{"id":251912,"date":"2026-07-13T01:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/am-i-just-my-brain-sharon-dirckx\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:37:59","slug":"am-i-just-my-brain-sharon-dirckx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/am-i-just-my-brain-sharon-dirckx\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Just My Brain – Sharon Dirckx"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some callosotomy patients may speak of having \u201ctwo selves\u201d but not of having \u201cno self\u201d. Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), is referred to by some as the father of modern neurosurgery. His groundbreaking studies on conscious epilepsy patients in the 1950s enabled the function of many regions of the brain surface to be identified. But Penfield never stimulated an area that changed or induced the person\u2019s sense of self.[82] All kinds of involuntary sensations and movements were triggered\u2014sometimes even emotions\u2014but never abstract reasoning.<\/p>\n

Never a sense of what it is like to be you. Never consciousness itself. It seems as though the field of neuroscience has not moved on from substance dualism. A number of clinicians believe a non-physical mind makes the best sense of their observations. Even the story of Phineas Gage does not rule out the possibility that consciousness is beyond the brain.<\/p>\n

His case-study is often used as evidence that the mind is entirely dependent on the brain. However, Marilynne Robinson, in her book Absence of Mind, makes the point that although the story of Gage has likely been embellished over time, he did work again,[83] and anyone who has survived a head-on collision with a metal rod might be forgiven for being a little upset! Perhaps this personality change cannot be pinned entirely on the trauma to Gage\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n

The story of Phineas Gage may even make the opposite point from that which it is often intended: even with the most severe damage to the brain, the person can continue to function. How do brain and mind interact? The question of how a non-physical mind could exert changes in a physical brain poses concerns for many. If mind and brain are distinct, how do we explain the clear interaction between them?<\/p>\n

Surely Descartes\u2019 \u201cghost in the machine\u201d implies that changes to the brain ought to have no effect on the mind? But this is clearly not the case.<\/p>\n

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For my parents Dennis and Pauline. Your love and support over a lifetime have ultimately made this book possible. 1kitap1.com\/en Introduction An early childhood memory of mine is of sitting by a window on a rainy day, watching the drops splash against the pane. Like all normal children, I spent most of my life racing around. But at this particular moment, I was still, and my mind had time to drift.<\/p>\n

I remember a series of questions popping into my head: Why can I think? Why do I exist? Why am I a living, breathing, conscious person who experiences life? I don\u2019t really remember where the questions came from. Neither do I remember my exact age. They were just there. Unprompted. I know I am not the first to have this kind of \u201cmoment\u201d.<\/p>\n

When we sit still for long enough, all kinds of things bubble to the surface of our consciousness. Mindfulness gurus even tell us that bringing this kind of awareness into the foreground is good for our health. The more we are in touch with our inner life (such as our heartbeat, breathing and underlying emotions) and our outer environment (such as birds singing in the distance and doors slamming in the next room), the better. Conscious awareness seems to be central to what it means to be a living, breathing human being.<\/p>\n

But what exactly are human beings? And how do we marry \u201caha\u201d moments, such as the one described above, with some of the narratives coming from the sciences? Are we merely advanced primates? Are we machines? Are we souls confined to a body? Or are we some combination of all three? There are lots of different responses out there. Some of the loudest voices to answer this question come from neuroscience.<\/p>\n

They respond, \u201cYou are your brain. You are your neurons. Why can you think? Because your neurons are firing. End of story.\u201d Francis Crick, who co-discovered DNA and won the joint Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, said this in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis: \u201cYou\u201d, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.<\/p>\n

As Lewis Carroll might have phrased it: \u201cYou\u2019re nothing but a pack of neurons\u201d. This hypothesis is so alien to the ideas of most people alive today that it can truly be called astonishing. Fifty years later, this hypothesis seems far from alien. In fact, many no longer consider it a hypothesis. According to them, it is the truth. The only truth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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