The Mind: Its Nature and Origin [Hardcover]

Christiaan D. Van Der Velde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2004

In this ambitious and deeply thoughtful work, psychiatrist Christiaan D van der Velde argues that our sense of knowing may be an epiphenomenon of cerebrally produced internal images. Using this concept of cognition as a basis, van der Velde goes on to show its implications for such complex cerebral functions as memory, language, dreaming, body images, the formation of personality, and the encounter of the self with others. He also discusses the challenges of psychopathology and psychotherapy. This cogent, incisive analysis by a leading psychotherapist and researcher in cognition provides much to ponder and many insights into the nature of the brain.

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The nature and origin of the mind remain unresolvable mysteries, fascinating medical doctors, psychiatrists, and others alike. Although dramatic advances in the neurosciences and brain-imaging technologies have highlighted the fundamental role of the brain in mental events, the nature of this role has yet to be clarified. In THE MIND: ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN, psychiatrist Christiaan D. van der Velde investigates the phenomenon of cognition and begins to unravel the enigma surrounding the mind.

All mental activities-thinking, remembering, judging, anticipating, planning, and conceptualizing-involve two distinctively different components: (1) a sense of knowing, or a sense of having experienced previously, and (2) a cognitive content, or what it is that we know, think, remember, or plan. Each thought, memory, or idea has its own specific content that remains fairly constant when reproduced in our minds. Ample evidence implies that the cognitive content of any mental experience or activity is determined by the patter-or gestalt-of images within the mind, which stem from specific brain functions. In contrast, there exists no imaginable primary brain function that suggests a cerebral origin of our sense of knowing. It is inconceivable, however, that we could experience a sense of knowing without cognitive content and vice versa. Therefore, van der Velde concludes, our sense of knowing is inseparably associates with our experience of cognitive content.

The author proposes that our sense of cognition may evolve as a consequence of our experiencing cognitive content and thus is an empirical-or purely experiential-product. According to this scenario, our capacity for cognition springs from an inextricable combination of a cerebral process responsible for the activation of the mind's images whose gestalts cause us to experience cognitive content and an empirical process that emanates from this cerebral experience and, in turn, imparts its content as an empirical quality of having experienced before. In other words, our sense of knowing is an empirical epiphenomenon that arises from our experiencing cerebrally produced internal images.

Is there such an empirical process that causes us to experience our internal images with a sense of knowing? According to can der Velde, we continually develop groups of two notions that reflect sets of two opposing events-one event is caused by a given quality whose absence causes the occurrence of its opposite. Yet we conceive these events as interconnected because we cannot realize one event without realizing the other-for example, our notions of day and night. As can der Velde explains in chapter 2, these inseparable ideas are called dialectical notions, and their underlying events dialectical events.

THE MIND explores the relationship between the brain and the mind, drawing on current medical and psychological research. Can der Velde's cerebral-empirical rationale of our capacity for cognition offers a valuable new approach to our understanding of the origin and nature of our mental experiences.

About the Author

Christian D. van der Velde, MD, a medical graduate of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the recipient of many American awards in recognition of his outstanding and dedicated work in research, education, and treatment for the mentally ill, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He has published widely in numerous professional journals, including NATURE, the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY, and the JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY, among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591021901
• ISBN-13: 978-1591021902
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,808,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Analysis, July 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mind: Its Nature and Origin (Hardcover)

A superb distillation of knowledge regarding the workings of the brain. Well worth a read.