"Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain" focuses on the staging of Self and Other as phantom characters inside the brain (in the "mind's eye," as Hamlet says). It explores the brain's anatomical evolution from animal drives to human consciousness to divine aspirations, through distinctive cultural expressions in stage and screen technologies. Even-numbered chapters look at specific dramas with ghost characters from the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to Shakespeare, Japanese Noh, modern drama, and recent films. Odd-numbered chapters examine various intersections of psychoanalytic and neuroscientific theories to explore the brain's inner theatre, regarding ghosts and gods performed onstage and onscreen, as extensions of and connections between different brains in particular cultures.

Pizzato focuses on the staging of Self and Other as phantom characters inside the brain (in the 'mind's eye', as Hamlet says). He explores the brain's anatomical evolution from animal drives to human consciousness to divine aspirations, through distinctive cultural expressions in stage and screen technologies.