Feeling into the Source of Self with neuropsychologist Mark Solms
Oct 30, 2024
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Mark Solms, a renowned South African psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, delves into the intricate connections between consciousness, emotions, and dreaming. He shares his personal journey sparked by childhood trauma, revealing how his brother’s brain injury shaped his fascination with the mind-body connection. Solms emphasizes the importance of feelings in understanding consciousness and challenges traditional views by highlighting the brainstem's vital role. Their discussion critiques conventional psychology's neglect of emotional depth, urging a more subjective approach to human experience.
Emotions play a pivotal role in cognition, acting as the essential mechanisms through which individuals navigate their conscious experiences.
Mark Solms' personal journey, triggered by childhood trauma, illustrates how personal experiences can shape our understanding of consciousness and identity.
The podcast emphasizes the need to integrate subjective emotional experiences into neuroscience, challenging traditional academic views that often prioritize objective measures.
Deep dives
The Intersection of Feelings and Cognition
Feelings play a crucial role in understanding cognition, as they serve as an underlying mechanism through which individuals navigate their experiences. The podcast discusses how emotions, often overlooked in scientific discourse, can be central to our conscious and mental lives. This connection is explored in the context of Mark Solms' work, which emphasizes the need to integrate subjective experiences into the study of the brain and mind. By investigating how feelings inform cognition, we begin to appreciate the depth of our experiences and the complexity of consciousness.
The Importance of Personal Experience
Mark Solms shares his personal journey, which begins with a traumatic event from his childhood that sparked his lifelong quest to understand consciousness. The accident involving his brother profoundly impacted Mark's perception of identity and the relationship between mind and body. He grappled with the unsettling realization that a person's essence could be altered due to physical injury, which propelled him into the fields of neuroscience and psychoanalysis. This narrative illustrates how personal experiences shape our understanding of broader psychological and neuroscientific concepts.
Challenging the Science of Consciousness
The traditional academic view often marginalizes the study of subjective experiences in favor of objective measures, leading to a disconnect between feelings and cognitive processes. Solms recalls how his early academic environment discouraged inquiries into emotional and subjective phenomena, labeling these questions as detrimental to a scientific career. He highlights a key moment in his research, revealing that feelings originate not in the cortex, as commonly believed, but in deeper brain structures that inform cognition. This pivotal realization underscores the importance of reexamining the foundations of neuroscience and acknowledging the significance of feelings in our understanding of consciousness.
Homeostasis and Consciousness
Solms introduces the concept of homeostasis as fundamental to our understanding of consciousness, suggesting that feelings guide us in maintaining balance within our biological systems. He discusses how feelings reflect our needs and desires, acting as a gauge for wellbeing and survival. This perspective aligns emotional states with biological imperatives, emphasizing that feelings are not merely byproducts but essential components of consciousness. By exploring the relationship between feelings and biological demands, we gain insight into how consciousness is fundamentally intertwined with our bodily experiences.
Rethinking Freud and Subjectivity
Solms draws connections between modern neuroscience and the foundational ideas of Sigmund Freud, advocating for a revival of interest in subjectivity within science. He argues that Freud's exploration of feelings and drives offers valuable insights into the nature of consciousness and the mind-body relationship. By recognizing that subjective experiences can be integral to scientific inquiry, we can enhance our understanding of mental health and human behavior. This holistic approach invites a more inclusive perspective in the scientific community, bridging the gap between emotions and the study of the mind.
Consciousness is feeling. Thoughts are ways we maintain our homeostasis. A quick conversation with Mark Solms and Andrea Hiott on the topics of Mark's book The Hidden Spring.
Mark Solms is a South African psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience. He is the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology), President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association, and Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association. He founded the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society in 2000 and is a Founding Editor of the journal Neuropsychoanalysis.
The Mysteries of the Mind: From Childhood Trauma to Neuroscience Insights In this thought-provoking episode, we uncover a deeply personal journey sparked by a childhood trauma that led to a fascination with the brain and consciousness. Join us as a dedicated neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst shares how their brother's severe brain injury at a young age ignited a lifelong quest to understand the mind-body connection. We explore reflections on mortality, the challenges within academia, and pivotal discoveries about the brainstem's role in consciousness. Delve into Freud's neuroscience roots, the subjective nature of the mind, and how feelings underpin our conscious experiences. This episode bridges historical perspectives with contemporary research, offering profound insights into the architecture of consciousness and the essence of human awareness. #consciousness#rawfeeling#neuropsychiatry#freud#loveandphilosophy#hiddenspring#marksolms
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Stage 00:24 A Childhood Trauma: The Accident 01:46 The Aftermath: Brother's Transformation 02:43 Early Realizations: Mind-Body Connection 08:20 Existential Questions and Depression 15:59 Academic Pursuits: Neuroscience and Consciousness 23:18 Discovering Freud and Psychoanalysis 26:07 The Struggle with Subjective Experience in Academia 26:53 Personal Reflections on Pain and Guilt 28:37 The Embarrassment of Subjective Mind in Science 29:24 Behaviorism and the Exclusion of the Mind
