A Contemplation on the Mind-Body Problem

 

Over the summer break, I occupied myself with topics I presumed I would not encounter during my near academic endeavours. Consequently, I joined an online course by Mark Solms about ‘Neuropsychoanalysis’, a term he seminally devised (Solms, 2021).

The course brought up a persistent issue in psychology: the mind-body problem.

Through the epochs, wonderers ponder if our mind is a separate entity from our body or one within. Dualists assume the division between mental events and physical events (Henley, 2019). Monists believe our mind is embedded within the material structures of the body, foremost the brain (Henley, 2019).

This philosophical divide has caused different approaches in psychology. Behaviourists believe only observable behaviour is worth studying; the concealed activities of the mind are neglected. Whereas humanistic and psychoanalytic approaches place a high emphasis on the workings of the mind.

Elucidating the brain’s physical functioning is somewhat concrete. Many neuroscientists believe that through rigorous advances in their field, they will eventually uncover the mind within the structures of neurons, synapses, neurotransmitters and action potentials.

Defining what a mind is and what purpose it has leads us into murkier waters. In his course, Mark Solms described four features of the mind: subjectivity, consciousness, intentionality, and agency (Solms, 2021). According to him, we are subjective beings; only us from within can identify what our body is or is not. Additionally, consciousness instils in us the awareness that we indeed feel like someone or something; it allows us to be sentient beings. Feelings can drive or guide us towards the external world where our actions may resolve them; hence, the mind is intentional. The mind also has agency, as cognition directs decisions and can potentially suppress instincts.

Consciousness poses an intricate phenomenon for modern neuroscience and biology. Neuroscientists often shun the dualistic concept, posits the geneticist Yuri Arshavsky. There is resistance to discuss neurophysiological studies of the brain mechanisms of consciousness (Arshavsky, 2006). He argues that the field consequently maintains a covert dualism. Interactions between the body and the mind cannot be tested or measured; it is a scientific impasse. His hope lies in discovering complex neuronal networks determined by evolutionary genetics that actively cooperate and produce consciousness.

I am curious: Is neuropsychoanalysis able to bridge the abyss of the mind-body problem?

 

Solms states he has found the brain area that is responsible for consciousness: the extended reticular activating system (Solms, 2021). You may google that if you please. His findings came about by noticing that people in a coma have damage within this particular brain system. We can even determine the dawn of consciousness, which would date approximately 250 million years back, which is when this system formed in the brain – and intriguingly, all vertebrates possess it.

 

Let us unpack what neuropsychoanalysis is.

 

Sigmund Freud, the architect of psychoanalysis, saw the mind as dynamic and consisting of different consciousness levels and coined the term ‘the unconscious’. He implied it leads to all sorts of mental and physical diseases. To recover, the unconscious ought to surface and be attended to. Freud was a brain physicist before developing psychoanalysis. During his lifetime, the technology was not advanced enough to inspect the brain in detail and action (Henley, 2019).

.

Solms speculates: Are the modern developments in brain screening enough to fuse neuroscience with psychoanalysis? And what will this achieve? Are we reducing the mind to the material and explain it away? Will the correlations between the brain and the mind detect real cause and effect? (Solms & Turnbull, 2011). Solms advocates that the mind is not a thing, an object – the mind is the subject. He adheres to a concept of dual-aspect monism or double aspectism: Mental events and physical events are two aspects of a person, like heads and tails of a coin. It is then through thinking that the mind turns back onto itself as an object; it makes us reflect on ourselves in relation to others and the world.

 

Why is it essential to contemplate the mind-body problem?

 

I argue that we must not abandon one over the other.

 

When people face physical or mental illness, a one-sided approach can lead to incomplete models of disease. The drift away from addressing the mind in the 19th century (Butler et al., 2009) has obstructed and compromised care for patients with seemingly entirely physical diseases. It was long denied that mental changes were part of their illness, and this assumption was even maintained into the 20th century.

 

Advances in the field of artificial intelligence considerably reopen the debate (Hildt, 2019). The issue of dualism is formulated in terms of hardware and software. The intriguing question arises: can AI develop a mind? I find this thought disturbing; a subjective, conscious supercomputer with intentionality and agency is a rather unsettling idea.

 

Bibliography

Arshavsky, Y. (2006). “Scientific roots” of dualism in neuroscience. Progress In Neurobiology, 79(4), 190-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2006.07.007

Butler, M., Corboy, J., & Filley, C. (2009). How the Conflict between American Psychiatry and Neurology Delayed the Appreciation of Cognitive Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis. Neuropsychology Review, 19(3), 399-410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-009-9089-y

Henley, T. (2018). Hergenhahn's An Introduction to the History of Psychology (8th ed.).

Hildt, E. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: Does Consciousness Matter?. Frontiers In Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01535

Solms, M. (2021). What Is a Mind? - Online Course. FutureLearn. Retrieved 9 March 2021, from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/what-is-a-mind.

Solms, M., & Turnbull, O. (2011). What Is Neuropsychoanalysis?. Neuropsychoanalysis, 13(2), 133-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2011.10773670

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