The brain is a tangible organ that can be touched, felt, measured and evaluated. It is pure biology. The mind, on the other hand, is a psychological construct with many theoretical frameworks that try to explain it. But to this day there is no unanimously accepted theory that tells us what the mind is. Although it is something non-tangible, that is, something that we cannot touch, and that we measure indirectly. The mind is supposed to be a product of the biological part of the brain.
The brain has two parts, and this is fairly well agreed upon. A conscious mind in which there is a cognitive product in the form of thought and an emotional product. This conscious part is what allows me to develop a series of psychological constructs such as personal identity, the self, the awareness of my individuality. That is why the theories of evolutionary psychology say, although there is controversy here too, that the mind as such in boys and girls begins to develop around the age of two, which is when they become aware of their individuality.
The mind is a subjective production. I believe that I feel, that I identify myself, the self-concept and so on, and I assume that others also have a mind that allows them to have all that inner world. That is why the latest trends in neuropsychology speak of the transcendence of the mind. That is, as something transcendental that is very difficult to measure.
Metacognition encompasses all the major higher cognitive abilities such as language, calculation, abstract thinking and creativity and refers to what I think about. This metacognition is “I think about how I think and how I feel.”
The question of the mind/brain duality dates back to ancient times, although the most “current” author who theorized about it was the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes with his idea that we are body and mind. But all this comes from Plato when he said that the body is that which I can understand, it is the biological product that I can touch and measure, and the mind, which he identified with the soul, as that which connects us with the world of ideas, an eternal and perfect realm where the pure forms of things exist. This idea of duality has been outdated for decades.
Today, many theoretical schools of psychology, such as cognitive-behavioral models, tell us that the mind is only a product of the brain and that it has two parts, the conscious and the unconscious. One of the latest definitions of the mind is that of the American neuroscientist David Eagleman, who says that the mind thinks about itself and has the capacity to think and feel. Eagleman unifies the concept of socio-emotional intelligence. The mind, he says, is not only the one that has the capacity to think, to think about myself and to observe myself thinking, but it also has the capacity to feel and to observe myself feeling. Therefore, I assume that the other person also has a mind that allows him to think and feel.
As to whether the mind is exclusively a human product, the first studies carried out in the psychology of thought were with higher mammals. In fact, it was Darwin who laid the foundations of emotional psychology when he began to observe how some animals are self-aware. There are animals such as the blue whale, the dolphin, the elephant and others that have been shown to be aware that when they are subjected to the mirror test, they are aware that the reflection they see in the mirror is themselves.
There are currents of thought that defend that animals have a mind that allows them to think about themselves and that it is a product of the entire biological process generated by the brain.
As to whether mental illnesses are of the mind or the brain, the latest study published two years ago in the scientific journal Neuronan exhaustive meta-analysis, says that there is no sustained modification in the brain that justifies a mental illness and that limiting it to a biological issue is very reductionist. So, when a differential diagnosis is made and organic diseases such as brain tumors, etc., are ruled out, and I am left with major depression, psychosis or paranoia, we know that it is a production of the cognitive and emotional elaboration that generates this distortion. It is true that it improves with some medications, but we also know that it is therapy that helps in this cure.
Carmen Sarabia Cobo She is a nurse and a doctor in Psychology, a professor at the University of Cantabria, and a specialist in neuropsychology, dementia and old age. She coordinates the IDIVAL Nursing research group.
Question sent via email by Antonio Loma-Ossorio Blanch.
Coordination and writing: Victoria Toro.
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