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

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Summary: From Knowledge of Self to Self-knowledge
Review: The author of the End of Science returns for a full inning well-played in a crucial debate--more dialectic--with a challenge to the claims of psychological science, and weighs in as a supporter in the hues of a mysterian perspective of the unknowability of self and mind. Next stop Zen monastery, after dusting off a stack of Kantian tomes. Altlhough we may not have reached the end of science, it may prove a thorny path to reach the beginnings of science, here, if what is wanted is a full roadmap for the mind of man whose perennial question is the riddle of the sphinx. To know the self to be unknowable would itself be the first foundation of any science. And it is true that a host of advances in the cognitive sciences tempt one to think that the science of mind is just around the corner. Even the sufis made such claims, so we should be tolerant, and not be like Queequeg to craft a coffin from false prophecy. This critique is important as a counter to the dogmatic assumption of much science promotion that its methods must succeed where a look at history shows a record of failures, stretching back to the nineteenth century and before. Nonetheless the mysterian position can declare defeat just at the point of success, and be both wrong to think we have reached the limits of our knowledge, and right to point to the real secret of mind, which lies not in its mechanics, but its conscious use that alone might unlock its deeper mysteries. One tends to root for both sides here, and Horgan's argument is important even as one keeps an eye on the next inevitable sneak attack on the fortress of man's interior. One might read this along with Kurzweill's The Age of Spiritual Machines with its fascinating if breathtakingly foolish-wise attempt to map out the dawn of the great computer brain. One should think that is such a conscious machine were ever invented its first priority would be to meditate, for beyond consciousness lies a further self-consciousness. Perhaps the last program for this brain would be 'final shutdown' as nirvana. Strange, but man is there already. Very engaging book, and it is a tonic to see somesone shrug off the excess of round-the-corner predictions with a dose of scepticism. Meanwhile Dr. Frankenstein is in his lab, and we know he won'tbe listening. Slam down the voltage clamp, end of science or not.

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Summary: Humpty Dumpty
Review: While John Horgan gained notoriety (albeit not always of the positive variety) among the scientific community from the provocative thesis contained within his 1996 book The End of Science, his latest The Undiscovered Mind qualifies his contention that science has neared its apex, insofar as the brunt of fundamental discoveries may already have been made. Instead of delving into cosmology, physics, and biology as he did previously, he focuses on dissecting the current level of progress within neuroscience, making the case that it is far less developed than its sibling fields. This had to have been one of the most infuriating books I've ever read, although I think at the same time it is one of the most valuable ones. Rather then kowtow and sing odes to the marvels of neuroscience, he looks at some of its weakest links. In the process he develops some rather colorful descriptions of the theoretical problems of consciousness and therapeutic questions of efficacy. The brain like Humpty Dumpty can be taken apart, but can't be put back together again. Irregularities and neurological diseases can demonstrably obliterate portions of cognitive abilities, thus linking areas of the brain to the capacity for such abilities, but this doesn't demonstrate how they are integrated. As Horgan surveys more than just the progress of laboratory science, though, he gives good reason to be skeptical of the pharmaceutical, psychiatric, and psychological industries, while clarifying that if he came upon another depression, he would accept treatment. He discusses the toll of psychosurgery in the first part of the 20th century, and notes the sometimes macabre treatment that ensued from the premise that psychopathology stemmed from underlying biology, while yet stating that this is a reason for caution, not for an about face. And when it comes to anti-depressants he tries to make the case that much of their effectiveness might stem from the placebo effect rather than any direct synaptic influence. When he turns to psychoanalysis and its competitors, he reveals the methodological problems inherent in assessing such an idiosyncratic treatment. And interestingly he makes a comparison of psychoanalysis with the burgeoning field of evolutionary psychology with regards to testability, falsification, and other measures of scientific precision. Although he finds fault with the fractured face of the neurosciences, his book is helpful in introducing the reader to the key players in the ongoing debate, even if one doesn't particularly agree with the Chicken Little approach. To some extent, I see his critique of neurobiological perspectives as being hyperbole, as it would not be consonant with the more well-established Darwinian paradigm to explain the brain in terms of angels dancing on pins, i.e. Horgan provides no alternative, and as such doesn't wholly overthrow the present competing hypotheses.