Why We Snap

October 26, 2015
Neuroscientist Fields provides insight into the seemingly inexplicable: sudden switches into violent behavior, an all-too-familiar narrative that often ends in collective tragedy. From road rage to public shootings, he explores manifestations of the human instinct to kill—which Fields views as universal and evolutionarily hardwired into our brains. This discussion, for all its relevance to contemporary society, can become unwieldy, but Fields knows when to use stories, including anecdotes from his own life, and when to rely on academic material, such as his own discipline. Even the most scientific passages are personalized and placed in a narrative context, and while his friendly and informative tone can occasionally be excessively digressive, it results in a highly readable survey. Most distinctive is Fields’s self-created mnemonic device, LIFEMORTS, an acronym for triggers to violence: life or limb; insult; family; environment; mate; order in society; resources; tribe; stopped. Recognizing these triggers, he claims, can prevent tragedy. Fields shines a thoughtful and essential light on one of the darkest aspects of human behavior. Agent: Andrew Stuart, Stuart Agency.

November 1, 2015
A neuroscientist asks, "what triggers [our] deadly switch for violence and killing?" A bizarre encounter with a pickpocket gang in Barcelona was the inspiration for this book, writes Fields (The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science, 2010, etc.), the chief of the Nervous System and Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institutes of Health. He and his daughter were on their way to attend a neuroscience meeting when a thief grabbed his wallet. The author's shockingly powerful response was instantaneous. In his mid-50s and weighing only 130 pounds, with "no martial-arts training, no military experience, no background in street fighting," he subdued the thief with a stranglehold. Looking back on the event, he wondered at the precision of his response. "Somewhere deep in my brain," he writes, "I must have been taking in this situational information unconsciously." Fields believes that his response evoked "a deeply embedded automatic life-saving reaction" that had been preprogrammed into his DNA. Throughout the book, he explores how these automatic responses are triggered. He thoroughly examines how threats to survival--to a spouse or child, to self-esteem, to defense of the tribe--can cause the brain to circumvent conscious thought processes and snap into an immediate response. In worst-case scenarios, this can lead to domestic abuse, street violence, and other anti-social behavior. On the other hand, our rapid-response system can save lives--e.g., the author's response to the pickpocket or a mother who snatches her child from danger. "Acts of heroism happen every day," writes Fields. "This selfless reflexive response is never referred to as snapping, but from a neuroscience perspective, both heroic behaviors and rage behaviors are driven by exactly the same brain circuits." The interplay between conscious and unconscious cognition is not unfamiliar territory, as readers of Daniel Kahneman or Malcolm Gladwell will recognize, but Fields' personal experience adds a fresh viewpoint to an intriguing subject.

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January 1, 2016

Rage overpowers judgement, fear, and pain. Sometimes this automatic human response saves lives and other times it takes them. Fields (chief, section on nervous system development and plasticity, National Inst. of Child Health and Human Development; neuroscience and cognitive science, Univ. of Maryland, College Park) explains how the rage response is produced and whether this natural survival mechanism continues to protects humans. The author believes that understanding rage triggers is essential to controlling an extreme reaction. This book was a four-year quest on Fields's part to understand his snap response to a mugging in Barcelona. The author explores topics broadly related to neuroscience in order to help people respond better in threatening situations. VERDICT A fusion of news, in-person interviews, and academic research, this book will appeal to readers of popular neuroscience and those seeking specific information on anger and rage.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015
Neurobiologist Fields offers a sensible, plainspoken guide to the all-too-common phenomenon of rage. Everyone loses their temper at some point, resulting in such actions as smashing a dish in a fit of anger. But what if a momentary loss of control leads to something worse, an act of irreparable violence? What triggers the human impulse to violence and killing? Does everyone have this latent ability for extreme rage? These are the questions Fields seeks to answer in this thoughtful and anecdotal examination of the complicated human mind and its penchant for violence. He discusses his own experiences, such as when he and his daughter were confronted by thieves, prompting the normally mild-mannered scientist to react without conscious thought in an effort to defend his life, child, and property. Moreover, he explores the biological roots of rage and discusses how much of our rage is genetically predetermined and how much is learned. Fields' timely exploration of sudden acts of violence is sure to inspire conversation at a time when mass shootings appear with great and lamentable frequency.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)