Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience

by Mark Solms, Oliver Turnbull, Oliver Sacks (Foreword by)

About this Book...The Brain and the Inner World is an eagerly-awaited account of a momentous revolution. Subjective mental states like consciousness, emotion, and dreaming were once confined to the realm of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the human sciences. These topics now assume center stage in leading neuroscientific laboratories around the world. This shift has produced an explosion of new insights into the natural laws that govern our inner life. By two pioneers in the field, The Brain and the Inner World guides us through the exciting new discoveries, showing how old psychodynamic concepts are being forged into a scientific framework for understanding subjective experience. It is not that the mind is reduced to neurobiology. Rather, thanks to neurobiology, we are free to believe in the power of the mind. The neurosciences will soon be able to argue with Plato, Descartes, James, Freud, and Lacan about the mysterious connections between emotions, experience, will, reason, and creativity.

Genres: Psychology, Neuroscience, Science, Nonfiction, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Popular Science

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[michael prado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solms and Turnbull present an integral and philosophically well-grounded understanding of the mind, masterfully (read: logically) weaving together dichotomous strands of social and biological sciences to establish a succinct and comprehensive 21st century survey of neuroscience and neuropsychology, and beyond that, portray an awe-inspiring portrait of the mind as we know it.

I have read this book multiple times and it remains my favorite and most personally-inspiring work of neuroscience/psychology. I am indebted to the authors if only for the many cited texts I have read through (viz. works from Damasio, Panksepp, Luria, Schachter, etc.), dating all throughout the history of cognitive science. Bonus points for accessible writing style and coverage of prerequisite concepts - an exemplary model for any collegiate-level textbook.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solms' psychoanalytic convictions kill my enthusiasm.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a decent overview of how the brain works with a few tidbits of intriguing factoids but it lacks detail. Unfortunately, as soon as things get interesting the author abruptly changes the subject. Its feels like a book with missing pages. With that said, I am rather new to the subject and this book was a great tool for weeding out what aspects I am truly interested in from those that are less engrossing.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

More neuroscientists should be Freudians...and more Freudians should run for public office.

[Ezequiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

La solución que los autores dan para unir la neurobiología con el psicoanálisis (neuropsicoanálisis) genera el problema de reducir el sujeto y la subjetividad a la convergencia del grupo de individuos que comparten síntomas similares, homogeneizando lo heterogéneo y olvidándose de las características propias del sujeto. Y esto atenta contra los principios básicos del Psicoanálisis (el caso por caso).

[Elif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Solms starts an important and necessary conversation about building a bridge between neuroscience and psychoanalysis and makes good points on why these two disciplines both have a lot to gain from working together. Yet the book fails to meet many of the promises it makes (and a lot of expectation on my part).
I realize this was published in 2002 and it's just an "introduction", it is a good book. I only think it would work better if it was a long, 30 pages essay rather than a whole book.

[sekivanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

lisansta eğitimini aldığım psikanaliz ve son zamanlarda ilgi duymaya başladığım nöropsikolojiyi buluşturan bir kitap. 2017'de almış ve aynı yıl okumuştum, şimdi tekrar okuduğumda çok daha fazla keyif aldım. alanlardan herhangi birine aşina olmayanlar için anlatım gerçekten oldukça iyi tutulmuş, rahatça okunuyor ve öğretici. aynı zamanda birbirine "düşmanmış" gibi görünen bu iki alanın birbirinden faydalanması için - gerekçeleriyle birlikte - öneriler sunulmuş olması ufkumu açtı. ilerleyen zamanlarda tekrar okuyacağımı düşünüyorum.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. As a psychiatry resident in manhattan I can attest that this is a fascinating and inspiring synthesis of the art of psychotherapy and neuroscience.

[Koray Karabekiroğlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psikanaliz ile nörobiyoloji yaklaşımlarını birleştiren bir kitap.

[Canan Elif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Öncelikle söylemeliyim ki benim için okuması oldukça zor oldu. Bilmediğim çok fazla terim vardı, hepsini öğrenebildiğimi de söylemem. Ama çok da şey öğrendim. Tevfik Alıcı’nın kitabından sonra okumam isabet olmuş, o daha kolay okunabilen bir kitap çünkü.

[Michael Kulyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of the book are good especially the first chapter. However in many of the chapters author brings in neurological terminology without an adequate description of what they mean, also most of the diagrams are very poor, in effect the author might as well as have just said 'this bit of the brain does this'.
This is a Routledge book so I didn't expect high quality and they didn't disappoint.

[Macit Emre Laçin]

Psikanalizle modern sinirbilim bulgularını uzlaştırmaya çalışan bir grup bilim insanının kitabı.

[Tamminem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for uni. It had some interesting findings and it was good to see the attempt to make psychoanalysis more scientific and to show its correlates in the brain.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for the layman on the functioning of the brain, its constituents parts and the incredible neurological findings in the last 50 years even. In it Solms and Turnbull try to reconcile neuroscientific evidence to Freudian psychodynamic truths. What really struck me is how important the foetus formative time is as well as the first years of life in creating the brain networks and connections that will eventually form part of us, our behaviour and our outlook on life forever. Hence the need to avoid stress during pregnancy at all costs and to give babies the best possible start in life. The difference between female/ male brain and the interesting discoveries made on this seem to point to the fact that there are physical differences that justify different gender identities. May be I am naive, but this is incredible information and also I would say potentially controversial. Solms and Turnbull are to say the least brilliant in their description of the findings, which compensates for the at times partial repetitions of content, possibly due to the fact that the book may have originally evolved from a collection of published papers.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine sehr interessante Einführung in die relativ neuen Erkenntnisse der Neurowissenschaft in Verbindung mit der Psychoanalyse. Auch für einen Laien mit wenigen Vorkenntnissen und keinerlei praktischem Wisen wie mich verständlich, wenn auch nicht immer ganz einfach nachvollziehbar.

Das erste Kapiel *Einführung in die Grundbegriffe" ist sehr trocken, aber durchaus notwendig um die Zusammenhänge zu verstehen.

Die weiteren Kapital wie "Geist und Gehirn - wie hängen sie zusammen?", "Emotion und Motivation", "Träume und Halluzination" etc sind faszinierende Beispiele, welche Phänomene unseres Geistes besser erklärt werden können wenn wir uns trauen , die Erkenntnisse aus Neurologie, Biologie und Psychologie zu einer logischen Einheit zusammen zu fügen.

[Mk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed the way I look at the psyche. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in neurology or psychology.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing nothing about the subject I thought it was a nice, very basic introduction to the "field" of neuro-psychoanalysis.

[Chika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine sehr gute Einführungsliteratur zum Thema Neurowissenschaft. Einfach zu verstehen, dennoch informativ. Die prägnante Darstellung von Fakten dieses Buches hat mir sehr gut gefallen.

[Ali Gül · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyin ve insan üzerine bilhassa bilinç konusunu incelemek isteyenler için harika bir kitap. Boş bir zamanımda tekrar okuyacağım.