"The ebb and flow of human history is defined by the Seven Deadly Sins: wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, sloth, greed, and pride. From the wrath that has ignited revolutions, to the greed that has re-sculpted the world map. From the sloth that has led to the fall of empires, to the envy that has built them. From the lust that has led to the fall of politicians and the betrayal of national secrets, to the voracious gluttony that has left our environment in ruination, and the pride that has fueled countless conflicts."

"Disorders of the brain, of our genes, or other physical conditions, may give rise to gluttony, lust, wrath or pride. The effects of our environment or our upbringing may produce envy, lust or sloth. Crucially, these disorders unmask what is already in us, what already exists in all of us."

William J. Bennet (before he was outed as a compulsive gambler) is reputed to have said “One man’s vice is another man’s virtue.” Pope Gregory, in the sixth century CE, had a different idea, whittling a larger, earlier list down to seven deadly sins. (One wonders if there might be a grander list of [insert number here] bloody annoying sins). I do remember in my Catholic grammar school days Monsignor Marshall giving a sermon on venial sin (non-deadly, but as far as I can recall not presented as a list), in which he offered up the image of Jesus on the cross, and proclaimed that committing a venial sin was like slapping the nailed Christ across the face, albeit not very hard. No Jewish mother ever delivered a more impactful guilt trip.

In his prior book, The Man Who Tasted Words, Professor Leschziner looked at places where the lines between our senses appear to be somewhat porous, sense-A leaking into sense-B for some individuals. Hearing colors, seeing sounds, aphasic things like that. He offered an examination of what is considered usual, and where, in the brain, wires may have become crossed. He looked at individuals who reported such experiences and attempted to trace back into the brain where each sense resided, and connected to others.

Here he uses as his starting point the notion of the seven deadly sins, and offers neurological analysis of behaviors commonly regarded as sinful. Bu the Seven Deadly sins seem to divide into two groups, one based on behavior and one based on emotion. Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth and Greed require action to do actual damage, while Pride, Envy and Lust can remain internal. You may think you are better than everyone else, but unless you do something based on that belief, it makes no difference. Ditto Lust and Envy. In the absence of acting on these feelings, no harm, no foul, so the playing field for looking at The Seven is uneven from the start. The subtext is the question of free will. Are we all functional free agents able to determine right from wrong or are we driven by our biology, by what our brains have, by genetic heritage and experiential conditioning, commanded us to do? And how have the behaviors that have defined our species, that have led to our accomplishments as well as our excesses, our failings, served us? Is there a range within which our less than idyllic urges can function healthfully, and outside of which they constitute pathology?

Look at aberrant behavior. Dive in to see exactly which parts of the brain have been harmed, if any. Map behaviors, needs, urges, inclinations to parts of the brain. In a way, this is a bit like explorations of yore, sailing out to see what lay over the horizon, or, fictionally, heading out on a starship to see what the universe may present. He uses several case studies of people who manifest behaviors illustrative of each of the sins, looking for neurological bases. Just as in his examination of cross-sense irregularities in his prior book, Leschziner looks at these patients with an eye toward identifying which parts of the brain bear the most responsibility for the problematic behaviors. These include a man who had had a brain bleed that changed his personality, a woman who was incapable of feeling satisfied no matter how much she ate, a 34yo man with Parkinson’s and an increasing obsession with sex, a woman who believes her totally faithful husband is cheating on her, a young father who sleeps twenty hours a day, a man has delusions of grandeur until multiple abscessed teeth are removed, oh, and the Panama Papers. Centers of emotional concern include the amygdala, the pre-frontal cortex, a warrior gene, and the hypothalamus internally. He looks at the influence of bacteria, viruses, dopamines, and more impacting from the outside. Increasingly, science can indeed offer some answers to the why of behaviors, to a point.

In his novel, Fleur de Lis, Anatole France wrote. “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” There are clearly hypocritical societal interpretations of sin, of what sinful behaviors will be tolerated and which will be sanctioned. (Unless, of course, you are a president with a friendly Congress and SCOTUS, in which case, just go ahead with whatever you are doing there on Fifth Avenue.)

"Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king
And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything" – Springsteen – Badlands

And most societies assign moral responsibility to the actor. The question is whether a person is morally responsible for his/her actions or is a slave to, and predetermined by impulses, by one’s underlying and overwhelming personal psychological makeup.

