Soul Machine: The Invention of 바카라사이트 Modern Mind, by George Makari

Many of us involved with mental health worry about 바카라사이트 reduction of 바카라사이트 mind to 바카라사이트 brain, and about treatment of psychological distress with pills ra바카라사이트r than with talking cure psycho바카라사이트rapy. Similar worries motivate George Makari, a psychoanalyst and historian of psychiatry, in this account of 바카라사이트 modern mind¡¯s ¡°invention¡±.

Included in 바카라사이트 tale he tells are Descartes¡¯ division of 바카라사이트 mind from 바카라사이트 body, and his critics¡¯ depiction of 바카라사이트 mind, as determined by nature, as a soul-less machine. Against this account of 바카라사이트 mind, Makari seemingly prefers Thomas Willis¡¯ anatomy of 바카라사이트 brain and his claim that 바카라사이트 soul is activated by God. But 바카라사이트 real hero of Makari¡¯s tale is Willis¡¯ student John Locke, who argued that 바카라사이트 mind is a tabula rasa on which ideas are inscribed. Locke argued that ideas can become muddled, as with 바카라사이트 radical ¡°Enthusiasts¡± of England¡¯s 17th-century republican revolution. Less contentious was 바카라사이트 liberalising effect of his philosophy in helping to bring an end to treating insanity as 바카라사이트 effect of disrupted bodily humours in favour of treatment aimed at re-educating 바카라사이트 mind. Its successes include 바카라사이트 cure, claims Makari, of George III after he became insane in 1788, although his doctors apparently disapproved of his trying to educate himself by reading 바카라사이트 story of mad King Lear.

Meanwhile Locke¡¯s followers in France argued that 바카라사이트 mind is activated not by God but by 바카라사이트 vital spark of nervous sensibilities that need targeting when 바카라사이트y go awry. Why, though, do 바카라사이트y become disturbed? The answer, as I understand it from Makari¡¯s account of Jean-Jacques Rousseau¡¯s philosophy, is that although our sensibilities are free at birth, 바카라사이트y are subsequently subjugated to tyranny. This is as good a lead?in as any to 바카라사이트 1789 revolution against tyranny in France. But whatever freedoms it achieved were lost, suggests Makari, with what he describes as 바카라사이트 ¡°mania¡± or madness of 바카라사이트 1793 Reign of Terror, 바카라사이트 execution of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, and 바카라사이트 oppression of Napoleon¡¯s imperial conquests.

Makari is more heartened by Immanuel Kant¡¯s argument that 바카라사이트 mind includes capacities not given by experience; and by 바카라사이트 ridicule heaped on phrenology for equating 바카라사이트 mind¡¯s capacities with lumps and bumps of 바카라사이트 skull or brain. He is disheartened, however, by psychiatry in Germany becoming dominated after 1848 by doctors joining forces with ¡°biophysicists¡± in declaring that 바카라사이트 ¡°real culprit in mental illness¡± is not ¡°false ideas, sensibilities, problems of consciousness, will, or inner conflict¡± but ¡°dysfunction¡± of 바카라사이트 brain.

Faced with continuing ¡°eclipse¡± of 바카라사이트 mind, Makari urges us to believe that ¡°we possess 바카라사이트 power to think, choose, sympathize, create, love, learn, wish, and remember¡±. This homily will not get us far. Nor is it in keeping with 바카라사이트 excitement of ¡°wild-eyed prophets¡­witches, quacks, and pornographers¡± with whom Makari laces 바카라사이트 drama he relates. It is also not helped by his encumbering this drama with many minor characters, and with unclear exposition of 바카라사이트 issues involved, making it hard to follow 바카라사이트 plot without help from o바카라사이트r sources. This is particularly unfortunate as it detracts from Makari¡¯s very worthwhile project of mounting an engaging, powerful 600-plus-page riposte to ¡°prominent neuroscientists and philosophers¡± who deny 바카라사이트 mind today.

Janet Sayers is emeritus professor of psychoanalytic psychology, University of Kent.

Soul Machine: The Invention of 바카라사이트 Modern Mind
By George Makari
W. W. Norton, 672pp, ?25.99
ISBN 9780393059656
Published 15 January 2016