hi all
we are more than our physical bodies
janet
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Book Review
BMJ 2001;322:935 ( 14 April )
The Private Life of the Brain
Susan A Greenfield
Penguin, £18.99, pp 258
ISBN 0 713 99192 5
The nature and seat of consciousness[---]the faculty that, above all,
distinguishes humans from other animals[---]is at the forefront of brain
research, attracting scientists of every persuasion, from geneticists to
psychologists. Susan Greenfield, the internationally renowned director of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain, is rightly acclaimed for the many
years she has spent successfully chipping away at the coal-face of brain
research.
One of her most valuable achievements has been to include the
wider public in her lucid explanations of neuronal networking while never
ignoring her more technically advanced readers. . .
The book has the touch of a dedicated specialist steeped in up to the
minute technical details, but is always humble ("I suggest," "I have tried
to show," "I'll stick my neck out and say") and never forgets the wider
humanitarian view.
Like Antonio Damasio, author of the recent The Feeling of What Happens,
Greenfield believes that human consciousness emerged out of the development
of emotion, in Anthony Clare's words, through the formation of the
autobiographical self, identity, and personhood.
Throughout the book, she nods towards the history of ideas in brain
studies, referring to Euripides,
Freud, and MacLean.
However, she is largely concerned with the brain's geography, structure
("weighing only some three pounds with the consistency of a soft boiled
egg"), and function.
She discusses emotion, memory, will, and the many mental variations caused
by depression, drugs, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease.
She concludes categorically that, for her, whether discussing fear or
pleasure, she finds it impossible to distinguish the mind - the
personalisation of the brain - from the concept of self.
She answers the many questions posed in her text with this stirring
conclusion: "Consciousness will blossom into self-consciousness only when
enough associations are in place . . . to provide a common referent to
myriad experiences . . .
"The idea is that the young child is swamped with emotions that are
gradually diluted by a growing retaliatory sense of Self and, most
important, with a concomitant sense of inner control.
"I think this increasingly interactive and ever-changing dialogue between
Self and outside world is important because it highlights the basic issues
of how we see ourselves and, indeed, how we choose to live our lives."
reviwed by
Barbara Godlee, social anthropologist.
Cambridge
BMJ 2001
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7291/935/a
janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky
PD: 54/41/37 CD: 54/44/43 TEL: 613 256 8340 EMAIL: [log in to unmask]
"a new voice" home page: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ .
"new voice news" latest posts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nvnNET/ .
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