"if you believe that the brain is the origin of our personalities and our character traits, the basis of our decisions, be they good or bad, then it is arguable that much of what defines us is outside of our control."

Whether we are all able to make actual free choices or are slaves to our biology, it is clear that society needs to be able to restrict our ability to harm each other, that protecting each other from the worst in people is a reasonable social responsibility.

It is made clear that the drives that we regard as sinful have provided considerable benefit to our evolution as a species. No lust? No reproduction. No envy? No reason to be more productive. No wrath? No defense against attack.

Leaving the question of evil. At first blush is seems that evil serves no obvious Darwinian purpose. On second thought, though, I expect there might be a case made for evil existing as an existential challenge in order to provide a testing ground against which one might measure strength of character and/or the superiority of one’s genes, whether physical or intellectual. In a way, like ice ages, rapid climate change, or a voracious saber-tooth tiger, evil might be seen as a natural force, even if it manifests through human beings.

Leschziner has offered up a provocative, thoughtful brain-candy-ish look at how science, as it advances, keeps finding biological explanations for fraught psychological behaviors. But our impulses and makeup remain what they are. And this is one of the pleasures of reading The Seven Deadly Sins. Learning what a strange creature is homo sapiens, and how we are put together. It seems quite clear that the real original sin is to have been born human.

"extrinsic factors – medication, injury, or functional disturbance of the brain – rather than our values can cause us to act in ways that contravene our moral
code. However, that dividing line between what constitutes normality and pathology shifts in the sand. That line is blurred by the prevailing winds of our views on morality, legality, philosophy and medicine."

Review posted – 02/21/25

Publication date – 12/3/24

I received paper and ePub AREs of Seven Deadly Sins from St Martin’s in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

=======================EXTRA EXTRA STUFF

George Carlin famously distilled the ten commandments down to two.

It seems pretty clear that the seven deadly sins can likewise be slimmed down as well.

Pride. What does this actually mean?
Believing that you are better than other people? What if you are? Faster, stronger, better looking, smarter. Something more than others. Is recognizing your superiority a sin if it is true? The bible seems to maintain that an “Excessive” self-regard is where the line is crossed, but who gets to determine where the line is drawn between factual and excessive self-regard?

But pride does seem to be a pre-condition for other sins. Wrath, or extreme anger, certainly seems an appropriate response to extreme provocation. Hardly a sin. But in order to get into a sinful bit of wrathful behavior it must be excessive. In order for it to be excessive the deliverer of such wrath must hold a higher view of him or herself vis a vis the target than seems justifiable. Soooo, excessive pride, right? So, scratch wrath, and we are down to six.

Gluttony – excessive consumption to the point of waste.
Wiki tells us that In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a lack of control over one’s relation with food or harms the body. But if the desire for food entails loss of control over one’s relation to food, where is free will? Isn’t that a definition of pathology? And a pathological behavior is hardly sinful. And just what constitutes excessive desire? If we remove the pathological from this formula, we are left with a person feeling entitled to consume (and I think it is safe to expand the notion of consumption here from food to all things material) as if they are better or more deserving of such things. Which brings us back to pride. Gluttony eats itself into a coma and we are down to five.

Greed
Catholic.com claims that Greed is the disordered love of riches. Hmmm, who gets to define “disordered?” and doesn’t a love of riches include a personal belief that one deserves such riches? Here we go again. It requires excessive self-regard to crave riches at a “disordered” level, no? Greed crushes itself with massive accumulation of stuff and we are left with four.

For these other sins, we delineate the pathologies that shape our thoughts and behaviours, and set them apart from those underlying character traits through their intensity and consequences. For greed, we do no such thing. Yet greed, like the other sins, is perilous in its most extreme forms, causing harm to individuals and wider society alike.

Is Donald Trump, a career criminal, capable of differentiating between right and wrong, or was he so damaged by his genetics and upbringing and injured by his subsequent business training at the feet of his sociopathic father, that he is incapable of telling or even caring about the difference between good and bad? Similar for Elon Musk. How great would it be were Leschziner able to do a detailed examination of both men’s brains. Because if they are capable of discriminating right from wrong, then we have a pretty clear proof that there are indeed forces of evil loose in the world, which I expect would come as a great shock to few but the most ardent atheists.

