Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of the Subjective Experience

Featuring an introduction by Oliver SacksThe "inner world" of the mind (being a mind and living a life) was the traditional preserve of psychoanalysis and related disciplines. Neuroscientists did not consider subjective mental states like consciousness, emotion, and dreaming, to be serious topics for brain research. However, in recent years—following the demise of behaviorism, the advent of functional brain imaging technology, and the emergence of a molecular neurobiology—these topics have suddenly assumed center stage in many leading neuroscientific laboratories around the world. Not surprisingly, this has produced an explosion of new insights into the natural laws that govern our inner life.The Brain and the Inner World is an eagerly awaited account of this momentous and ongoing revolution, elaborated for the general reader by two pioneers of the field. The book takes the nonspecialist reader on a guided tour through the exciting new discoveries, pointing out along the way how old psychodynamic concepts are being forged into a new scientific framework for understanding subjective experience.MARK SOLMS is a neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst who has done pioneering research into brain mechanisms of dreaming. He is co-chair of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Society and, with Karen Kaplan-Solms, author of Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis.OLIVER TURNBULL is a Cambridge-trained neuropsychologist. He has published widely in neuroscientific journals, primarily on topics of visuo-spatial perception. He is Secretary of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Society.