Contains a good introductory overview of the history of the philosophy of mind and some related contemporary issues in philosophy as well as some interesting speculative explorations of the relationship of theoretical physics to consciousness to brain structure. Since it is written by a psychiatrist with an obvious interest in the actual functioning of human beings and a knowledge of brain anatomy and physiology that adds to its scope beyond the more theoretical issues involved. However, I think most professional philosophers would find the book a little crude and naive and most psychiatrists would not find the arguments for changing the entire framework of psychology compelling. I enjoyed the book because of its emphasis on the brain's structure and the idea of neuroplasticity, of ideas and beliefs and changes in consciousness as such changing the very structure of the brain, is intriguing. I think this book is pointing to some very important truths about the human mind in an introductory way.

Nothing short of an extraordinary read.
Having attained only a cursory knowledge about neuroplasticity from previous books, I found this to be enlightening all the way from premise to conclusion.

As often happens for me, the topic of the book was of interest to me, but the medical/scientific method of presenting many case studies to prove points exceeds my interest in the topic. I was looking more for a summation of what his research has caused him to conclude rather than the entire path he followed in doing research. The topic of the mind and brain interests me but I'm not a scientist. Schwartz' ideas are very important for their implication in dealing with the mind and the brain, in challenging scientific materialism and in offering to believers a connection to the scientific world.

This book sets out to prove to the reader that it is at least plausible that free will might not be an illusion; that our choices might not only be the product of non-sentient cells following deterministic trajectories, but that our inner "I" can in a top-down way control these cells (through "quantum mechanics"... we'll get into that more later in this review). By the time I finished this book, though, I felt even more persuaded of the opposite.

That said, this is a *good book* - well-written, well-researched, comprehensive, and I learned a lot from it. The first seven chapters describe how the brain assembles/develops, neuroplasticity, how the brain can fix itself and change. Schwartz continually tries to frame these changes as occurring thanks to the inner “I”, but even he acknowledges the changes can all still be explained from a purely physical, functionalist perspective.

On the one hand, if free will is an illusion, it would seem to be a good one. Our inner experience of actions we perceive as voluntary vs involuntary differs. Our inner experience of free will would seem to align well with a "top-down" view that some inner, metaphysical "I" controls our bodies, our cells, and even maybe our brains.

On the other hand, if you look at people suffering from dementia, schizophrenics, or anyone with brain damage -- it is clear that these problems are not a problem of "will." There are biological bases for these diseases. To me this evidence for a "bottom-up" approach to consciousness and volition.

Best parts:

pg 8: "Decades later, neuroscience has linked genetic mechanisms to neuronal circuits coursing with a multiplicity of neurotransmitters to argue that the brain is a machine whose behavior is predestined, or at least determined, in such a way as seemingly to leave no room for the will. It is not merely that the will is not free... it is more radically, that the will, a manifestation of mind, does not even exist, because a mind independent of brain does not exist." What is consciousness, anyway? Consciousness *feels* metaphysical. But if consciousness is fully rooted in physical processes, then “I” is material, and there is no problem then with “I” interacting with a physical world. (Free will is still tricky in this case, though)

pg 19: Free will may be an illusion, but we are dependent on believing in it in order to have a functional society.

pg 22: Love this short story! Hammers home the seeming paradox, how can we be both conscious and at the same time made out of materials, e.g. non-sentient cells/molecules

pg 26: "There is a difference between a programmed, deterministic mechanical response and the mental process we call consciousness. Consciousness is more than perceiving and knowing; it is knowing that you know." What about a programmed, deterministic machine built to know that it knows? Couldn't that be us?


Pg 122: wholly fascinating account of how deprivation of stimuli during critical periods can impair you for life. (Isn’t this an argument against free will?)

pg 128: Another reason not to do drugs as a teen! People always say that to kids, “your brain is still developing,” but they should read this book as well to understand they might be actually *damaging* their brains

pg 147: “Failure to use a deafferented limb reflected learned helplessness, not a motor incapacity.” This is really interesting

Pg 239: (about treatments for Tourette’s) “Many parents, concerned about the lack of information on the long-term effects of the medications on children, are understandably reluctant to keep their kids drugged”

pg 250: Schwartz makes a distinction between “top-down” and “bottom-up” plasticity, the former coming from higher processes in the brain, and the latter coming from e.g., change in sensory input over time.


