When the theory that humans were made of clay by some great anthropomorphism in the sky had dissipated, there was room for the incredible new understandings of how primates became hominins. At first it was a matter of getting better at tools and language, but then came the revelation of metaphor. And after that, the ability to work as groups because of communication that allowed shared goals and even empathy. We’re still working on that.
Parallel, some researchers began to understand how atoms became molecules that could carry DNA from conception to fruition and then to death. The human brain first develops the capacity to sense the world, limited though it may be in the womb, and then these senses begin to build a map of the world and how to operate in it. It takes three years after birth for the genome to build a brain connectome elaborate enough to support walking and talking — if all goes well.
Part of the reason birth is necessarily unfinished is that so much of the world is other people who need to be confronted for the brain map. Humans are mammals who must stay with the milk and protection of caregivers and that involves intimate contact, a relationship — a “virtual” connection face-to-face between infant and adult — is formed during the necessary acts. This is called “attachment.”
In the research-supported theory of embodiment, the forming and source of thought and memory are not just in the mind but also in the muscles and organs of the whole body: eventually the legs remember how to pedal a bike and the guts remember how to digest hamburgers.
We become able to think and talk through the development of the third branch of the vagus nerve that connects the brain stem directly to the “frame of reference” in the face and shoulders, which develop the necessary connectome areas for speech. This supports emotion, which is a global body condition guided by molecules in the blood that originate in organs prompted by the connectome. Since part of this is the control of breathing and heart beat plus the rest of the vascular systems that carry information, emotion can be seen in the “frame of reference”. Thus, an observant person can see how another person feels.
Once we learned to write, our memories expanded exponentially across time and place. Our ability to record ideas in metaphors and our ability to read has also expanded our essential skull-enclosed and skin-contained identities until they are stories and theories that include the community. Beyond that, we are also defined by what we can imagine even if it doesn’t exist. Our essential experiences not only create our attachment styles, our identities, but also can make corrections and elaborations to them as we continue in the world.
All this is explored in the book called “Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human,” by Daniel J. Siegel, MD. Preparation in biochemistry did not prohibit him from perceiving and valuing the emotional side of his patients, though the system at that time defined emotion as irrelevant disinformation. He was criticized and took time to think about it. Exploring the thought systems that developed in Asia instead of Europe encouraged him to escape the rigid rationalism of early psychiatry in his beginnings, even to accept psychotherapy at a time when it was considered mere narcissism. Since then he has produced a stream of books, each more enlightening than the last. He has continued to watch the minutia of unfolding the mind.
Two areas of research had just begun in this book, only enough information to intrigue. One was the structure of ways the two sides of the brain interact and reconcile. The other was about the thin layers of cells we call the cortex that wrap every surface of the cerebellum. More thin layers of cortex wrap around a human brain than a primate brain — up to six -- and appear to record our new skills. One seems to be a map of directions: which way there is food and which way to escape danger.
Another seems to have a map of the body, distorted because the parts are drawn according to the richness of the information coming and going in the various parts: big hands, big face. Siegel is interested in a columnar approach — up and down through the layers in a “silo” — because he suspects that the sensations that are handled in layer 1 --which must have been there since the beginning -- are evidently sent “up” to the layers 5 and 6 which are capable of forming the raw code of perception into concepts and meanings.
Psychiatry is meant to include the health of the mechanisms of the body and treat them as possible and necessary, including medicine. Psychology is not meant to diagnose or meddle in the body, but to accumulate information about how it works. My understanding of psychotherapy is recreating the original virtual world that was begun between infant and caregiver. It will necessarily result in the brain prompting the body to vary the molecules traveling through the system, sometimes with healing effects. It ought to clarify the infant maps.
The metaphors of narration are “embodied” by actors and much of considerable overlap exists in the theory and training theories of the actor and the “virtual space” that can be created between performance on a stage and an audience that has focused on them. The manipulation and vitality of live acting is incredibly expanded by modern communication. Siegel’s openness to the existence of wireless structures we can’t see but can use is another value of this book. He even mentions “quantum entanglement” which proposes persisting connections between atoms over great distances.
This whole exploration, which goes far beyond embodiment, is of crucial importance to a writer whose words originate in ideas and understanding as well as the performance of print or image on a page or screen. I’m only halfway through the reading and there is a new book coming after this one. Now I’ll finish the first reading and go back to read again, taking notes to record a glossary that will guide further thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment