Mark N. reviewed The Gift Nobody Wants: The Inspiring Story of a Surgeon Who Discovers Why We Hurt and What We Can Do About It on + 3 more book reviews
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The fascinating life story of Dr Paul W Brand, CBE, moves from his missionary childhood in India to an affluent adolescence and medical training in London, to his pioneering work in the treatment of leprosy in India and (later) Louisiana. Brand was one of the group of doctors who finally figured out the destructive mechanism of leprosy, that it deadens the victim's ability to feel pain. Deprived of this ability, the human body unwittingly self-destructs. This medical insight becomes the starting point for an extended meditation on the -- sometimes necessary -- role of pain in human life. Brand is simultaneously physician and philosopher.
