The Embodied Mind
Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies
Published on 5. October 2021
258 pages
978-1-64313-800-8 (ISBN)
Description
As groundbreaking synthesis that promises to shift our understanding of the mind-brain connection and its relationship with our bodies.
We understand the workings of the human body as a series of interdependent physiological relationships: muscle interacts with bone as the heart responds to hormones secreted by the brain, all the way down to the inner workings of every cell. To make an organism function, no one component can work alone. In light of this, why is it that the accepted understanding that the physical phenomenon of the mind is attributed only to the brain?
In The Embodied Mind, internationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas R. Verny sets out to redefine our concept of the mind and consciousness. He brilliantly compiles new research that points to the mind's ties to every part of the body.
The Embodied Mind collects disparate findings in physiology, genetics, and quantum physics in order to illustrate the mounting evidence that somatic cells, not just neural cells, store memory, inform genetic coding, and adapt to environmental changes-all behaviors that contribute to the mind and consciousness. Cellular memory, Verny shows, is not just an abstraction, but a well-documented scientific fact that will shift our understanding of memory.
Verny describes single-celled organisms with no brains demonstrating memory, and points to the remarkable case of a French man who, despite having a brain just a fraction of the typical size, leads a normal life with a family and a job. The Embodied Mind shows how intelligence and consciousness-traits traditionally attributed to the brain alone-also permate our entire being. Bodily cells and tissues use the same molecular mechanisms for memory as our brain, making our mind more fluid and adaptable than we could have ever imaged.
More details
Person
Thomas R. Verny is a clinical psychiatrist and the author of eight of books, including The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, which was published in 27 countries and 47 scientific papers. He has previously taught at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, York University (Toronto), and St. Mary's University.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Do Genes Matter?
- Chapter Two: The Brain: How It Remembers What It Remembers
- Chapter Three: The Immune System: This Doctor Makes House Calls
- Chapter Four: Mysteries of the Human Cell
- Chapter Five: The Intelligence of Single-Celled Organisms
- Chapter Six: Regeneration, Hibernation, and Metamorphosis
- Chapter Seven: The Wisdom of the Body
- Chapter Eight: Heart Transplants: Personality Transplants?
- Chapter Nine: The Brain-Mind Conundrum and the Rise of Quantum Biology
- Chapter Ten: Significance
- Photographs
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Endnotes
- Bibiliography
- References
- Index
- Copyright
