Review

Kessler is an excellent storyteller, and Capture is bursting with human drama drawn from real lives rather than the bland, composite case studies that clinicians tend to favor.

Washington Post

Kessler’s cogent argument is that a great deal of the apparently inexplicable behavior is the result of impulses, drives, and obsessions that may share fundamental neural and psychodynamic mechanisms. This carefully researched book is both startling and engaging, and written with brio.

Andrew Solomon

02/29/2016
In this fascinating book, Kessler (The End of Overeating), former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, probes the nature of the “hijacked” mind, offering a straightforward and plausible explanation of a neural mechanism by which a range of human behaviors can be understood. Drawing on his two decades of research, Kessler calls this underlying mechanism “capture” and reveals its three basic elements: “narrowing of attention, perceived lack of control, and change in affect, or emotional state.” He catalogs the kinds of activities that capture people’s attention—including love, trauma, gambling, and art—and demonstrates that in individual cases these phenomena, or sometimes specific events, can lead from positive mental health to mental illness. Kessler devotes considerable attention to David Foster Wallace as an example of capture turning on the self, with the acute self-awareness that seized Wallace’s attention developing into the self-hatred that led to his suicide. He also carefully points out that capture can lead to violence as well as exalted spiritual experiences. Kessler ends on a note of hope, presenting a range of ways that people can potentially gain more control of their lives through an understanding of capture. This is a hefty yet accessible tome, and Kessler gives readers much to ponder. Agent: Kathy P. Robbins, Robbins Office. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

In this richly documented, beautifully written, and original work, David Kessler has given us an idea that explains one of the most strange and most powerful processes in the human brain.

Edward O. Wilson

Kessler is an excellent storyteller, and Capture is bursting with human drama drawn from real lives rather than the bland, composite case studies that clinicians tend to favor.

Washington Post

09/15/2015
Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, New York Times best-selling author Kessler considers where the line falls between ordinary unhappiness and mental illness. He concludes that all mental suffering falls on a spectrum and is rooted in the same biological bases, with our minds "captured" by physiological processes that seem beyond our control. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

Sean Pratt’s cool and relaxed voice makes Kessler's prose less anxiety-inducing to listen to, given how scary this book can be. Kessler explores the process of becoming entranced by or fixated on certain things such as food, drugs, and other addictions. He highlights the ways that people learn to cope, redirect, or find replacements for their addictions in both positive and negative ways. Pratt moves through the book with a calm and inviting voice that still provides emphasis and good pacing. His delivery makes listeners feel as if he’s right there in the room with them. His hypnotic, rhythmic narration could be another form of “capture”—this one for listeners. L.E. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2016 - AudioFile

2016-01-05
Why do we do things—overeat, obsess, fight, commit suicide—that make it seem like our rational minds have been hijacked by something we cannot control? Everyone deals with this "capture," writes Kessler (The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, 2009, etc.), the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner and dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, in a skillful combination of history, medicine, and scientific (but not pop) psychology. Since Aristotle, explanations of behavior relied almost entirely on philosophy. Psychoanalysis did not improve matters, but "by shifting the study of mind away from morality and rationality and toward the unstable ground of desire," writes the author, "Freud moved science toward a clearer understanding of human thought and behavior." Since Freud, scientists have discovered that every stimulus triggers a particular response from a series of brain neurons. Each repetition of that stimulus strengthens the response: "neurons that fire together, wire together." That's how we learn or remember, but it also influences emotions. The sight of someone we love or a work of art triggers intense feelings, but what happens when feelings about a drug, a stranger's glare, or one's defects become irresistible? After nearly 50 pages of argument, Kessler devotes 150 pages to the dismal impact of capture over the years: autobiographies of individuals driven to lives of torment (Dostoyevsky) that often ended in suicide (Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, David Foster Wallace), addiction (John Belushi, Tennessee Williams), assassination (John Lennon, Robert Kennedy), or mass murder. In the final 50 pages, the author reveals the concept of capture in a positive light through those who have fended off depression (Winston Churchill, William Styron) or channeled intense feelings into religion, work, or creativity. A reasonable theory of the science behind extreme behavior illustrated by excessive but gripping case histories.

Kirkus Reviews