After the beautiful sections on neuroplasticity and the way the brain works, we are then given three cringey chapters on how quantum mechanics saves free will. And this is what knocks the book down from 5 stars to 4 stars for me. Before I jump into my criticism, let me first just say, I don’t know everything, and some of these people who believe some of what Schwartz talks about here are pretty legit people (i.e., Eugene Wigner, Nobel Laureate). However… I know there are also many legit people who don’t believe this stuff. (And I’m considering those statements to be appeal to authority “heuristics” rather than “fallacies”). For reference, I’d say I’m a semi-legit person — physics grad student who has taken 6+ classes in quantum or classes that use quantum.

My understanding of the argument that Schwartz presents is, because of the collapse of the wavefunction due to observation in quantum mechanics, the conscious observer plays a critical role in shaping reality. There is a major problem with this argument already, which is that the observer that collapses the wavefunction in quantum mechanics does not have to be conscious. (actually, the observer is *usually* not conscious, since usually we use machines for these measurements…) Schwartz’s second argument seems to be that the mind observes the brain, and therefore collapses superpositions in the brain, to then allow for free will. In my opinion though this introduces more complexity and more questions than it solves. Where is “I” exactly and what is it made out of? Why does it only collapse the wavefunctions in the brain without collapsing wavefunctions outside the brain? Considering most people don’t have telekinetic powers?. Or from collapsing the wavefunctions inside other people’s brains?

Probably because the arguments are so weak and there’s no real way of proving what he’s saying, the whole quantum section becomes a bit tautological and contradictory. E.g., “Almost all scientists… believe that the observer stands apart from the observed, and that the act of observation… has no effect on the system being observed. That attitude usually works just fine. But it becomes a problem when the observing system is the same as the system being observed — when, that is, the mind is observing the brain.” (But I thought the whole point of the book was that the mind and the brain were different?)

Also even more horribly cringey that Schwartz tries to use Bell’s inequality/nonlocality in quantum physics to justify nonlocality between some sort of metaphysical “I” and the brain.

Also, pg 341, Schwartz tries to argue that self directed attention can change the brain, talking about the chances stroke victims have of recovering functioning, but in making his point he unmakes it by tying the ability to self-direct attention back to the physical brain: “If the attention circuits in the frontal lobes are damaged by the stroke, the patient recovers less well from injury to other regions of the brain than if the frontal lobes are spared.”

In summary, Schwartz has written a wonderfully convincing book against the existence of free will. Even though I personally have found myself believing more strongly that consciousness and free will are completely rooted in physical components, I still have questions! Including, how many brain cells makes a consciousness? What distinguishes a conscious pile of cells from a non-conscious pile of cells, and how would we be able to tell when in principle both could interact with the world equally "intelligently"?

Also, before reading this book, I used to think animals that don’t pass the mirror test aren’t conscious. But now, I’m not sure at all… how would we even know when we don’t really have a physical underpinning for consciousness? How would we know a rock wasn’t conscious? I’m serious though you guys…. :O

This book delivers new ideas about the independence of the mind, neuroplasticity of the adult brain, and cogently lays out the efficacy of quantum mechanics at the root of the mind/brain relationship. Also, the author writes some of the best descriptions of quantum mechanical effects and the brain research tales that empower the concepts. Very good book. Highly recommend.

Amazon review:

A groundbreaking work of science that confirms, for the first time, the independent existence of the mind–and demonstrates the possibilities for human control over the workings of the brain.

Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind' is merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain. Now in paperback, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley's groundbreaking work, The Mind and the Brain, argues exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life of its own.Dr Schwartz, a leading researcher in brain dysfunctions, and Wall Street Journal science columnist Sharon Begley demonstrate that the human mind is an independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical brain. Their work has its basis in our emerging understanding of adult neuroplasticity–the brain's ability to be rewired not just in childhood, but throughout life, a trait only recently established by neuroscientists.

This book is absolutely mind blowing! Schwartz resolves problems of mind-body duality by incorporating principles of quantum physics (in a very understandable way). So interesting. Very accessible. So many important questions answered!

Една от малкото адекватни книги за невронауките които съм слушал. Друга малко по-лека беше Neuropolis.

Rating 4.4

I love Brain Books!

