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This is so interesting! Other research has also convinced me that conscious effort of the mind can alter the physical reality of our bodies...for example when women believe they are pregnant and begin to experience symptoms of pregnancy (such as morning sickness and weight gain) and the effectiveness of placebos (when people believe they are receiving a drug and then experience the expected effect of that drug when they actually didn’t take it). Both the experience of pregnancy and of taking a drug rely on brain functioning to materialize, providing examples of when the “mind” actually impacts the brain, just as the example cited by EB above. The idea that these completely abstract and subjective understandings of reality can impact brain functioning seems to question the idea that the brain is the sole entity influencing behavior.

I also resist the idea that the brain equals behavior because of my, I believe innate, need to feel that I have free will. One paradigm that bothers me in psychology is the nature/nurture debate that considers both biological and environmental factors arising in behavior and identity, a model that does not take into account what an individual chooses to do. I would like to think that somebody genetically identical to me who has lived exactly the same life, might at various junctures, due to some aspects of identity unrelated to biology or environment, make different choices than myself. Considering behaviors with only these variables in mind calls into question whether or not I can be held truly accountable for my actions (in the religious sense). I would like to think that I am who I am, for better or worse, largely due to my own conscious choices and not merely the result of my genetics and experiences. Perhaps this is because I was raised Roman Catholic and Quaker and believe that I should be held accountable for all my actions. Perhaps I am resisting the most rational and parsimonious explanation because it threatens the existence of a soul. At the same time, I am reminded of what we talked about in class, and a quote by Samuel Butler:

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises”

Science is indeed a mode of thinking and drawing conclusions that each human being engages in from the time they are infants. Everyone tries to make sense of their environment and that necessarily entails trying to draw conclusions so as to make somewhat helpful predictions about future events as well as to negotiate ones appropriate place in an environment. This quote also acknowledges that there can be no truth acquired from these investigations. Some reasons for why these premises would be insufficient could be the fact that the brain mediates all subjective experiences of reality. We cannot know definitively that something is true because that is only what our brain tells us. Some of you may have seen a movie called Waking Life, thus titled because it refers to the state of the mind in dream sleep. The movie (among many other interesting topics) explores the possibility of being in a state other than wakefulness and believing oneself to be living daily life…a premise I know has been explored in other media but worth considering all the same as it reminds of the overarching domain of the brain over all experience and reality.

Within the context of science as an evolving story, the brain=behavior model does seem well-supported from observations also coming from science. I have knowledge and beliefs about the soul and the mind and the brain that all impact my functioning through brain behaviors. So basically I am still on the fence about this topic. I find Dickinson’s explanation more likely even if it violates my belief in the mind that rests partially on sentimentality (which is itself an experience mediated by the brain). I also have not learned much about the brain so feel my opinions are thus far insufficiently justified…

Sorry this is so long...