Lust and envy seem sub-elements of the same thing, wanting something that someone else has. Surely lust between two unattached people is no sin. It is only when one person (at least) is already attached that lust becomes problematic (presuming a monogamous baseline). So, wanting something (someone) who/which is not yours, but which is attached to, or is owned by someone else. So what? We all want stuff we do not or cannot have. How is this a sin? It seem to me that having feelings like lust and envy is completely natural. It is only when we take actions to effectuate such the desire, to the detriment of others that the sin element is realized. Down to two.

According to Wikipedia Sloth is the most difficult sin to define and credit as sin, since it refers to an assortment of ideas, dating from antiquity and including mental, spiritual, pathological, and conditional states. One definition is a habitual disinclination to exertion, or laziness. Willful laziness is surely not cool. Just ask any married person whose partner declines to hold up his or her end, opting instead to watch football or soaps. This one seems likely to be based in behavior, as the sinner here engages in slothful behavior, doesn’t just feel…um…slothful. I could certainly see many real-world examples, beyond couch potato chore-avoiders. There are many people who cannot be bothered exercising the intelligence they were born with to examine themselves, their community, public issues, religious beliefs, or much of anything. It may well be that they believe themselves not up to such analysis, and maybe they are not. But for many, if not all, it does seem that the disinclination rests on a belief that they are too good to have to bother with such things, that they have it all figured out and need look no further than the perimeter of their personal bubble…so…excessive pride. And poof! We are down to one.

Pride goeth before the fall, and, apparently every other form of sinfulness. There is only one deadly sin, excessive self-regard, which feeds all the others, and becomes problematic only when put into actual real-world action.

An interesting exploration of the intersection between free-will and brain function/injury with respect to moral decision and the social conventions/limits governed by such. Organized into a chapter for each of the “standard” cardinal sins, the author introduces a medical case study that seems to highlight how the brain controls our ability to conform or not to the social prohibition defined by each sin … and, although it is a strength for some examples, does highlight the contributions made by trauma or injury to various regions of the brain. The author provides remarkable insights from his own medical practice along with some supporting research for each of his points … which was interesting from a scientific point of view, but generally much less helpful from a theological point of view. Still, the material was clear and well organized, making it an easy and accessible read.

The chapters and sections in this work are …

Introduction

1. Wrath
2. Gluttony
3. Lust
4. Envy
5. Sloth
6. Greed
7. Pride
8. Free Will

Glossary

Seven Deadly Sins is a though provoking look into what, biologically, makes us engage in behaviors deemed sinful (or simply outright destructive). While I was unable to finish this book prior to it being archived, I can say that I enjoyed the writing and thought that it was an intriguing look into some of the extreme cases of "sinful" behavior in human history.
This book won't be for everyone, and as with all pop-science books it should be taken with a grain of salt., but it brings a researched perspective into a field largely dominated by the philosophical and spiritual.

Did Not Finish @50%

I was really interested in this because as someone who grew up in a strict Evangelical church, sin was sin and while emphasis was put on what the church deemed "worse" sins [murder, adultery, pre-marital sex], they never really seemed to focus on the seven deadly ones; I am not even sure when I first heard/learned about them, but I hoped, with this reading, that I would learn more about them and what they mean within the faith community.

Yeah, no.

Unfortunately, this didn't really work for me; it wasn't what I was even remotely expecting, it was boring [almost to tedium], it was more about science/psychological/biological view than religious ones [and they never really connected to the religious side of the the "sins"], and for much of the 50% that I DID read, it was W A Y above my pay-grade, and even though learned some interesting facts, it wasn't enough to keep me engaged [and at times I struggled to stay awake] enough to finish. As this was a book I was truly looking forward to, I am pretty disappointed [and truly regret that I had to use an Audible credit for the audiobook].

I was invited to read/review this by the publisher [St. Martin's Press] and I thank them, the author, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book deeply resonated with me as someone who loves learning the science of being a human and who is working through religious trauma from strict dogmatic thinking.

As someone who married into a religious family from a very pro-science, non-religious family I as immediately drawn to the concept of exploring the background of the Seven Deadly Sins from a biological/neurological viewpoint. I have always found it interesting that the acceptance of any "sin" within the community is usually held to a different standard than those outside of the religious community - as in one has control and is actively sinning and the other does not because "we all sin". I have always firmly held the belief that most of the sins that are demonized in Abrahamic religions are all based in neuroscience and psychology and love the fact that there is finally a book out there addressing those very points I have been making to family for the past two decades.