Dr. Jefferey Schwartz is a Neuropsychiatrist (I was unaware there was such a thing) whose main expertise is helping OCD patients. He seems like a bit of a hippy and believes mindfulness from the Buddha doctrine offered a radically new approach to OCD treatment. This led to a regimen called the "Four Steps". Relabel, Reattribute, Refocus and Revalue. Basically a way to distract your brain with focusing your attention on better behaviors. At the time (late 80's) the approach to treat OCD was abrasive and just plain cruel. For example, if you were a person who needs to wash your hands every ten minutes they would ask you wipe your hands all over a public toilet seat to "help" overcome your fears. OKaaaay?! Allegedly they had a very high success rate. Dr. Schwartz believed the results were fake news!
He knew there was a better way. As more research discovered the brain was more malleable than originally thought and Dr. Schwartz had to look into what was coined Neuroplasticity. He knew if the compulsive brain could be distracted with better behaviors then the brain could change itself mentally and down to the neuron level, physically. And he was right. This book is all about this quest to learn and understand more. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend to anyone looking to understand more about how the mind affects the brain!

p.278
"In quantum theory, experience is the essential reality, and matter is viewed as a representation of the primary reality, which experience." - Stapp

This book took me way longer to finish than is reasonable. That may have contributed to my frustration. But the book is frustrating for many legitimate reasons. It claims to be a book about how the mind, an immaterial substance, influences the brain, a physical substance. But it takes almost 200 pages before the authors really get to that point. Before that, it is just a series of reflections on the history of neuroplasticity research. Also, there are no citations so the curious reader can't easily look deeper when something of interest comes up.

While much of the history is interesting, it is tangential to the point. For example, dozens of pages are filled with discussions of legal battles surrounding testing on moneys. Interesting. But not what the readers want.

With that said, the key insight of the book is great. Schwartz's research demonstrates how mental activity can cause physical changes in the brain. This has been seen in Schwartz's OCD patients who were able to refrain from giving into compulsions and refocus their thoughts elsewhere, which ultimately created new neural pathways and eliminated the compulsions. If Schwartz is correct, his research deals a serious blow to materialism.

Schwartz goes into weird territory, however, when he jumps head first into quantum mechanics. His position is that quantum mechanics, specifically the Quantum Zeno Effect, provides the physical mechanism for the mind interacting with the brain. The proposal is interesting, if not a bit weird.

Overall, if you're interested in philosophy of mind or neuroscience, you probably need to read this book. But be judicious. Not all the history is necessary, so perhaps skim over that information

I really enjoyed this book as an additional introduction to neuroplasticity. Throw in some philosophy, quantum physics, and some fascinating history and you have a book that's educational and interesting at the same time.

I was fascinated by this book. From neurology to quantum physics to existential philosophy, the author covers enormous territory in pursuit of an interesting idea - that the mind exists as a force of nature independent of the the brain. Scientific determinists have long argued that the chemical and synapitic make-up of the brain determines who we are. That all of our behaviors and beliefs are essentially pre-determined by the chemical and synaptic make-up of the brain.



Schwartz rebels against this deterministic view and produces a step-by-step refutation based on research in several scientific fields but most prominantly from his work with OCD patients in which he was successful in retraining the behavior and remapping the brain. He notes that research in the last 20 years has provided overwhelming evidence of brain neuroplasicty (essentially the ability of the brain to alter it's own physical make-up over time based on experience). Going a step further he higlights that concerted mental effort that has the ability to physically alter brain physiololgy. For example, there was an experiment conducted with two sets of volunteers in which one was told to repeatedly practice a smiple five finger piano exercise and the other was told to only think about practicing the same exercise. The result? Not only did the repeated practice rewire the motor cortex of the brain, but thinking about the exercise had the same degree of impact on cortical remapping. In other words, mental effort altered the physical make-up of the brain.



Beyond traditional neuroanatomy, however, Schwartz also seeks in quantum mechanics an explanation for how something non-physical like the mind can affect something physical. While the correllation here seems less definitive, there is ample room for quantum mechanical explations to provide the basis for his general thesis. I admit that there were times, when his theories developed a neo-religious tone, that he sounded a little nutty. However, ultimately the book is a tour deforce of theory refuting the Cartesion divide between mind and brain. I strongly recommend it for those interested in physchology, neuroanatomy or existential philosophy.

This was an amazing book that is perfect for people who have brain injuries and deal with Neurological issues. It goes deep medically, and breaks down issues you may have. For me it gave me facts I didn't know about my Cerebral Palsy. Amazing.