Customer Reviews

The Mind And The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Schwarz outlines scientific evidence of "neuroplasticity", the ability of the neurons in the brain to form new connections. Neuroplasticity is the result of "Attentiveness", or Mental force, and in illustrating this concept, Schwarz clearly designates between the Mind and the Brain. The Mind can change the Brain. Schwarz ties neuroplasticity to quantum mechanics, and thus tries to create a Unified Theory of Consciousness. This is an excellent book to challenge determinists (like Rita Carter) who insist that there is zero free will and we are entirely the result of biochemistry. Schwarz uses examples of scientific and psychological experiments to prove his point--this is not just abstract philosophical argumentation like so many other "Brain-philosophers" getting published today. The author addresses the infamous Libet experiment that apparently proved epiphenomenalism (the idea that consciousness has no casual impact on the brain, and the neurons work first before the mind "decides"), and this is one of the most important aspects of the book, as Libet's experiment is trotted out repeatedly to prove determinism.

However, Schwarz's free will is not idealized. His interpretation of the mind is more like a sleepy sailor on a mini-sailboat. The sailor is the mind, the boat is the brain, and the wind is nature. If the sailor isn't alert, the wind will guide the boat wherever the wind takes it. However, if the sailor is attentive, he can guide the boat however he wishes. Focus and attention are necessities--when we act rashly or go w/ our immediate reaction, we are just being guided by the wind. Schwarz is a Buddhist, but his conclusions can be applied to any philosophy or religion. His more "weird" conclusions are the result of confronting the "weird" realities of Quantum Mechanics and non-locality.

If there are any weaknesses in the book, it's two: 1.) the middle section on the monkeys is unnecessary, repetitive, and disgusting. He proves his point w/ human research, no need to bring this depressing garbage up of tortured monkeys, you can skip these chapters, and 2.) He is a little too hard on Descartes, as much modern day philosophers are. Is not the division between Mind and Brain, between Quantum wave fluctuation and Newtonian particles, merely updated versions of Cartesian duality? The lines may be blurred between the Mind of Volition and the Matter of classical physics, but they remain distinct on some level, if not in form than in purpose. Schwarz's dualism is far more Cartesian than modern-day postermodernism or deterministic biochemistry. "Cogito Ergo Sum" is reinforced by "Mindfull Attentiveness", not undermined.

I bought this book anticipating a different perspective on this timeless question. A different perspective is exactly what I found. Schwartz begins with a description of his research on obsessive-compulsive disorder. This section of the book is simply great. It is a nice example of how advances in neurobiological investigation have helped to elucidate the neural circuitry that underlies psychological states. Schwartz also gives a nice overview of the current views on conciousness.

He then goes on to discuss the topic of neuroplasticity citing the case of the Silver Springs monkeys. You get a nice history lesson in addition to a summary of some hard won facts about the brain. He also gives plenty of examples of neuroplasticity in humans. He uses this as the physical basis of his own stylized treatment for OCD. His treatment is based on the concept of a mental force (a nebulous concept if there ever was one) that is able to change the brain through the principles of quantum mechanics. He devotes the rest of his book to discussing the quantum mind as well as some implications of the theory as it applies to consciousness.

It is the last third of the book that attempts to explain the concept of a mental force that interacts with the physical substance of the brain (through quantum mechanics) to ultimately produce behavior. The problem as I see it, is that Schwartz believes that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, in that it is more than the sum of its mere physical parts. He seems to be unable to accept the idea that our mental lives are reducible entirely to physical processes. Many of Schwartz's conclusions in this book are based on his a priori assumption that the mind is more than the brain. He interprets the results of a variety of experiments as proof that the mind is not reducible. Granted, many of the experiments he alludes to are fascinating--neuroscience is fascinating by definition, of course--but that does not mean they HAVE to be the product of something greater than the brain. A good example of this is his discussion of Libet's experiments that revealed a readiness potential as proof of free will (and thus a rejection of the "philistine reductionist" viewpoint that all human behavior is caused because as we all know a lack of volition would just be the absolute-ruin-of-the-world-as-we-know-it GAG!). I also found Libet's experiments intruguing; however, I see them as simply raising more questions, not providing a death-blow to materialism.

Finally, Schwartz has a habit of quoting all over the place. He is especially fond of William James, and why not? James was ahead of his time. His contribution to our understanding of the mind is known by every student of psychology. However, Schwartz is using James's insights as an appeal to authority. He also quotes Roger Sperry among others as if to say, "well, these great thinkers think the mind is more than the brain so it must be so!"

