Routledge Between Mind and Brain: Models of the Mind and Models in the Mind

This book begins with an exploration of the relationship between mind and brain. It then examines various psychoanalytic models of the mind and moves to the task of the analyst to discover the unconscious models that shape his or her patients' picture of him/herself and others.The familiar models are mainly drawn from psychoanalytic practice but are supplemented from myths, religion, and literature. Developments in adjacent scientific fields such as quantum biology and new ideas about evolution are discussed that suggest cellular genetic modification can take place as a consequence of interaction with the outside world. This gives hope perhaps to the idea that not only the mind can learn from experience but also the brain. Review "Learned, lucid and original, Britton sets out a modern account of psychoanalysis amidst the major intellectual and scientific currents of the twenty-first century. Post-Darwin, post-Newtonian mechanics and in the light of neuroscience, we must find new conceptions both of the mind and of the behaviour of Homo sapiens. Britton's work impresses and enlightens because, as one of our generation's truly outstanding clinicians, he never departs from the discipline of psychoanalytic investigation. Britton's discussion of natural, unnatural and supernatural belief in human affairs, and the inevitability of the deepest levels of phantasy that exist at the core of language, thought, and world view, offers profound insight both to specialist and non-specialist alike."--David Taylor, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at Institute of Psychoanalysis, Clinical Director, Tavistock Adult Depression Study; and Visiting Professor at UCL Psychoanalysis Department About the Author Ronald Britton