The Private Life of the Brain: Emotions, Consciousness, and the Secret of the Self (Paperback)

by Susan A. Greenfield (Author) "If someone told you that tomorrow you would lose your consciousness forever, how would you feel?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Readout Fallacy, Chinese Room, Dan Dennett (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
What's going on in there? One of the great scientific and philosophical mysteries is how a few pounds of wet, salty cobwebs can give rise to the rich experience that we call consciousness. Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield peers inside the dimly lit skull to show us what she thinks is going on in The Private Life of the Brain. Greenfield has a facility for explaining tricky scientific concepts in language that can engage any reader. She presents the basics of contemporary thought on consciousness as they relate to her own theory, which involves a continuum of experience between sensual, emotional grounding in the surrounding world and rational, cognitive withdrawal into mental life. Arguing from a wide range of animal and human research, and drawing on the work of philosophers John Searle and Daniel Dennett, she makes her case compellingly but gently, granting that other theories might also hold in this still-uncharted territory. Looking in depth at depression, drug use, and fear, Greenfield shows how each is explained by her continuum theory and how each relates to the life of the human organism as a whole. Could it be true that as our minds work harder, our hearts lose some feeling, and vice versa? It's an intriguing, thought-provoking idea, one that alone makes The Private Life of the Brain essential reading for minds seeking self-enlightenment. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
How are you feeling today? Who might you be? And what do those frequently asked, but profound, questions have to do with each other? An Oxford University brain researcher and the director of Britain's Royal Institution, Greenfield (Journey to the Centers of the Mind) has entered the crowded field of explain-the-brain books with a sophisticated, memorable and accessible set of arguments. Other popular brain books have begun or ended with language, with philosophy, or with disease; Greenfield starts with emotions. She gives readers long looks at the structure of the brain, at the chemical work of neurotransmitters, at young children's behaviors and neural development, and at the effects of psychoactive drugs, from alcohol to morphine. Despite the current excitement about brains and genes, she reminds us that "the effects of the environment" through childhood and beyond create a "personalization of the brain," a succession of outward experiences that lead our cells and neurochemical processes to forge complex neural connections that complicate our built-in emotions. Your personalized brain, with its complex "nets," gives you the consciousness that modifies your feelings now: your sense of self keeps your passions in check. But extreme emotions and experiences--"road rage," or a rave--weaken those "nets" and consequently weaken consciousness, making you more like an animal, or an infant, than usual. "The more the mind predominates over raw emotion," writes Greenfield, "the deeper the consciousness." Greenfield presents a subtle model in everyday language, introducing her readers skillfully to her precedents and rivals in neurobiology and cognitive science. Readers who care about minds and brains will have strong feelings about Greenfield's thoughts--and many likely will feel pleased. Agents, John Brockman and Katinka Matson. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471399752
• ISBN-13: 978-0471399759
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #770,065 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Excessive neurobabble, October 15, 2000

By	DR P. Dash "drdneuro" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Private Life of the Brain (Hardcover)

I found this book surprisingly disappointing due to a severe lack of supporting evidence. For example, her primary thesis--that consciousness is a function of large neural networks--is spelled out in only the vaguest of terms. Her discussion of associated phenomena is similarly superficial...e.g. "It is possible that the core problem underlying manic depression is again one of inappropriately sized neuronal networks." (p. 127) What is an "inappropriately sized" network? This is never defined. Are any studies cited of neuronal networks in manic depression? No, at least so far as I could tell. This problem of inadequate analysis holds for many statements in the book. A second example, picked at random..."According to the brain model of emotion that I am suggesting pleasure is associated with unusually modest associations between neurons. (p. 129)" What on earth does this mean? What neurons are we talking about? Where? How are you defining their association--electrophysiologically, by functional brain studies? This is never discussed. Second, some of her ideas--such as trying to equate schizophrenia with dream states--are not adequately supported in her book and certainly not in the psychiatric literature. A while back books with excessive and poorly defined psychological topics were dismissed with the epithet of "psychobabble"...this book, I'm afraid, comes dangerously close to "neurobabble." Neuronal networks in relationship to consciousness are MUCH more intelligently and thoroughly discussed in Edelman and Tononi's recent (2000)book "A Universe of Consciousnes." Damasio's 1999 book, "The Feeling of What Happens," represents the neurological approach to the problem of understanding consciousness and gives a much richer perspective than Dr. Greenfield's attempt. It is my opinion that time is much better spent reading either of these two books.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant theory, excellent writing, but a bit vague, June 26, 2000

By	Todd I. Stark "Cellular Wetware plus Books" (Philadelphia, Pa USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Private Life of the Brain (Hardcover)

This is excellent science writing. Many complex ideas are made understandable through clear analogies, while clearly pointing out the limitations of those analogies.

