The Six Rings book series is interested in analyzing the complexities of the brain and how to maintain it in optimum health. The brain takes centerstage, and these books provide insights to aid in the understanding of how psychological and physiological factors affect its health and optimum performance. These books also examine the complex interplay between the excessive use of alcohol and drugs as a factor that hinders brain performance and how using the approach of optimizing the brain is a radical and more humanistic departure from traditional or some prevailing apostolic views.

A multitude of approaches, working synergistically, are needed to optimize brain performance. About a decade from the present day, we meet Bastian. He is not your regular run-of-the-mill doctor. He’s smart as a whip, deeply intuitive, and equipped with an incisive mind that questions the different mental ailments that assail humans. It’s an introduction into the psychology of brain wellness. Bastian wrestles with his own perspectives, working out how this impacts others, and uses it for the benefit of his clients.

For Bastian, the past and present are the same, and only the future, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet would put it, is undiscovered country. Bastian knows the past cannot be changed, but believes that his re-interpretation and reflections in the present can yield greater understanding that would be useful in the future.

Bastian was mostly schooled in Europe. His father, also a physician, was a strict and authoritarian figure who accepted nothing but the best. Bastian’s early years were a struggle with his father, whom he mostly tried to avoid for fear of some undeserved retribution. In contrast, his mother was a highly successful entrepreneur, also in the medical field, with a kind and generous nature. Bastian longs that his own emotional health is more like his mother rather than his father. He does, however, in his later years come to understand his father’s pain of unfulfillment and how his mother’s easy success in all things grated against his pride. Bastian’s early school experiences were also tumultuous and mirrored the relationship with his father. He was unusually gifted, but that had its penalties.

Being the youngest in class by quite some margin, he was often bullied by the “bigger” boys. But Bastian is a survivor and would not back down. Indeed, Bastian would challenge the bullies repeatedly until they were so fed up hurting him that they gave up. For Bastian, this was a moral victory. It was resilience ! Becoming a physician scientist was not Bastian’s first calling. It was the arts and music. In these allegorical stories, Bastian draws both understanding and solace from pivotal pieces of art and music. He’s a lover of many musical forms, especially opera.

This book’s message is deceptively simple. It’s an in-depth education to the listener without making it obvious. The simple language, the wit, and ordinariness of the characters make this book an interesting and compelling listen. Furthermore, since it is garbed in fiction, it slowly draws the listener in, painting pictures that are at once familiar and relatable. It’s excellent in that it lacks the drudgery of most scientific texts because the author prioritizes communication, discarding obfuscation and highfalutin words.

The book’s layout is superb. Each chapter begins with a painting, which ties into the narrative for that chapter, adding an aesthetic appeal to the book. It’s a foothold into the process of brain recovery following the excessive use of substances, which unfolds in the second book. If you’re interested in understanding the complexities of the brain and improving your brain health, or that of your loved ones who suffer an addiction, the Six Rings book series is invaluable.