Tom Jonard's Psycho-Neural Identity Page
Psycho-Neural
Identity is the term that identifies the currently most accepted
theory
of the mind -- that the brain is the organ of the mind and the mind is
a part of the brain. The evidence for this theory is straight
forward:
- Damage to specific parts of the brain (due to trauma or stroke) results in the loss of specific mental functions in a replicable way.
- Stimulating specific parts of the brain results in specific mental and motor responses in a replicable way.
- Non-invasive monitoring of brain function shows that specific mental functions result in specific brain activity in a replicable way.
- Specific drugs have been shown to be effective in modifying specific mental functions in a replicable way.
When
we say that the above observations are replicable we mean that the same
effect is seen in all persons under the same conditions.
Furthermore
since the functions mapped in this way are distributed throughout the
organ
of the brain so must be the mind. Philosopher's starting with
Descartes
speculated that the mind might interface with or be located in a
specific
substructure of the brain. Clearly they were wrong. They
were
led to think this because the mind is so much different from the brain
that it hardly seems one could be the other. That the numinous
realm
of thinking and feeling can be reduced to the chemical reactions of the
organic brain is a most astounding idea. (In his 1994
book of the same name Francis Crick, co-explicator of DNA, calls
this
the Astonishing Hypothesis.)
Adding
to our confusion is the common perception that we are somewhere in our
heads. This perception is probably due to the fact that four of
our
five sense organs and our mouths are located there. Most
importantly
we look out of our heads to see. But we know from neurological
evidence
that there are other sensations of time and space that are subtle and
therefore
little noticed that when damaged reduce in important ways our sense of
self. We are not just heads on top of bodies any more than we are
minds moving around our environment inside of bodily mechanisms.
The
mind and the body are a whole package of which one cannot exist without
the other. This insight leads us to abandon all the ways in which
we have sought to detach our minds and bodies. Treatment of
illness
cannot simply be a process of mechanical repair of the body ignoring
the
uncertainty, fear and expectation that holds the mind. Neither
can
we any longer ignore that the mind can create real physical illness
where
no pathogen or trauma occurs. But most importantly the mythology
that we are somehow either one or the other -- either mind or body --
can
no longer be held. Neither materialism or its opposite (for which
there are many candidates) does justice to the whole that we are.
