Book Review:

"Fixing my Gaze:
A Scientist’s Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions"
By Susan R. Barry

Neuroplasticity demonstrated in "Fixing My Gaze"

Susan Barry is a professor of neurobiology, who in her late 40s, with the help of a behavioral optometrist, learned to team her eyes and see in three dimensions for the first time in her life.

If you seek a really good read with in depth explanations of challenges faced by individuals who do not have binocular vision and what can be done to overcome these challenges, then by all means read this book.

As a HANDLE practitioner with many years of involvement with natural eye care, I was not surprised by Susan Barry’s success, but I delighted in it nevertheless. I didn’t need another proof of the plasticity of the adult brain (but I actually love these stories). Some of the things I did learn from this book, besides the particulars relevant to binocularity, are why adults require different exercise programs than those designed for children, what a critical period really means, and how a person who doesn’t use eyesight uses his or her other senses differently.

If you’re not yet convinced that this is a must-read book, here’s a quote to whet your appetite: “My son and daughter, when young, could grasp the details and the big picture at the same time. I didn’t know how to do this until midlife, when I learned to see simultaneously with two eyes.”

Thank you Susan Barry!

Dror Schneider is a HANDLE practitioner and instructor in San Francisco.