Mind Body

2 Pages 375 Words

Descartes "substantialized" consciousness as unextended reality, something that can exist in the body but does not occupy space. Mind was real, yet entirely separate from matter and therefore from brain. Interactionism is his form of dualism. One extended and the other unextended, they nevertheless interact, and this interaction occurs at a specific site, the pineal gland. The theory cannot be disproved so long as there are mental phenomena whose neural correlates remain unknown. That there are mental phenomena cannot be doubted for reasons which are logically compulsive and were adopted (though not invented) by Descartes; they cannot be doubted because the very act of doubting them establishes their reality. The reality of conscious existence is confirmed each time it is denied


(Critics of his ideas objected that if soul and body were substances of entirely different natures, interaction between them was in fact impossible. This Descartes protested against, but he never satisfied his critics. Nor did occasionalism fare any better because interaction between mind and brain was now simply reduced to miracle, and miracles are not the domain of experimental science with its prime emphasis upon repeatability and quantification. It seemed the problem was insoluble and needed a new approach)



Mind-body interaction is so fundamental to human existence that it normally goes unnoticed and is taken for granted

The mind is a complex creation consisting of both physical and as yet un-located parts. Emotions have been localised to specific neurotransmitters that affect certain brain areas, however, what causes the release of these chemicals is less well understood. Rather than being merely a collection of cells that adapt and react to our environment, we are capable of independent thought - of acting upon our environment and, ultimately, of stimulating our own thought processes

Many of the therapists who operate in the field of comp...