Olivia Cole

Seeking forgiveness for gluttony, sloth and other deadly sins

The neurologist Guy Leschziner explores the medical conditions that might underlie extremes of human behaviour in a fascinating study that combines biology and psychology

A sufferer from Huntington’s disease (right) with a volunteer at a specialty care community in Robinson, Minnesota, USA. The disease, with its debilitating apathy, is discussed by Guy Leschziner in a chapter on ‘sloth’. [©Leila Navidi/Minneapolis Star Tribune/Alamy] 
issue 30 November 2024
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  • Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human

    Guy Leschziner

    William Collins, pp. 384, £22

Professor Guy Leschziner writes that he was raised in a secular household that was ‘entirely irreligious’ yet with ‘a strong sense of morality, of right and wrong’. As an eminent neurologist and a rational atheist, it’s striking that his study of the extremes of human behaviour should reach for such Biblical terms.

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