The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation (Paperback)

by John Horgan (Author) "In Phaedo Plato described the last hours of Socrates, who had been imprisoned and sentenced to death by Athenian authorities..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, New York Times, Deep Blue (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
What are the limits of self-knowledge? Acclaimed science writer John Horgan takes a penetrating look into the world of neuroscience in The Undiscovered Mind, a follow-up to his more general The End of Science. Already pessimistic about the long-term prospects for the grand endeavor of scientific progress, he finds even more reason for skepticism about the claims of those who study the brain and the mind. Will we ever cross the explanatory gap between our reductionist neuroanatomical knowledge and our everyday awareness of the qualities of our perceptions, thoughts, and feelings? Horgan's answer is no.

He's no neo-Luddite, though--his aim is not to disillusion the public, not to reduce funding, but to address the hubris of the neuroscientists, evolutionary psychologists, and artificial-intelligence researchers who all proclaim a new golden age just around the corner thanks to an imminent grand unified theory of consciousness, a theory Horgan believes unlikely and far off at best. His clear, entertaining prose is more conversational than polemic, and his verbal portraits of luminaries such as Eric Kandel and Lewis Wolpert make for engrossing, thoughtful reading. Even if you disagree with him, as many neuroscientists do, his point of view is refreshing and challenging, and hence well worth consideration. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
With a gadfly's stinging sense of human limitations, Horgan, author of the controversial and bestselling The End of Science, turns a quizzical eye to the claims of contemporary scientists, psychologists, philosophers and medical researchers who, through mind and brain science, hope to explain rationally human consciousness and behavior. His extraordinarily provocative and wide-ranging treatise moves from an analysis of modern social science's belief in the subjectivity of all research to a near apologia for Freud's profound skepticism of the scientific method, to an exposure of the reductionist claims of evolutionists, genetic theorists, psychopharmacology and cybernetics. During his rollicking stroll though the varied creeds that compose the terrain of consciousness studies, Horgan both educates and entertains. He employs anecdotes drawn from quirky personal encounters with leaders of consciousness theory, including Frederick Crews, an anti-Freudian who arrives at one meeting "dressed like an executioner"; Steven Hyman, the self-described "equal opportunity sceptic" who's the director of the National Institute of Medical Health; Peter Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac; and Harold Sackheim, a specialist in electroshock therapy. These anecdotes are complemented by Horgan's own erudition, which is considerable. Here is a writer equally at home with the canonical assertions of literary critic Harold Bloom and language philosopher Noam Chomsky's critique of Locke's epistemology and its subsequent behaviorist adherents. Horgan's light but never shallow journalistic style keeps his skepticism from descending into grim cynicism, and he concludes on an optimistic note: we are, he contends, capable of epiphanies that transcend the bonds of mere scientific method. How true, for readers of this contrarian, challenging book may themselves experience an epiphany as Horgan celebrates what he sees as the fundamental mystery of consciousness, of life, of the universe itself. Agent, John Brockman. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (November 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684865785
• ISBN-13: 978-0684865782
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #836,442 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've read on the brain, December 29, 1999

By	Robert J. Kunzig (Dijon, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation (Hardcover)

Horgan leaves you open-mouthed at the breadth and depth of his reporting. From Prozac to psychoanalysis to PET scans, he puts all of mind science in place; and does it so deftly and entertainingly that you don't realize till later how much you have learned. He has made fewer waves with this book than with The End of Science, but if anything this one's even better. He is not the bad boy of science journalism (as he's been called lately) so much as the smart man --capable of handling any subject with grace, wit, and honesty, and appropriate levels of skepticism. Where he is skeptical he is judging scientists by their own standard: the evidence. My favorite chapter was his deconstruction of evolutionary psychology. I found myself less pessimistic than Horgan about the potential of neuroscience, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. He writes with a point of view, which makes him interesting, but he doesn't abuse you with it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Horgan's deficit thinking, May 8, 2000

By	Kyle Arnold - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation (Hardcover)

Most of what Horgan says about mind science is, I think, correct. He is right that much of psychology isn't really moving toward a unified theory of the mind, and shows no signs that it really can get there. Horgan's solution to this problem is, he seems to suggest, that we should think of much of psychology as more akin to "philosophy and literary criticism" (his words)than to hard science. I think Horgan is right when he says this. But, the trouble I have is that he understands "philosophy" and litcrit in a superficial and condescending way- and therefore, psychology too, insofar as it is akin to these disciplines. He sees such disciplines as merely _less_than_ science. He defines them negatively, by what they _can't_ to, rather than what they can. For instance, he says that these disciplines, the humanities, are not empirical and don't have unified paradigms. So this is what they _don't_ have, but what about what they _do_ have and _can_ do, that science can't? I think the trouble here is that Horgan doesn't know an awful lot about the humanities. Horgan's offhand depiction of several philosophers (Kuhn, "French philosophers," etc.), for instance, is mostly amateurish, uncomprehending, and often not especially respectful. And in an encounter he depicts with some literary-oriented psychoanalysts, he quotes some of what they said and aggressively dismisses it as "obscure." If one looks at what he quotes to show this "obscurity," it turns out that the psychoanalysts were merely using the common diction of literary criticism discourse, which Horgan obviously does not understand. It is because of his lack of knowledge in these fields, I think, that Horgan really does not know what he is saying when he suggests that psychology is a lot like litcrit and philosophy. If he had a better sense of the special _kind_ of intellectual rigor and insightfulness that these disciplines have, Horgan might view them as equal, in their own way, to hard science. If this is the case, then if psychology is something like litcrit and philosophy instead of like physics, this is not a step down for psych, as Horgan implies, but merely a step sideways.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good antidote to the hype, December 22, 2003

By	AJ - See all my reviews

At a time when we are constantly bombarded with claims and counter claims about the mind in the media and the popular press, it is good to see someone finally rise above the hype and take a good critical look at the current state of Mind Science.

Opening with a discussion of the mind body problem or as Horgan calls it the "explanatory gap" and the difficulties in constructing a single theory of the mind, Horgan leaves the reader wondering if in the final analysis, such a thing is even possible.

While ultra critical, Horgan does not make the same mistakes as he did in his first book. He treats each argument fairly and reasonably. As one reviewer pointed out "Where he is skeptical he is judging scientists by their own standard: the evidence"

In my view he is at his strongest when critiquing Bio-Psychiatry and especially the pseudo- science Evolutionary Psychology, which he rightly points out its inability to perform experiments, and the impossibility of objectively determining what is a cultural or innate trait. He likens this budding "Science" to the now fading psychoanalysis, which has interesting views on human nature, but whose theories can never really be verified.

Finally, he tackles the old philosophical problem of consciousness, and highlights all the competing contradictory views on how to tackle the problem.

Of course ultimately we may solve the problems that Horgan thinks are beyond our grasp, but until then, Horgan's Critical rationalism will do just fine.