Broken up into chapters highlighting each of the classic seven sins, the author focuses both on psychological case studies to show real world examples of what some would define as "sloth", "lust", "gluttony", etc and the biological or neurological basis behind those diagnoses. For some it is well documented cases of genetic mutations that cause someone to overeat - when the brain and body never feel "full". Other times, it proves that many of the conditions are in fact psychological illnesses or triggered by medications or environmental trauma.

Exceptionally well written and because of the case studies, it helps explain and break up the scientific jargon so the reading is smooth for your average to above average reader. Each of the "sins" is looked at from an unbiased nature and does not preach good or bad regarding any of the cases, but merely lays out the facts.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in neuroscience or anyone who leans more towards sciences with a religious background.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dr. Guy Leschziner, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting premise, but this was a tedious book to read. I feel that the author was shoehorning interesting medical cases into a religious/philosophical grid and it didn't quite work. I did not finish reading -- a rare thing for me.

𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙬𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩

Reviews have fallen behind, life has been a challenge. My Australian Cattle dog Grady, as of last Wednesday, is suffering sudden paralysis. There are good signs, and he is under the care of a fantastic vet, but my time has been spent on tending to his needs. With that said, prior to this bad turn, I was away for my daughter’s beautiful wedding, a very joyful occasion. Life has been up and down this year, to the very end. On to the review.

Seven Deadly Sins takes the reader through wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, sloth, greed and pride looking to challenge our preconceived assumptions about sinners. The book begins with the perfect quote from Immanuel Kant in the introduction; “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” How do we judge wrongdoing if it arises from a place of dysfunction or illness within the brain? The author’s family history is filled with violence, horrors beyond comprehension and man’s worst inhumanity to man from concentration camps and extermination on his paternal side and centuries of hatred in Baghdad on his maternal end. Not excusing the horrors, Dr. Guy Leschziner longs to understand “the biology of being human”, learning much from his own clients during years in his clinical practice. Rather than weighing people down with damnation, he thinks of traits not as failings nor inherent evil, but results of disease, injury, a time when the body malfunctions. How do our genes play a role in the decisions we make, or don’t make, too tired or lazy to bother? Is it always a moral issue? Shouldn’t we take biology into account? How much free will does a person have? One particular patient with seizures is left confused and aggressive after he has episodes, even committing violence leading to arrests. Others can suffer psychosis. How does one make a choice “morally” when the brain is disrupting their life? Is what they do a sin? Where does anger come from? Isn’t anger also necessary at times?

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Gluttons can have rare genetic disorders, but it can possibly be a social issue too, environmental. Through his patient Alex, Guy sheds light on a diagnosis that makes one question the shame of gluttony, when it truly is out of a person’s control. The relationship between eating and dopamine is something we all experience and can attest to. Why do so many of us face failure in losing weight, struggle monitoring what we put in our mouth? Are we just shameless, fallen or is something bigger, our evolution to blame?

Lust and the uninhibited, even sexual behavior can arise from neurological damage and disease. Urges, why do some people have them and become obsessed? How do we understand such compulsions? Are casual sexual encounters evolutionary, a search for better genes? Could this explain infidelity, something driving us beyond ourselves, something biological? The frontal lobes, as evidenced from studies in patient injuries, seems to be a place where restraint exists. If that reins our desires in, what happens to those who have been damaged there either through injury or disease, people who are hypersexual, sometimes to a criminal degree.

Each sin is shed in a new light through patient accounts, one that hit me was sloth. I think about how illness affects the body’s energy levels, where accomplishing the simplest task can feel like climbing a mountain. How depression exhausts body and mind, I wouldn’t label that a choice, a sin. People can only push through so much. I really enjoy this provocative book, not because I think every “sin” or failure is excusable by saying it’s our genes presiding over us and that we have no free will, but because there are situations that alter our rational mind. There are diseases and injuries that rob us of our free will. I have known people who shame others who are ill as being lazy, usually it’s someone who has an incredible immune system, who berates them with the ‘mind over matter’ mantra. If only it were that easy. Is sickness a character flaw, hardly! Environment plays a role, after covid people learned first hand how lack or support, interaction with others, fresh air can adversely effect one’s mind, sanity. I don’t think we readers will have all the answers in this book, but it certainly challenges our assumptions about good vs evil, life isn’t that clear-cut. In fact, sometimes the drugs that are meant to treat us can cause an array of sinful behaviors, or side effects. Not to say there aren’t bad people who intentionally commit horrific acts, but certainly there can be an explanation sometimes from a neuroscientific basis as to what drives them to do it.

