Mind and Brain

“A biological analysis of a deed is like a chemical analysis of a painting.  It is not false, but it does not account for what makes the paints into a painting.  It stops before the essential part of the story starts.”  (Leon Wieseltier, 1952-- )

While teaching a class of psychiatry residents, I wrote this quote on the blackboard.  “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” (John Milton from Paradise Lost) 

A week later, the quote remained on the board but underneath someone had scrawled, “Not true!!  Mind is Brain.”  Obviously, my quote pushed someone’s button.  I am almost sure that this uninvited editorial comment was written by an enthusiastic and aspiring scientist-to-be.  There is a growing belief among many researchers that mind and brain are equivalent. The way to better understand the mind is to better understand the brain. 

I wanted to let the young scientist that I strongly disagreed, and I wrote in response, “How sad and how absurd.”  The mind is more than just a brain. A mind is not understood by understanding brain parts. Love, a state of mind, is not understood by understanding chemicals of the brain.  Oxytocin and endorphins may significantly influence the perception of love, but to know this chemistry is not to know ‘the chemistry’ of love. 

I wanted to find out more about the person that wrote on the board.  I wanted to hear their perspective.  And I wanted to debate. 

I wanted to point out to this unknown editorialist the absurdity of the assertion that Mind is Brain. Remember if A=B and B=C then A=C. If mind is brain and brain is chemicals then mind is chemicals.  And if mind is chemicals and chemicals are atoms, then mind is atoms.  And so on and so forth into reductionistic absurdity. How little is revealed about the mind in this process! 

If I had met this person face to face, I would have asked if they thought the following statements to be true or false:

·         Hamlet is English words

·         Mona Lisa is brushstrokes on canvas

·         Beethoven’s 9^th is notes and chords

Of course, there is no Hamlet without English words.  There is no Mona Lisa without brushstrokes on canvas.  There is no Beethoven’s 9^th without notes and chords.  And there is no mind without brain.  So, the statements are true, but they tell us very little and convey nothing of the essence of the play, the painting or the music.  An analysis of the brain does not account for what makes the brain into a mind.  “It stops before the essential part of the story is starts.” 

If like the aspiring scientist-to-be you disagree with what I’ve said, pay this blog no brain.