James Haggers
(Won WooJin)

back

Book Review
The Private Life of the Brain:
Emotions, Consciousness and the Secret of the Self
by Susan A. Greenfield

This absorbing book delves into the inner workings and development of the mind, a subject matter compelling to any person with Buddhist interests. Susan Greenfield an Oxford neuroscientist puts forward a convincing framework of how different states of consciousness occur as a result of shifting configurations of neurons or brain cells (of which we each have over 100 billion).

The basic premise is that the mind may be the personalization of the physical brain and that this personalization is driven not so much by genes as by individual experiences. This is important as it means that the concepts of memory, mind and Self would be closely related. The book hypothesizes that emotion is the most basic form of consciousness and that the more the mind predominates over raw emotion the deeper the consciousness. That is, the mind develops as the brain does, both on a species level and individual level as genetic programming is surpassed by personal experience based learning.

The author analyses a number of states of consciousness in terms of their neural correlate. In summary, she considers four interrelated factors i) extent of connectivity of the neurons ii) speed of arousal iii) assembly size or number of neurons involved and iv) how frequently this assembly changes.1

For instance childhood is typically characterized by little neuronal connectivity, small assembly sizes, easy or high arousal states, and fast turnover of assemblies, .. that is children are emotional and easily distracted. A similar configuration is also created with drugs, whether it be alcohol or something more illicit. Thought processes and personalized neuronal connections breakdown, confusion increases and all that is left is the building block of consciousness, raw feeling. The possibility is to be trapped in the present, with time slowing down.

The book considers a number of states including nightmares (fear), pain, the junkie and the depressive. The similarities and differences of neuronal state are interesting and indeed serve as a means to potentially further understand or intellectually question these conditions.

It touches fleetingly on the Buddhist meditator, which it characterizes as having large neuronal groupings. Interestingly this state is also associated with pain or the depressive (where the problem is one of inner resources tilting the balance away from the sensuality of the outside world. As with anxiety this is caused by a compulsive iteration and reiteration of potential future events some unlikely to even happen). However, importantly it differentiates how this large assembly is formed and maintained in the meditator- not by internal or external stimuli but by extensive and pervasive neuronal connections developed over many periods of meditation.
The book deals with a cutting edge scientific subject matter in a manner engaging to any reader and though the theories are subjective it is a thought-provoking read.