The character arc of Norman Doidge

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born in Toronto, in a year the public record does not publish. Between then and now sit literary classics and philosophy at the University of Toronto graduating with high distinction, a poetry prize at nineteen and early recognition from a major literary critic, a medical degree at the same university, a move to New York for a psychiatry residency and a degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia, a two year research fellowship in empirical science techniques, a return to Toronto to head a psychotherapy centre and an assessment clinic, thirty years on Columbia research faculty, and two books. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Norman Doidge?

A poetry prize at nineteen, and a book that changed medicine.

He studied literary classics and philosophy at the University of Toronto and graduated with high distinction. At nineteen he won a poetry prize, and the literary critic Northrop Frye, who was not a man who threw praise around, wrote that his work was really remarkable, haunting and memorable. On the available evidence he was going to be a poet.

Instead he took his medical degree at the same university, moved to New York, did a residency in psychiatry and obtained a degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia, and then took a two year research fellowship training in empirical science techniques. That is three trainings: the literary one, the clinical one and the scientific one, and the third was deliberate.

He went home to Toronto and served as Head of the Psychotherapy Centre and the Assessment Clinic at a major psychiatric institute, was faculty in the university's department of psychiatry, and was research faculty at Columbia's psychoanalytic centre in New York for thirty years, which means commuting between two countries for three decades.

What he is known for outside his profession is two books. The Brain that Changes Itself took the research on neuroplasticity, which was then largely locked inside laboratories and journals, and told it as a series of human stories. It is the reason the phrase is in ordinary use. The Brain's Way of Healing followed. The literary training, which looked like a detour for thirty years, turned out to be the whole reason the science travelled.

The moments

Norman Doidge's timeline.

The 1970s

Sep 1971

Classics and philosophy

Milestone. A literary education first, and nothing medical about it.

Jun 1972

A poetry prize at nineteen

Milestone, and it changed everything. Nineteen years old, and one of the great critics called his work haunting.

1 Jun 1976

Poetry, or medicine

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: go to medical school, taken, or be a poet. The writing came back thirty years later and carried neuroplasticity to a general readership.

Sep 1977

He goes to medical school

Milestone, and it changed everything. The poet enrolled in medicine, which nobody saw coming.

The 1980s

Sep 1986

New York, and psychoanalysis

Milestone, and it changed everything. A psychiatry residency and a psychoanalytic degree, in another country.

The 1990s

~1992

A third training

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Literature, then medicine, then how to do science properly.

~1995

Head of the centre

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Running two clinical services, back in the city he grew up in.

~1996

Thirty years of commuting

Everyday, and it changed everything. Two universities, two countries, for three decades.

The 2000s

15 Mar 2007

The Brain that Changes Itself

Milestone, and it changed everything. The book that got brain plasticity out of the journals.

The 2010s

27 Jan 2015

The Brain's Way of Healing

Milestone, and it changed his direction. A second book, about what the first one implies for recovery.

He is still in practice, and the books are still being handed to people after a stroke or a diagnosis. What he set moving is a single idea that got out of the journals and into ordinary hope, carried there by a psychiatrist who had been trained, first of all, to write.

Your turn

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His looked like a poet's for the first twenty years and a doctor's for the next thirty. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

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Norman Doidge: frequently asked questions

What people ask about his line.

What is Norman Doidge's character arc?

A literary classics student who won a poetry prize at nineteen and was praised by a great critic, then took a medical degree, trained in psychiatry and psychoanalysis in New York, and wrote the book that made brain plasticity public.

Was Norman Doidge a poet?

He won the E. J. Pratt Prize for Poetry at nineteen, and the literary critic Northrop Frye wrote that his work was really remarkable, haunting and memorable. He then went to medical school instead.

What is Norman Doidge's The Brain that Changes Itself about?

Neuroplasticity, the capacity of the brain to change itself, told as a series of human stories rather than as research. It took work that was largely locked inside laboratories and journals and put the idea into ordinary use.

What did Norman Doidge study?

Literary classics and philosophy at the University of Toronto, graduating with high distinction, then medicine at the same university, then a psychiatry residency and a degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia, followed by a research fellowship in empirical science techniques.

Where has Norman Doidge worked?

He headed the Psychotherapy Centre and the Assessment Clinic at a Toronto psychiatric institute, was faculty in the University of Toronto's psychiatry department, and was research faculty at Columbia in New York for thirty years.

What books has Norman Doidge written?

The Brain that Changes Itself, which brought neuroplasticity research to a general readership, and The Brain's Way of Healing, which follows what the first book implies about recovery from injury and illness.

Where does this timeline of Norman Doidge's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Norman Doidge isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to him.

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Sources

Norman Doidge, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
University of Toronto and Columbia University records for his degrees and faculty positions.
Northrop Frye's written assessment of his early poetry, as quoted there.
His birth date is not in the public record reached, so this page states none.