Psychology's pet subject

Abstract

Good reads in this year's Autumn Books special include Lisa Jardine's review of Descartes' Bones, in which Russell Shorto tracks the philosopher's remains across Europe and down the centuries. As well as a route map for body parts, Shorto sees a map of the creation of the modern mind in the resulting patterns. Will Self's Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes, is an extended hepatic metaphor. A four-part satire on modern life, it is sometimes nauseating but almost always on the nail, says our reviewer. But what of scientists' lives? Good question, says Georgina Ferry.