Charles Fair

Charles Maitland Fair (September 18, 1916 – July 28, 2014) was an American neuroscience researcher and writer.

Early life and education Fair was born in New York City. His mother was the stage actress Gertrude Bryan. He attended the Buckley School, Fay School, and St. Paul's. Fair attended Yale University but was asked to leave before graduating.

Career Fair began to study the nervous system in the late 1950s out of his conviction that psychiatric theories of the self had failed. and worked as a scientist for MIT's Neuroscience Research Program and Massachusetts General Hospital. Fair published several technical papers and contributed to the academic journals Science and Nature.

Writing Fair wrote poetry, literary commentary, and screenplays. Fair's The New Nonsense critically examined pseudoscience and paranormal topics such as mind control, ESP, UFOs, and Velikovsky's cataclysm theory.

Personal life Fair had a diverse range of occupations and interests. He worked as a jazz pianist, banana importer, computer company executive, editor, poet, writer, neuroscientist, and historian. He enjoyed sailing and played the vibraphone. "By doing a great many things and failing at half of them I found out who I really am, and something about what the world is really like," said Fair of his own life.

Publications The Physical Foundations of the Psyche (1963) The Dying Self (1969) From the Jaws of Victory (1971) The New Nonsense: The End of the Rational Consensus (1974) Memory & Central Nervous Organization (1988) Cortical Memory Functions (1992)