The Interbrain: How Unconscious Connections Influence Human Behaviour and Relationships

by Digby Tantam

Digby Tantam presents the ground-breaking theory of the interbrain, the idea that human beings are endlessly connected by a continuous interplay of non-verbal communication of which we are unaware. Considering social smiles and the way emotions can spread from one person to another, he explores the research that shows how our brains are linked and draws out the implications of the interbrain for our understanding of empathy, social communication, psychology and group behaviour.

Exploring this often overlooked aspect of our human nature, Tantam demonstrates how the interbrain has huge significance for psychology, psychiatry and sociology and can transform our understanding of war, morality, terrorism, psychopathy and much more.

392 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2019

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tantam's idea of the interbrain combines theory of mind and unconscious behaviors of group mind like mirroring and social contagion to suggest that we are all connected in some way, largely unconscious, that makes the sum of us humans at times more than the individual parts. As he himself notes, this idea is not particularly new, but Tantam has articulated it a way that puts a number of hitherto separate ideas together and stakes a claim for the importance of the group as a thing unto itself. People have been preaching against the tyranny of the mob, and decrying the mindlessness of the swarm, for many years and through many different belief systems and philosophies. Tantam's approach makes a scientific-philosophical claim for group mind as both bad and good, depending on the implications, but either way a thing to be worth studying. I like the holistic nature of his thinking, worked as it is through a careful scientific model. As he reminds us, empathy is a key part of the discussion, however you think about it precisely. So the group mind can represent both the best in human nature as well as, occasionally, the worst. On those grounds alone it is worthy of study.