Dr. Doidge has written and appeared in two films of The Brain That Changes Itself, both of which have been shown throughout the world in multiple languages. In these films you can see the patients he wrote about, as they are transformed. The films were produced by 90th Parallel productions, directed by Mike Sheerin, and co-written by Norman Doidge and Mike Sheerin. The first is called The Brain That Changes Itself, and the second, which focuses on emotional and psychiatric issues, is called Changing Your Mind. In Canada, these can be seen by going to the CBC website for, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. A longer version is distributed by Arte in France and Germany, and throughout all regions of Europe covered by Arte Satellite. See some of the things that Dr. Doidge saw on his travels, and judge for yourself, as to whether the brain is plastic.

The films have received critical acclaim. Of the first film, Le Monde wrote:
“A superb evening of astonishment in astonishment…never too technical, basing itself on clinical cases, rather incredible human histories… in a concrete and clear, easy understandable way…completely exciting, not to be missed.” It won the 2009 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival Jury Award; was nominated for Best Science/Medical Documentary, Yorktown Film Festival; and was selected to be screened in the “Grand Jury Competition at the AST-Pariscience 2009 Film Festival.

This next interview, called The Power of Plasticity, is the first of two parts. In part one, Natasha Mitchell, of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, interviews Dr. Norman Doidge and Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz (whose work Dr. Doidge wrote about in The Brain that Changes Itself). Dr. Doidge explains why we are discovering brain plasticity now, and why, if the brain has always been plastic, we didn’t see it. He explains why the brain is not hardwired, and the work of the “neuroplasticians,” a term he coined for the people doing this work. In part two, (below) Natasha Mitchell interviews Dr. Doidge alone.

In the second Natasha Mitchell interview Dr. Doidge discusses how thought, imagination and therapy change the brain, in a discussion that ranges from the first intuitions of plasticity in the ancient Greeks, all the way up to the latest experiments and brain scans. The brain is more plastic than scientists once believed. Here, he discusses the plastic paradox, and sensory substitution, and treatment of strokes. But what does this mental malleability mean for humanity? More compelling stories from psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge as he enters the labs and lives of the new ‘neuroplasticians’. And, neuroplasticity on the couch – does psychotherapy physically change your brain?