I'm Kurt Othmer here from EEG Info, sitting with my dad Siegfried Othmer
I want to interview Siegfried about the book that he wrote
I actually remember you starting this book
back when Brian first passed away when I was in high school
and you spent a summer writing in Montana
and I actually went and got to spend a little bit of time while you were there writing
I got to hang out a little bit goof around in Montana while I was still a kid
I remember you working away on that book
and now- what, 20 years later
this book came to fruition, and one thing I'm really excited about is we
actually got to turn it into an audiobook
and the audio book features
your voice and my voice, I get to play Brian, and a bunch of people here from the
office got to play some of the police officers and characters in the story
and Sue's voice is in it, my mom's voice, and a few other people, some guest actors in
the audiobook, it was a really wonderful experience
tell me a little bit about how it was, how that impacted you to write this book
and to finally finish it
well, interesting, the fact is that most of the book was in fact written many years ago
and now the story has just continued
and whereas we are obviously steeped into this because it's our family story
the fact is it's a much bigger story than that
it is, in fact, the story of what's coming down with regard to mental health
we're at the threshold of a major revolution in our understanding of the
underpinnings of mental health problems
and in particular finding our way to a solution
and this is all new and we had our chance at discovering this
some 30 years ago when our son first had difficulties with behavior
that really did not respond to any of the ordinary interventions
we eventually found our way to neurofeedback and that turned out to turn his life around
and since then we realized what was happening to him was so compelling
that it got us, my wife and me, to change careers in order to commit ourselves
to bringing this technique to greater awareness in the world
greater visibility and greater penetration into the mental health community
personally of course this was very impactful for us because ultimately Brian did succumb to
his epilepsy some years later
but he had six years
six good years of life with neurofeedback
and in this book we get an insight of how an adolescent deals with
these profound problems of a dysfunctional brain
it's just a rare gift to have that insight, which he gave us through a-
his diary, which of course we knew nothing about until he died
and then he had left it to us
so this is a powerful story and I just add some color commentary
my view of what I think is going on
and then provide the context of what has happened before or since
with the neurofeedback technique
it's now been 25 years since Brian passed away
and over that time, a lot has happened in this field
it's spreading worldwide
it is being implemented in many different ways
and we're still very much in the midst of the developmental thrust
of this technique
Thank you, really appreciate that
yeah, I mean I remember growing up with Brian
seven years older than me and a complete
workout fanatic and out of control with his military gear and his knives
and his complete out of control rages
and yeah, it was it was exciting, I think I-
I think I learned a lot about people I think I learned a lot how to deal with
humans and and humanity by being super hyper vigilant
I meet a lot of nurses who all point to someone in their past who has kept them
a little more aware of the people around them
and there's no question that growing up with somebody like that has its effects
and it it had effects for all of us
you two had to actually raise him I just had to stay safe
So when we now look at nurses we realize they act a little differently
by virtue of that experience and so, of course, experience shapes the brain
and now we realize that technique is available to us
more generally to go in and shape the- allow the brain to shape itself
to better- to improve behavior and this is true across the board
it's interesting, your own history, you saw this in a very challenging way
being seven years younger
and you have to learn the the survival skills-
-I had to learn to stay close to grownups
that's what I had to learn
right, they kept you safe
-yeah -but of course the grown-ups weren't always around so there's-
-just very small windows you know
the window between the school bus and the house
those very small windows of extreme danger
The problem of course was that Brian, in those early years did not know how to
relate well to other people and so the world was mysterious to him
and the world paid a price, we paid a price
Kurt paid a price and he had to develop his own set of defenses
survival skills and, well, clearly he managed
so anyway here we are
and it's a very different world it's just- you know we're sorry that
Brian wasn't here to appreciate what he unleashed
but through his life we were, in fact, very well instructed about the
path we needed to take in order to bring this technique to broader awareness and
at utilization within the world.
Tell me a little more about Brian's Legacy
tell me more about the book
Well, what I wrote 20 years ago was
of course mainly Brian's upbringing and the immediacy of what we went through during
his years of growing up and our eventual discovery of neurofeedback
discovery in the sense that we heard about it, we didn't discover the technique
but as it happens, it was discovered right in our neighborhood here in Los Angeles
only a few miles from where we lived
so that was fortuitous and was
not yet well known, it was still being researched here by a UCLA psychologist and
the world really didn't know about it and we were able to take advantage at
that early date and then begin to get involved
and then in the later years, what I added to the book later, was of course some reflections on the
developments since that time, since those early days
which have been numerous and profound
it's allowed us to understand the brain function from the users' perspective
we have here a very powerful tool of allowing the brain to
engage with itself, improve its own skills of self-regulation and that turns out
to be what the world really needs, not only with respect to mental health
but with respect to brain function generally
the plain fact is that none of us can know what I brain is capable of until it is trained
-love that -now when you when you think about that it seems obviously true
you could ask me, how's your golf game and I'll say, well actually I don't
play golf, so I wouldn't have anything meaningful to say
so that's a learned skill
but the fact is, it's true
when you learned how to play golf, it's really the brain that gets trained
so it's a specific way for training the brain.
I was just listen to this TED talk- it was NPR's take on TED talks and they're
doing this thing about champions
they were talking about these runners and the world's fastest runners
and they played a little beep sound to indicate how short the today's fastest runner is
from the fastest runners in the past and it just-
it's that different- the distance of the fastest runner today
Usain Bolt and the previous record holder, is that different
and so that sort of shows that that sort of these physiological limits and
how close can you get to those physiological limits, you don't know until you train
train either physiologically or train mentally and get your brain
better on track- but what I love about this is that it's you
you're exposing, you're seeing your own brain activity and you're training yourself
it's not something being done to you
Yeah, and in Brian's case it was also an
act of empowerment for him, as soon as he realized this door was open to him that
he could train his own brain to his own betterment that whole world opened
up until that moment
his world was one of needing to take his medications, needing to follow rules
needing to take care of himself with sleep and everything else
it was a command performance and he yielded to that because he knew he
had to, but with the biofeedback, the neurofeedback, all of a sudden this door
open, he says, oh here's something I can do for myself
Well I really thank you for sharing this book with the world and
I invite you all into the story of my family
and into our story of how my parents got involved in this and how I became
involved in this and really it's a beautiful look at this young man's
experience finding his way in the world and especially for a lot of parents with
children on the spectrum who don't know what's going on in that brain
what is his perspective- he left this journal that really gives you an amazing
insight into his life and his experience and then Siegfried writes around that
so I want to thank you very much Dr. Siegfried, my dad, for joining me
here and sharing about this book
one final plug on this audiobook because I
think it's the right way to listen to it
it is an amazing experience and the audiobook gives you a little insight
that you don't get from the print book having that emotional experience
that's really wonderful to listen to.
Thank you very much