Pria Anand tells us that ‘medical students are taught to imagine a binary: doctor and patient, science and faith, objective truth and superstitious fallacy, us and them.’ However, when it comes to human brains, there’s usually more to the story.
The Mind Electric explores the holistic and ambiguous ‘grey area’ that exists between the neat, tidy, clinical (and sensible) extremes. Anand’s personal and professional insights, anecdotes and observations bring the book alive. References to her roles (medical student, intern and resident, clinical educator, neurologist, patient and mother) help to expand and reframe the ideas.
This is a book for intelligent and curious readers. Drawing on the work of patients, doctors, scientists and historians, Anand seamlessly combines disparate concepts, approaches and understandings. With a foundation in complex, authentic medical situations, the patient stories are interwoven with nuance from mythology, fairytales, poetry and diverse cultural references: Albert Camus, Edgar Allan Poe and Van Halen.
Anand’s explorations of autoimmune encephalitis – with its symptomatic garbled speech and hallucinations, intractable movements, postures and gestures – is particularly intriguing when viewed from a broader lens; personal, historical and contextual. The stories about the overachieving young woman in an emergency department (believing she has heard the voice of God), and those women executed during the Salem witch trials, offer compelling and affecting insights. The stories about Anand’s grandfather reframe the abstract medical ideas into something more human, compassionate and approachable.
Book review by Mark Parry
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pria Anand is a neurologist. The Mind Electric was named a Best Book of June and Best Science & Technology Book of 2025 by Barnes & Noble, a Best Book of 2025 by Publisher’s Weekly, and a Best Book of the Summer by The Observer, The Globe and Mail, and onglisted for the PEN America E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
She is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Medical School, and she trained in neurology, neuro-infectious diseases, and neuroimmunology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine, and she cares for patients at the Boston Medical Center.
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