Then there is the whole quantum mechanical (QM) brain theory. I'm not a physicist so I will refrain from commenting too much on it. To Schwartz and his physicist buddy Stapp, QM is the mechanism by which the immaterial affects the material. There is a lot of hype in the section of the book and some interesting proposals as well. However, it simply doesn't deliver in the end.

In the end, it is Schwartz's mixture of hard neurobiological facts with immaterial hocus-pocus conclusions that CAUSES me to give it an average evaluation. It's hard to believe that a scientist would be so quick to credit certain discoveries as irrefutable evidence of his own biased opinion. Contrariwise, these perplexing phenomenon are merely the beginnings of further lines of investigation. A scientist must assume he or she is working to uncover some material process. How would one go about trying to prove a physical process is the result of something immaterial?

If you have OCD, you will enjoy the first third of the book. If you are a student of the neurosciences you will enjoy the first two-thirds of the book. And if you're a dualist you will probably enjoy all three.

Let me state briefly what I think about this book. If this book, with its gutsy thesis, gets a wide reading among cognitive scientist, neuroscientists, psychologist, and philosophers specializing in philosophy of mind, it will produce a real and far-reaching paradigm shift in discussions on the mind-brain connection. If it gets a wide reading among non-specialist layfolks, it will change many, many lives.

One statement on page 95 gives the thesis succinctly: "Conscious, volitional decisions and changes in behavior alter the brain." Schwartz offers plenty of evidence for this claim from PET scans of individuals suffering from OCD. On page 93 he writes: "The results achieved with OCD supported the notion that the conscious and willful mind differs from the brain and cannot be explained solely and completely by matter, by the material substance, of the brain. For the first time hard science--for what could be 'harder' than the metabolic activity measured by PET scans?--had weighed in on the side of mind-matter theories that...question whether mind is nothing but matter."

If these assertions intrigue you, you will enjoy the book. If you hold an opposing view you will also appreciate the substantial intellectual challenge this book offers your theory. I think probably one of the most important contributions this book makes is to affirm the common sense belief that we have some control over our lives and we can change for the better. The self-help gurus who urge reprogramming the mind/brain and behavior consistent with the reprogramming were right, at least in regard to the matter of self-control. If you'd like hard science (as well as passionate encouragement) that supports you in your efforts to control yourself, you will enjoy this book. If you make money giving self-help seminars, you need this book. If you want hope for changing for the better, you need this book.

I've always been fascinated by the workings of the brain, so I knew I had to read this book after reading a brief excerpt in "The Wall Street Journal." The idea that mindful attention to the workings of the brain can cause physical changes in the brain is a radical departure from recent scientific thinking. For many years, it has been believed that the brain is "hard-wired," a process completed early in childhood, and the adult brain can not be rewired in any significant way. The work of Dr. Schwartz and his colleagues demonstrates that the brain can be retrained to overcome the effects of illness or injury, at any age.

I am not a scientist, so I'll admit that some of the scientific explanations caused my brain to do some heavy lifting. And, there were parts of the chapter on the Silver Spring Monkeys I found too disturbing to read. That aside, this book excited me about the possibilities to retrain the brain. Dr. Schwartz's work has been primarily with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients, but the implications for other mental disorders, as well as victims of stroke and brain injury, are monumental.

This book also got me excited about learning other subjects it touches on, such as quantum physics and Buddhism. (Really!) If you are ready to expand your thinking on this important subject, you will certainly want to read "The Mind and the Brain."

This excellent work reminded me of E.O Wilson's assertion that the sciences, humanities, and arts have one purpose: to give meaning to "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws."

Dr. Jeffery Scwartz and Sharon Begley have, through a masterful integration and consilience of quantum mechanics, neuroscience, Jamesian and Buddhist psychology, done a wonderful job explaining issues in consciousness and why purposeful volition and awareness, "mindfulness" and the "power of mental force" works in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Speaking as someone with an engineering background, the authors are to be congratulated on making the scientific concepts, especially the physics concepts, such as the quantum, the Quantum Zeno Effect, and the Schroedinger's Cat thought experiment, accessible for readers who may not have a deeper knowledge often requires by other texts.

The book is illlustrated with several necessary diagrams to help the reader better understand the brain neuroanatomy, PET neuroimages, neurons, and so on.

Neocortical reorganization, or neuroplasticity, is a major relatively recent scientific finding.

This is one of the best works to holistically explain the basis for the newest rehabilitation physiotherapies and the third wave of mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural psychotherapies.

As a student studying neuroscience, I had to pick this book up, and, lucky for me, it was one of the best books I've ever read. It's informative, interesting, and all and all a very well written book. A lot of thought and research went into this work and I would definately reccomend it.

