Customer Reviews

Memory, Brain, and Belief (Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Daniel Schacter, the expert on memory and the brain and professor at Harvard University, has once again delivered a fascinating volume on the important subject of memory, the brain and belief.

The book is divided into three parts, illustrating its interdisciplinary approach. Part I: Cognitive, Neurological and Pathological Perspectives. Part II: Conscious and Nonconscious Aspects of Memory and Belief: From Social Judgments to Brain Mechanisms. Part II: Memory and Belief in Autobiographical Recall and Autobiography.

The last is of particular interest to the non-scientist interested in ideas of 'self' and the construction of autobiography. The articles in part III include: 'Constructing and Appraising Past Selves' (by Michael Ross and Anne Wilson), 'Memory and Belief in Development' (by Katherine Nelson), 'Autobiography, Identity and the Fictions of Memory' (by Paul John Eakin), and 'Autobiography as Moral Battleground' (by Sissela Bok). There is a conclusion written by Antonio Damasio.

The issue of memory, false memory, autobiography and the self are critical for subjects such as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, history and theology, yet too often thses subjects in the social sciences and humanities completely ignore the findings and theories of science. Here, they are brought together in a format eminently readable to the non-specialist. As this process continues, led by innovative minds such as Schacter, there will no longer be any excuse for scholars to shame themselves in their ignorance.

The part of the body that controls everything from feelings to thoughts to behavior is the brain, and the part of the body we understand the least...is the brain. Thus, any book about the brain is 90% speculative and 10% fact, and researchers like Steven Pinker will question even this 10%. That said, here is an extremely important but largely academic book that begins to peel back the veils of how our brains turn reality into memories, and what the reader comes away with is how profoundly inaccurate the brain can be when reconstructing this map of the "world" out there. This is the type of book that is essential to read if you want to know what to research next or draw some preliminary conclusions about the nature of human consciousness and the neural mechanisms that are involved. This anthology also suggests that most of our conscious beliefs are various forms of structured memories, and thus our beliefs are also interpretations of the world, filled with inaccuracies and distortions.