BOOK REVIEW
Exploring frontiers of the mind-brain relationship
Homero Vallada
Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry University of Sao Paulo Medical School (FMUSP), Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
Address correspondence to Address correspondence to: Homero Vallada Instituto de Psiquiatria, Hospital das Clínicas, FMUSP, Departamento de Psiquiatria, 1º andar Rua Dr. Ovídio Pires de Campos, 785 05403-010 - São Paulo, SP, Brasil E-mail: hvallada@usp.br
Editors: Alexander Moreira-Almeida & Franklin Santana Santos
Springer: New York, 2012
The investigation and understanding of consciousness (self-awareness) is a fascinating subject that has always attracted the interest of different professionals and laymen. No less important is the idea of the continuity of consciousness beyond the functioning of the brain/body, which has had great impact on the history of humanity.
Various religious, philosophical and scientific theories and interpretations have emerged over the centuries to understand the formation and continuity of consciousness. More recently, starting from the nineteenth century, a new ideology known generally as "scientific materialism" has established itself as the main line of thought. Its premise is that everything in nature, including the origin of thought, is derived from the material world and is the product of an interaction between atoms and molecules. Although this approach is direct, objective and understandable, it has not been able to explain some phenomena related to the human mind. The consciousness itself remains a great enigma and mystery.
In order to present an academic and stimulating broad discussion on this subject, the psychiatrist Alexander Moreira-Almeida, a leading scientist in health and spirituality in Brazil, and the geriatrician Franklin Santana Santos, a Brazilian national reference in palliative care management and thanatology, invited leading thinkers and scientists to an international symposium. The main ideas and arguments presented during this symposium were edited in a book "Exploring frontiers of mind-brain relationship", published by Springer in 2012.
The book is divided into 12 chapters (16 authors) and organized in four parts. The first part deals with the philosophical and historical aspects, followed by explanations of physics, which includes concepts of quantum physics. Then the functional neuro-imaging studies in mystical and meditative states are discussed. The last section presents reports of various human experiences as promising areas of research in understanding the mind-brain relationship.
The chapters are well written, clear and concise, with accessible language for the general public. Although they can be read individually, the different chapters have been integrated to allow the reader to follow the argumentation, leading them to the main point of the book which is a critique of the use of a purely reductionist and materialistic view to understand certain experiences of the human mind. The different authors, in their own lines of thought, attempt to highlight the weaknesses and inappropriateness of this approach.
The book also comments on the issue of spirituality/religiosity in people's lives. There are already a large number of scientific studies showing that the more religious/spiritual people are, less ill they become or faster they will recover from illness compared with the general population. However, studies to understand specifically what is meant by mystical experiences, religious, spiritual or other anomalous experiences or altered states of consciousness are still very limited and small in number.
By way of illustration, some types of experiments are mentioned, found recorded in different cultures and different periods of humanity. Phenomena that occur at different times of human life, such as reports of children describing their alleged memories with details of past lives, children or adults who claim to communicate with dead people (often referred to as medium), adults in mystical or meditative states with anomalous perceptual experiences (out of body experience, clairvoyance, among others), reports of people who had cardiac arrest or severe brain ischemia (near death experiences) or experiences of those who are dying (experiences of end of life).
While the observation of these different phenomena that occur over the life of a significant portion of the population has been reported throughout the centuries, the difference today is that these phenomena are better described and recorded. However, these human experiences continue to be neglected from a scientific point of view.
I congratulate the editors and authors for this work and recommend this book not only to those interested in this topic, but also to those who want to have a broader view on a variety of human experiences and their implications for clinical practice. A Portuguese translation would also be very welcome to reach an even wider audience in Brazil ... and overseas.
Received: 7/2/2013
Accepted: 8/2/2013
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Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
07 May 2013 -
Date of issue
2013
