book reviews

Always cerebral, Britain's outstanding medically qualified intellectual Raymond Tallis becomes positively cephalic in his latest book as he journeys around the head. Tallis, since retirement has freed him from the burdens of the NHS and the deadening obligations of clinical academe, reaches new heights in his latest book. No one equals his intellectual range, mastery of language or sharp wit. He seems to be inventing a new genre, a dizzy cocktail of science, medicine and philosophy. As he entertains with a succession of erudite digressions on everything from earwax to the manganese content of tears, it is easy to forget that serious philosophical questions are being considered. While delighting in the intricate mechanisms of our senses, Tallis confronts and engages the reader with the timeless questions of personal identity, embodiment and the nature of consciousness.

Approaching that most familiar of objects, ‘your head’, Tallis quickly uses his literary talent to make us look afresh at this amazing object in a manner that would have made his intellectual hero Paul Valery feel proud. For the medical reader revisiting basic physiology and medical familiars from a different viewpoint makes an exhilarating read. While his arguments have clarity, the exuberance of the language occasionally reaches the verbal equivalent of a Max Wall silly walk – ‘thimblefuls of darkness sipped in blinks’ ‘like a large-mandibled insect nibbling the leaves of time, a reminder of the final denudation, when warmth, joy, presence and being are pruned to nothing’. Also be prepared to have a dictionary at hand, Tallis's vocabulary is a match for anyone.

Each of the 16 chapters is an inquiry into how the functions of the head throw light on the nature of human existence, particularly the puzzling phenomenon of consciousness. While the tone is of popular science and philosophy, serious original thought builds on the philosophy of Heidegger, Sartre and Wittgenstein to arrive at new philosophical insights. Reading this book can be disturbing as it brings into question some of our basic assumptions. Sometimes Tallis is guilty of the ‘Whizdom’ that he accuses the American philosopher Robert Nozick, particularly in his dismissal of religious thinking, but for the most part his arguments are hard won. He reminds us that however much we may progress in our scientific understanding there are unfathomable mysteries at the core of our existence. Tallis brings a medical angle to his thought and his book will be enjoyed by anyone who reflects on life's bigger questions.

• © 2009 Royal College of Physicians