The Human Connectome

This book constitutes the end result of 20 years-long effort that goes beyond a Psychiatrist’s standard clinical training and education, even that of a Psychiatrist that follows an academic career. Trying to explain how the human mind works is hard and the heterogeneity of the audience make the attempt even more difficult. There is a conceptual difference between the words ‘brain’ and ‘mind’and this makes the effort even more difficult since the present book tries to preserve the strict scientific approach concerning all the topics discussed.

The work elaborates and tries to answer questions frequently phrased by audiences in teaching classes and in conferences and does not avoid any question. In order to achieve this goal, it is structured in chapters all the way from the molecule and the cell to consciousness and free will. 

The book targets mainly the mental health care professionals as an audience, and to a lesser extend the other health professionals. It is written according to the author’s view concerning the training and educational needs of Psychiatrists and Psychologists and to a lesser degree of Neurologists and Neuroscientists in general.

Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA University Hospital, in Thessaloniki, Greece

He is currently, zonal 8 representative (South Europe) in the Board of the World Psychiatric Association, National Representative for Mental Health in the World Health Organization and Vice-President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. He chairs the Mental Health Section of the Institute of Scientific Research of the Greek Medical Association. For the years 2020-1 he served as director of Cochrane Greece

Dr. Fountoulakis’ areas of clinical and research interest are reflected in the topics that he teaches: general psychiatry, biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, mood disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders. He has coauthored more than 400 papers and more than 250 of them are published in international journals such as the LANCET, BMJ, Am J Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Affective Disorders, Schizophrenia Research, Psychiatry Research, Bipolar Disorders, and the Annals of General Psychiatry among others, approximately 15,000 citations and h=60 (Publish or Perish).

During the years 2016-8 he was ranked by expertscape.com within the top 25 world experts concerning Bipolar disorder (0.068%) and among the top 50 concerning suicidality (0.097%).  In 2021 he was placed among the 0.37% for year and 0.57% for the whole career of all scientists of all disciplines by the Stanford ranking.

He has authored or co-authored a number of chapters in books including the Mood disorders chapter for the Wiki project of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). He has authored the book ‘Bipolar disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide to Manic Depression’ (Springer 2015), co-edited the WPA book ‘Advances in Psychiatry vol 3’ (Springer 2018) and the book ‘Psychobiology of behavior’ (Springer 2019) and wrote the ‘Philosophical and historical roots and the current face of Psychiatry’ is in print (Springer 2022)

Dr. Fountoulakis served for 20 years as Editor of Annals of General Psychiatry (IF=2.5). Currently he serves as field editor of CNS Spectrums (IF=3.9). In the past he also served as Section Editor of Current Opinion in Psychiatry as well as guest editor in other international journals.

He has received a number of national and international research awards, including the 2012 Kraepelin-Alzheimer medal of the University of Munich and the 2015 Excellence in Education Award of the WFSBP. Since 2014 he is honorary member of the WPA.