A clever read.

Publication Date: December 3, 2024 Available Now

St. Martin’s Press

I am a sucker for in-depth, data-filled books on health and science topics, so Dr. Guy Leschziner's "Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human" (St. Martin's Press, 2024) called to me immediately. 

A consulting neurologist who specializes in sleep disorders and epilepsy, who has also presented three series on BBC World and BBC Radio, the strengths of "Seven Deadly Sins" lie in Leschziner's medical narrative.  For example, in the gluttony chapter, he shares a case study of twenty-eight-year-old Alex, who lives with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), a genetic condition that includes no appetite "off switch." The extraordinary lengths her parents, Kate and John, go to provide her health and safety are admirable, as is Alex's understanding of her condition and its impact on her life.

Similar case studies are peppered throughout each chapter to explain each "sin" (or lack thereof) and how doctors' interpretations, even a few decades ago, have changed markedly based on further studies.  Even Leschziner admits to feeling shame regarding misplaced assumptions about obese patients while he was a junior doctor.

I do not think the "sins" theme carried well throughout, primarily due to a waffling stance on religion and free will, though I appreciated his intriguing, astute health analyses.

Thank you to Guy Leschziner, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the eARC.

I read the book and listened to the audio book. Both were very good.

I enjoyed how the author organized the information. We took a look at each of the "Deadly Sins" and dove into the biological and psychological reasons humans partake in these behaviors. The book highlights the science behind the behavior and highlights that avoiding these "sins" may be more difficult for some than others. Explaining the chemical imbalances in the brain that may cause someone to feel more tired leads to sloth or how a person who has been exposed to violence is more likely to become violent helps create understanding. Though the course of the book the reader can see each of the "sins" from a cultural norm perspective then digs into the "why" behind it. Fascinating read when learning about the causes for human behavior.

Only downside was you have to have a basic knowledge of biology and psychology to follow the authors explanations.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

I'd like to start this review off by stating that I do not work in the medical field in any capacity and I am reading this book out of an interest to the subject.


That being said, I loved this book. The way the author explains himself is easy to follow along and yet it does not talk down to you. The way he explains different examples of what can cause a human to suffer a metal illness related to a sin is fascinating and once again not overly complicate to comprehend . Mind you my family is a Cobb salad of mental disorders so I have some familiarity to the subject

This book was not what I was expecting at all, in a good way. I expected a purely religious approach to the sins, but it was more than that. I was surprised at how informative and easy to understand Dr. Guy's thoughts and explanations are. Thought-provoking and very unique. Overall, a good book.


Thank you, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dr. Guy Leschziner’s Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human offers a compelling premise: reframing humanity's most infamous moral failings—gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, envy, lust, and anger—as evolutionary imperatives rather than purely ethical lapses. The book challenges long-held notions of sin by exploring their neuroscientific and genetic underpinnings, and it occasionally succeeds in making the reader question whether these so-called vices might be more integral to our survival than we realize.

Leschziner’s background as a neurologist shines through in his ability to weave fascinating case studies into the narrative. His accounts of patients whose medical or psychological conditions manifest in behaviors traditionally labeled as sinful are both thought-provoking and empathetic. The scientific explanations behind these behaviors are delivered with clarity, offering lay readers accessible insights into the workings of the human brain.

However, the book occasionally feels uneven. While the individual explorations of each sin are intriguing, the chapters can sometimes read like separate essays loosely connected by the overarching theme. The narrative flow is interrupted by moments of dense scientific jargon or digressions that detract from the main argument. Additionally, while Leschziner raises compelling questions, he tends to leave them unanswered, resulting in a book that feels more provocative than conclusive.

One of the book’s strengths lies in its ability to challenge societal norms and highlight the complexity of human behavior. However, its tendency to overemphasize biology as the sole lens for understanding sin leaves little room for cultural, philosophical, or theological perspectives, which could have enriched the discussion.

Overall, Seven Deadly Sins is a fascinating read for those interested in neuroscience and psychology, but it may leave readers looking for a more cohesive and interdisciplinary exploration feeling unsatisfied. While it raises important questions about the nature of morality and human behavior, it stops short of delivering the deeper synthesis that the subject seems to demand.

