Norman Doidge, M.D.

Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author. He is on the Research Faculty at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry. He has been described by Oliver Sacks, as an “eminent psychiatrist and researcher,” and has presented his research at the White House, in Washington. He uses his background as a psychoanalyst and researcher in the cutting-edge science of brain plasticity to help individuals and groups understand and transform themselves. In his practice, Dr. Doidge has worked for 19 years with CEOs, venture capitalists, and leaders of non-profit and government organizations. He can help business leaders and boards diagnose and deal with psychological issues and conflicts that cause tension and problems in business, and to perform psychological due diligence when making major business choices and appointments.

His recent research involves showing how we can change the structure and function of our brains using our thoughts. Of his book on the subject, The Brain That Changes Itself, the New York Times has written: “The power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility. Mind-bending, miracle-working, reality-busting stuff, with implications...not only for individual patients with neurologic disease but for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history... Straddles the gap between science and self-help.” Oliver Sacks has called it, “a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.” The book is a New York Times Bestseller, a #1 bestseller in Canada, and was chosen by Amazon.com as one of the Top Ten Science books of 2007. The implications of this work are obvious for businesses. Investment strategist Kiril Sokoloff, founder of 13D Research, Inc. recently wrote in his private newsletter for investors, What I learned This Week, that “The Brain That Changes Itself...is without question the most important book of the year—and maybe the most important book we have ever read.”

At the University of Toronto, he studied classics, philosophy, and political science, graduating with high distinction, going on to earn his medical degree. He completed psychiatric and psychoanalytic training at Columbia University in New York, followed by two years as a Columbia-National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow, studying personality and self-deception. He was editor-in-chief of Books in Canada  from 1995 to 1998 and, from 1998 to 2001, a columnist in Canada’s National Post, where he wrote, “On Human Nature.” His literary portraits of exceptional people at moments of transformation won four Canadian National Magazine Gold Awards, including the National Magazine Award President’s Medal, for the best article published in 2000.

Dr. Doidge served as Head of the Psychotherapy Centre and the Assessment Clinic at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, and taught in the departments of Philosophy, Political Science, Law and Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He authored standards and guidelines for the practice of intensive psychotherapy that are used in Canada. He trains psychoanalysts in the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Doidge has won a number of scientific awards including election to the American College of Psychoanalysts for “many outstanding achievements in psychiatry and psychoanalysis... and national leadership in psychiatry.” He has written over 170 articles and served on a number of Boards of Directors.

Dr. Doidge is regularly cited as an expert in psychiatry, psychoanalysis and the brain by the press, including in The New York Times (which has profiled him), The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Scientific American Mind, The Washington Times, Psychology Today, Rotman: The Magazine of the Rotman School of Management, Reader’s Digest, Association for Advancement of Retired People: The Magazine, Vogue, O The Oprah Magazine, Ability Magazine, Men’s Health, Men’s Health: Best Life, Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, and The National Post. He has done scores of radio shows, including the Leonard Lopate Show, NPR interviews, and Public Radio International. He has been featured on the PBS TV special, The Brain Fitness Program. A one-hour TVO episode of The Agenda was devoted to his research, as was a half hour TV interview, Allan Gregg in Conversation. In Canada he has appeared regularly on the CBC, CTV, Global, and TVO television networks. His upcoming speaking schedule includes keynote addresses and presentations at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, as well as to business audiences, investors, and the military. The Brain That Changes Itself is being translated into 13 languages and made into a film. Of his ability to explain complex brain science and psycholgocial concepts in a helpful accesible way, Canada’s Globe and Mail has written: “It takes a rare talent to explain science to the rest of us. Oliver Sacks is a master at this. So was the late Stephen Jay Gould. And now there is Norman Doidge. Doidge is the best possible guide.”