Summary of Mary-Frances O'Connor's The Grieving Brain

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 When I am explaining the neurobiology of grief, I start with a metaphor that is based on a familiar experience.

However, you have to accept a premise in order for the metaphor to make sense.

The premise is that someone has stolen your dining room table.#2 We know a lot about how the brain creates virtual maps.

We have found the location in the hippocampus where the brain map is stored.

The brain constantly walks you between these two worlds.#3 We use brain maps to find our loved ones, predict where they are, and search for them when they are gone.

The mismatch between the virtual map we always use to find them, and the reality after they die, is one reason grief overwhelm us.#4 The first mobile creatures needed to find food, a basic necessity of life.

The neural map was developed to know where to go to fulfill that need.

Later, as mammals developed, another need arose: for other members of the species to care for them, defend them, and mate with them.