Courageous Minds – The psychology of brave decisions | Peter Vajkoczy | TEDxUniPotsdam

Pivotal decisions often make us feel that we are torn between confidence and hesitation, sometimes even stupidity. How does it feel to go through a decision-making process in critical situations, and how can we leverage courage to decide?

Peter Vajkoczy is a Neurosurgeon, performing daily complex surgeries on the brains of his patients. What sounds like routine affords in fact a balanced and empathic decision- making process ranging from ́better not hurting ́ to ́pushing the boundaries ́, to fight for the individual life. Striking the fine balance between these two extremes, may, thus, become a matter of life and death. In this talk, we will get an insight into the psychology of his decision- making process and understand the chances and risk of brave decisions. Prof. Peter Vajkoczy is Full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery (Charité, Berlin). His clinical special fields of interest in Brain Surgery are Vascular Neurosurgery (Aneurysms, AVMs, Bypass) and Neurooncology (Glioma, Skull Base Surgery, Pituitary Surgery). In Spine Surgery his fields of interest are Degenerative Spine Disease, Spinal Oncology, and Spinal Navigation. His research fields are biology of blood vessels, the pathophysiology underlying brain tumors, the pathogenesis and therapy of spinal metastatic disease, neuroimmunology of the spinal cord, the relevance of the sagittal balance for degenerative spine disease, and image-guided / robotic spine surgery. He has published and co-authored a total of 520 Pubmed-listed papers. He is a member of the German Neurosurgical Society, EANS, WFNS, the Germany Academy of Neurosurgery, the German Spine Society, AO Spine and the European Spine Society. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx