The mind of the mathematician

It goes without saying that mathematicians have minds — my two universityeducated daughters may disagree with that, but of course we know better. So why write a book about the mind of mathematicians? Well the first point to note is that one of the authors, Ioan James, is a mathematician — naturally. He may be known to some as he is the editor of the Topology journal. The second author, Michael Fitzgerald, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and this fact gives away the emphasis of the book. Prior to this book the only comment I had read about a mathematician from a psychoanalytic point of view was from the famous psychoanalyst Eric Idle, who once wrote ‘And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am’. So I was interested to read this book given my singular lack of information about delving into the heart of the mathematician — their mind — and hence their personality.