The author tries to describe how brain states relate to states of experience; by finding common ground between many extreme experiences. Her elegant (if not original) thesis is that patterns of connectivity between massive numbers of neurons determine our overall state of consciousness. States vary, according to this theory, by how large the interconnected clusters of neurons are, and how rapidly they turnover from one cluster to another. Neuroses and depression reflect a kind of stuckness in wide scale static networks of associations. States of intense sensation all involve "losing our mind" in the sense of dismantling these widespread networks and replacing them with many small networks that rapidly switch from one to another, keeping us trapped in the here and now.

We peer into the life of drug addicts, the fearful, the schizophrenic, and small children, to find some remarkable similarities in their experience. Then we see how the experience is so different for the depressed and those in pain. By comparing these extremes, and comparing the extremes to the way we normally feel, the authors' thesis begins to come to life.

This is a fascinating attempt at a framework for relating brain states and states of consciousness that has a lot of potential, but is clearly still a skeleton. It does, however, make a number of testable predictions discussed in the final chapters, which distinguish this book still further from the usual speculations about how the brain produces conscious experience.

On the other hand, in some ways, there is more missing than presented here. The theory of neural connectivity is very vague and makes no inroads to explaining just why a complex neural network should produce a mind. The implication is almost that arbitrary complexity should suffice, but this clearly isn't the case. Sensory networks seem to possess qualities of experience, while motor networks do not. There is something more in the networks that give rise to higher mental qualities than just complexity itself, and the author is very vague in this critical area.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex but interesting., July 6, 2003

By	Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Private Life of the Brain by Susan Greenfield is a very complex work on consciousness and theory of self. Trained in the field of neuropharmacology and physiology with degrees from St. Hilda's College, Oxford, United Kingdom, the College de France, Paris, and NYU Medical Center, New York, the author has held lecture posts at several of the world's prestigious universities including Lincoln College, Oxford, the Institute of Neuroscience, La Jolla, California, and Queens University, Belfast. In 1998 she became the first female director of Britain's Royal Institution. Her current research is in the causes of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. With this vita she is eminently equipped to discuss the topic.

Although the book seems to be a bit rambling, this is because it covers a lot of territory-but then there is a lot of territory to cover: brain anatomy-physiology, chemistry, neuro-connections, diseases, emotions, consciousness and the emergent self. Probably because she is a pharmacologist and physiologist and most especially a scientist, she approaches her subject by dividing it into aspects that illuminate these characteristics and give rise to testable hypotheses regarding the inner workings of the brain and mind. The chapter headings are therefore: 1) The Idea (the problem of consciousness), 2) The Story So Far (a history of the theories of mind), 3) The Child (early consciousness), 4) The Junkie (pain, euphoria, neuro-effective and neurophysiological chemicals), 5) The Nightmare (loss of consciousness), 6) The Depressive (highs and lows of consciousness), 7) The Human Condition (emotions and a theory of consciousness), 8) The Answer (the wrap up). Certainly much of the material, especially in the first two chapters, is a recap of the work of others. This is the usual approach to a topic about which one wishes to introduce new information; first you inform your reader of what has been done and by whom and how it fits with what you are yourself doing. Much of this may be new to those who have not studied anything about mind-brain research, but for those who have the names will be familiar: Edelman, Aleksander, Chalmers, Crick and Koch, Calvin, and Dennett, among others. In line with this style of authorship, most of the bibliography Greenfield cites is in the form of articles in prestigious professional journals from the 1980s to the 1990s (the book was published in 2000). One finds here periodicals like Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Neurology, Journal of Cell Science, etc. Most of these entries will probably not interest any but the professional in the field. Fortunately the author has done most of the work herself and puts the research into understandable perspective for the amateur.

For myself, I found some of the information very interesting, even useful in my profession. I had heard of and even seen ecupuncture use to control some types of pain, but had felt that it was all a placebo effect. Professor Greenfield pointed out, however, that research on the topic reveals that naloxone (Narcan) can reverse the effects of ecupuncture just as it can the effects of narcotic analgesics. Since I've given naloxone to over narcotized patients (it's preferable to waking them up and asking them to "breathe") I have seen its effects. The knowledge that it is effective in reversing ecupuncture suggests that while the effect of ecupuncture might be "in the mind" it is also legitimate and physiological. I also found the information on brain physiology/chemistry in analgesia and anesthesia informative, since I work in Recovery Room and ICU nursing where I see the effects of these drugs are often very individual.

As to the topics of mind, consciousness and self I would say that the author's thesis is far more convincing than any other I've read so far, if for no other reason than that she offers substantial physiological and chemical proof in favor of it and that it gives rise to testable hypotheses. As she writes: "The key concepts arising from this book are as follows: (1) emotion is the most basic form of consciousness; (2) minds develop as brains do-both as a species and as an individual starts to escape genetic programming in favor of personal experience-based learning; (3) the more you have of (1) at any moment, then the less you have of (2), and vice versa. The more the mind predominates over raw emotion, the deeper the consciousness (pp. 181-182)."

A very informative if somewhat complex book.