The history of civilization is a history of what humans do with their hands. Inventing tools, writing records, operating machinery, learning to type, to text, to swipe- mankind's progress to modern society has been a steady evolution of how we use our hands. Why do we play with our fingers when nervous? What causes us to doodle while concentrating? Why are the motions of cooking soothing and the motions of online gaming addictive? And what happens when we are prevented from using our hands altogether? Drawing examples from popular culture, art history, technology and clinical research, Darian Leader explores how the things we do with our hands reflect our psychological state - and can also change that state profoundly.

Author Biography

Darian Leader is a British psychoanalyst and the author of Introducing Lacan, Why do Women Write More Letters Than They Post?, Promises Lovers Make When It Gets Late, Freud's Footnotes, Stealing the Mona Lisa, Why do People Get Ill, co-written with David Corfield, The New Black, What Is Madness and Strictly Bipolar. He practises psychoanalysis in London, and he is a member of the College of Psychoanalysts and a founding member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research.