Lighten Our Darkness: A Brain Surgeon's Perspective on Depression, Healing, and Happiness

An elite neurosurgeon's journey into the brain's pain pathways uncovers a startling new understanding of depression and OCD—and how the circuitry of despair may hold the key to cultivating joy and resilience.

Drawing on decades of clinical experience and his work with one of the world's few teams performing limbic-system surgery for depression, Dr. Chris Honey traces the treatment of melancholia from ancient humoraltheory through the brutal legacy of the frontal lobotomy to the vast, fascinating horizons of modern neuroscience. Through scientific and medical history, patient stories, and first-hand neurological and surgical insight, Lighten Our Darkness reveals how charting the neural pathways of sadness has transformed our understanding of depressive, bipolar, and obsessive-compulsive disorders—and, in the process, illuminates the mechanics of what makes us happy.