This book is on the leading edge of thought in the worlds of Consciousness and Neurology. In fact, the book's thesis is quite contrary to Classical Western Thought , which is descended from a Newtonian worldview dealing only with measurables;it is broadly termed "materialism" - and posits that there is no such thing as a "mind" , and the whole subjective world can be completely reduced to firing patterns of neurons in the brain. That is - "free will" is an illusion, and all behaviours are either conditioned responses OR are completely subordinate to the dictates of genes and other congenital limitations.

Schwartz, a practitioner of Buddhist meditation and inventor of the 4-step behavioral/congnitive method of OCD treatment, resoundingly says "NO!". His experiences with mindfulness (a buddhist concept) applied to OCD reveal the stunning plasticity of the brain. Plasticity - being able, even in mature adults, to re-map and re-wire itself in response to experience and stimulus. This ability is harnessed in OCD treatment, to laboriously create alternate pathways in the brain, so that patients eventually overcome their "compulsive" behaviours. Plasticity of the brain finds many humane applications - one great example in the book is a cure for dyslexia in children.

Schwartz makes the logical conclusion - with numerous examples of nerological studies, including the infamous Silver Spring Monkeys deafferentation experiments - that human will or volition , or "mind" acts upon the "matter" in the brain and causes radical reorganization to reflect the kinds of stimulus. He makes a strong case for the role of experience and stimulus in shaping our brains from gestation, infancy, childhood, and indeed, for the rest of our lives !

He then volunteers the help of quantum physics to come up with a hypothetical "mental force" that acts upon the neurotransmitters and calcium ions in the synapses of our brains, thus either enabling, or disabling certain actions and thoughts. He proposes that the "explanatory gap" that yawns between Mind and Matter be dissolved by a quantum physics explanation.

Giving us a quick tour of quantum theory - Schroedinger's wave equation, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the collapse of the wave function ; and a quick tour of the human brain and tying these together with a lot of circumstantial evidence, Schwartz does a convincing job.

A considerable debt is owed, in years of inhumane treatment, disfigurements and drastic surgical procedures, to the non-human primates who "volunteered" their lives for advances made in this field. To me, an outsider, it seems like every important step forward came at the expense of a monkey's skull being split open.

Dr. Schwartz's innovative look into neuroscience discoveries past and present is a most enlightening read. He begins by tying in his own personal OCD research, mixes studies on brain structure and activity with biology and quantum physics, then comes full circle to his OCD studies. In a humorous yet truthful sort of coincidence, you can almost feel your brain changing as you fill it with the detailed information throughout this intriguing book. Awareness takes on a whole new level as you open the unseen world that runs like clockwork behind our everyday lives.....a great way to open new doors for biology, neuroscience and physics fans alike.

The conclusions drawn by this author fly in the face of hundreds of years of cognitive science. Yet more and more researchers are coming to the same conclusion -- that the brain's plasticity allows it to change to meet changed circumstances. Schwartz spends a considerable amount of text explaining OCD, but it is experience with OCD that supports his conclusions. A tough read in parts, but very startling information for the status quo.

I suffer from Stuttering and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, two Tourette's-related neurological disorders, and my quest to understand and defeat my afflictions has led me to ponder the nature of the mind itself. My problems are the result of a defective brain circuit, and the brain is the seat of my self-awareness. Yet my soul rebels against the limitations of my brain and seeks to change them. (I've been fairly successful at defeating my OCD with Schwartz's techniques; I'm now attempting to adapt them to combat Stuttering.) If I am nothing but my brain, as materialists like Stephen Pinker and Susan Blackmore suggest, then my internal struggle shouldn't even be possible, let alone successful.

Jeffrey Schwartz comes closer to resolving the paradoxes of human consciousness than Pinker, Blackmore, or E.O. Wilson. Not only does the brain impose its structure on thought - for example, I never asked to stutter - but thought (sometimes immaterial) in turn shapes brain - explaining how with therapy and effort I'm able to make longlasting reductions in my stuttering and OCD. The same holds true for depression and many other mental illnesses.

Schwartz relates the shaping of the neuro-synaptic functioning of our brain with quantum physics and Buddhist philosophy (to my mind, he misses an even better chance to link it with Christian ideas such as Sanctification, which mirror science's insight even better than Buddhist "mindfulness." Christ said, "As a man thinks, so is he," and St. Paul wrote at length about the struggle between the Spirit and the Flesh and the gradual renewal of the inner nature.) The philosophical implications of this proven scientific fact are huge - it means that Materialism, the belief that all of reality is mere matter, is wrong.