When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The hardcover edition of When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir by Paul Kalanithi.

A neurosurgeon is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and turns from doctor to patient. The memoir considers what makes life meaningful in the face of death. Activities often associated with creativity, learning, and leisure can also play a meaningful role in cognitive and emotional well-being.

Reading, writing, listening to music, and playing an instrument do more than provide entertainment or creative expression. Research suggests that these activities can help individuals explore, express, understand, and regulate emotional experiences. Music has been associated with emotion-regulation processes and mood management (Peters et al., 2024; Chong et al., 2024), expressive writing has been linked to emotional processing and reflection (Pennebaker, 2018), and reading has been associated with emotional understanding, empathy, and perspective-taking (Rezende & Shigaeff, 2023; Luperini, 2021). These activities also engage cognitive systems involved in language, attention, and memory (Kunert et al., 2015; Maess et al., 2001; Patel, 2003; Yurgil et al., 2020). Musical and linguistic activities draw on shared neural resources for processing structured information, including syntax (Kunert et al., 2015; Maess et al., 2001; Patel, 2003), while music training has been associated with working-memory processes and executive functioning (Yurgil et al., 2020). Reading, writing, and music may support emotional well-being and cognitive development while strengthening communication, memory, attention, emotional understanding, and self-regulation.

Details

• Author: Paul Kalanithi
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 5.4" x 1" (19.1 x 13.7 x 2.5 cm)
• Published: January 12, 2016
• Foreword: Abraham Verghese
• Epilogue: Lucy Kalanithi