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but it was intriguing and informative. The author explains physiology, pathology, evolution, and disease influences on exhibiting the behaviors defined as the seven deadly sins. I learned quite a bit about how one's behavior can be influenced by a wide range of things beyond nature vs. nurture. Certainly the influences of legal and illegal drugs affect behavior in a myriad of ways. And, of course he never denies that humans have free will and have some control over some behaviors, but obvioiusly not all aspects. This text adds quite a bit of complexity to explanations of human behavior for those who are not professionals in evaluating the behavior of others. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to explore the causes of human behavior beyond the parameters that most layman use. My sincere thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for the ARC of this text.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc.

This is an interesting idea of using the (religious) "seven deadly sins" to illuminate actions that have propelled the human species and played a major role in our evolutionary survival over the millennia. I had enjoyed a previous book of Dr. Leschziner's, "The Man Who Tasted Words," so I started this book with high hopes. Each chapter focuses on a "sin," which I began to mentally change to "behavior," which has historically been condemned by religion and society as harmful. But are they really? Have these behaviors actually helped hominids survive and thrive?    

Fair warning that I found the opening chapter on wrath/anger to be a chore to read and resorted to checking other reviews to decide whether or not to continue. Thankfully things improved - to a degree - in subsequent chapters. Yet are some similar drawbacks that continue through the book. Dr. Leschziner uses examples of some of his actual patients to illustrate the "sins." Then he begins to examine possible things that could cause the actions his patients exhibit: brain diseases, brain injuries, drugs, etc. I admire the detail but even with a medical background I found many of these discussions to be close to or over my head (no pun intended) and a bit repetitive. 

Unfortunately what I really came for, how these actions/thoughts might have been to our evolutionary advantage, tended to get lost in the weeds. Given that our brains are still somewhat of a mystery (though advancing medical discoveries are helping reveal new knowledge about it), there is some speculation here. The various professionals who specialize in the brain can and do argue about cause and effect. I enjoyed the case studies and thoughts on why these "sins" might have been useful to us but I have my doubts about how accessible much of the book will be to many readers. C

On August 1st, 1966, Charles Whitman, after killing his mother and wife, walked up to the observation deck of the clock tower at the University of Texas-Austin and randomly started shooting at bystanders. He was an expert marksman, so he hardly missed a target. In the span of ninety-six minutes, he killed fifteen and injured thirty-one (one victim died in 2001 from inflicted wounds). At first, Whitman was deemed a monster, the epitome of pure evil. Although a regular occurrence in the contemporary zeitgeist, mass murder was uncommon prior to the 1990s, thus Whitman was an anomaly, even if political assassinations were more prevalent at the time. After an autopsy was done, however, it was revealed Whitman, who said in his suicide note he felt something was wrong with his brain, had a cancerous tumor pressing on his amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates fear, anxiety, and aggression. So, would Whitman, a church-going Roman Catholic, have become a mass murderer if he did not have a brain tumor? Much of Guy Leschziner’s book Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human speaks to this conundrum. How much does biology play into sinful transgressions?

This review will be coming out in the Today's American Catholic in the coming days...so, be on the lookout!

DOUG

The idea for the book was itself thought-provoking, but it was misframed and it didn't really prove the arguments it was making and misunderstood the topic at hand.

This book wasn’t what I expected. It got too much into the weeds of disorders rather than looking at the everyday value of “sins” in normal life. The tone was pretty dark.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

3.5 ⭐

Seven Deadly Sin: The Biology of Being Human presents medical cases where physical or psychological injuries/ disorders gives rise to baser actions which fall into the seven Deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, envy, lust, and anger.
Each chapter is dedicated to one of the seven sins and includes several case studies of persons who embody that sin following a change in their psyche.

It was an incredibly insightful read to how amazing and fragile our brains are. I'm not sure I was able to fully appreciate it, but as a causal reader I can say I really enjoyed it.
If human behaviour and psychology is your jam this is worth picking up, and if it's not your jam it still makes for an interesting read.

Thank you to Dr. Guy Leschziner, St.Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Disclaimer: I got this advance copy for free but I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

An interesting and accessible examination of the intersection of biology and let's face it. judgement of others. The seven deadly sins have always carried stigma but Leschziner makes a good argument, using real cases that the behavior we deride can be caused by biology. He does delve into philosophy but the best parts are those where the issues are shown in patients. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good thought provoking read.