Book Review: Pictures of the Mind

Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are
Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
FT Press, 2010

Here's a book on brain imaging, and it turns out to have everything to do with communication. After all, communication of any sort originates in a brain (mind) and is directed to other brains (minds). Beyond that, people find it easy to believe they understand their own actions, moral values, and identity. Many people even believe that their memories given a clear and complete picture of their lives. This book addresses all of those questions, and the answers will enlighten readers.

Pictures of the Mind opens with a discussion of the differences among people in different non-responsive states; some are essentially dead, some not. Work on those distinctions should matter a grat deal to anyone whose loved one(s) cannot respond to stimuli. In fact, because accidents or illnesses can put anyone in such a state, this matters for all of us.


Having made a strong beginning with that important topic, Pictures of the Mind goes on to examine a new understanding of how people can change their personalities (emotional responses to life) by effort and why that matters so much, which includes a discussion of something I have learned from experience, that meditation is a more effective treatment than medication for some illnesses.

The chapter on happiness should help cheer readers after the serious topics, and happiness turns out to have a serious side itself because happiness and health go together. This also marks Pictures of the Mind as more than a discussion of illness; health, mental as well as physical, needs study. Then comes  unhappiness; the next fascinating finding is that addicts have important brain responses in common with people who suffer chronic pain; progress in studying one might lead to progress with the other. This chapter adds a great deal more to that finding.

The most interesting part of the entire book for many readers will be the chapter on morality. This addresses whether the "brain" is exactly the same as the "mind" as well as the fact that the brain handles different moral decisions in measurably different ways, with contradictory results. Equally interesting, young brains do not have the same capacities or the same responses as grown-up brains. A fascinating discussion of legal and moral responsibility ensues, considering both people with impairments and "normal" (no measurable defects) citizens. Of course, spirituality, religion, and whether they are separate from the mind become a running thread in this section.

The chapter on memory (including releasing the power of or even removing traumatic experiences) and the concluding chapter on the "self" continue the fascinating quest to understand what it means to be human. The author is considerate enough to include a list of resources at the end of her book, so readers can continue learning about this fascinating subject.

Trusting souls

Dislcaimer: I am ordained through the Universal Life Church. I don't encourage you to blindly take my word any more than I want you to do that with anyone else.

Well, now it's the Pope. He's only accused of letting it go on, but now there's no level of the Catholic Church not touched by the child-molesting scandals. Just to add to the cringe factor, a preacher close to "Il Papa" recently compared the continued accusations of priestly assaults on children to centuries of persecution of the Jews. The self-righteousness is no news in child-molesting cases, especially by clergy, but this level of it truly brings nausea. There's still more underneath, though, and it's not limited to Catholics or to Christians in general. This failing doesn't really have anything to do with religious beliefs; it's about belief in people, not gods.

Mixing faith with money and power is a mistake that plagues the human race. Starting from fields that focus on money, we can at least suggest regulating banks, brokers and insurance companies so that we don't have to depend upon the honesty of the Bernie Madoffs of this world. Even at that level, the people don't want to accept regulation, but we can talk about it and in many places succeed in regulating rather than blindly trusting.

Moving right along to power, political regimes vary widely. Whereever one person or group is in charge, corruption and abuse are predictable. Having two parties, as in the USA, improves the situation somewhat because the parties will keep an eye on each other in order to get ammunition for election campaigns. Sometimes it's possible to pass regulations that limit the excesses of campaigns and other abuses, and occasionally those laws require transparency, leading to the possibility of exposure of abuses outside the framework of parties by "cause" organizations or people with a personal interest. Other countries with more parties and/or more transparency may do a better job; I would need extensive research to know.

Then there's faith. Oh, boy. People who claim to speak for God, the gods, or whatever you worship can be sincere. It gets more difficult to stay that way when they realize that the aura of deity can conceal any number of past sins and current issues. A priest in Wisconsin took young boys to his cabin in the woods for some private time, as did the priest in my home town with his own cabin, both many years ago now. Were either of these men a banker, politician or ordinary person, the parents could have threatened exposure based simply on the appearance or possibility of molesting, and that very likely would have happened. Clergy has the cover of the parents' blind belief not in their gods but in the people who claim to represent those gods. The priests' activities came to light decades later. The one in Wisconsin died well before anyone asked questions, and he had long ago been removed from ministry over the same issue, but apparently the Church did not see fit to follow up or warn anyone about him. He had a more comfortable life than almost any other child molester simply because he was clergy.

School teachers, these days, are watched closely. Scout leaders too. It's past time to bring organizations of religion (any religion) into the clear light of day. We need to keep believing in the values of education, nature and spirituality. We just can't go on trusting anyone blindly.