A Scientific Explanation of the Human Mind | Daniel Siegel

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Published on Mar 5, 2017

Back in 1988, Pixies asked the catchy question: “Where is my mind?”. Now, nearly 30 years later, UCLA psychiatry professor Daniel Siegel has a revolutionary answer. We’ve come to accept that the brain is the instrument that plays the mind, but Siegel takes it one step further by positing that your mind isn’t limited to the confines of your skull, or even the barrier of your skin anywhere in your body. Your mind is emergent – it’s beyond your physiology, and it exists in many different places at once. Daniel Siegel’s most recent book is Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human

One aspect of the mind, beyond subjective experience, consciousness, maybe even information processing, these are facets of the mind that are good descriptions, let’s just put those to the side for now. This fourth facet of the mind has a definition, not just a description. This facet of the mind can be defined this way: the emergent self-organizing embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information. And if we take that apart step-by-step we can see that the system we’re talking about is called a complex system, that means it’s open to influences from outside of itself, it’s capable of being chaotic and it’s non-linear meaning small inputs have large and difficult to predict results. When you have those three characteristics math says that system is a complex system. And once we’re in the realm of complex systems we find that these complex systems have what are called emergent properties, the interaction of the elements of the system give rise to these properties that cannot be reduced to the singular elements that are interactions give rise to them.

Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human

A New York Times Bestseller.

A scientist’s exploration into the mysteries of the human mind.
What is the mind? What is the experience of the self truly made of? How does the mind differ from the brain? Though the mind’s contents?its emotions, thoughts, and memories?are often described, the essence of mind is rarely, if ever, defined.

In this book, noted neuropsychiatrist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Siegel, MD, uses his characteristic sensitivity and interdisciplinary background to offer a definition of the mind that illuminates the how, what, when, where, and even why of who we are, of what the mind is, and what the mind’s self has the potential to become. MIND takes the reader on a deep personal and scientific journey into consciousness, subjective experience, and information processing, uncovering the mind’s self-organizational properties that emerge from both the body and the relationships we have with one another, and with the world around us. While making a wide range of sciences accessible and exciting?from neurobiology to quantum physics, anthropology to psychology?this book offers an experience that addresses some of our most pressing personal and global questions about identity, connection, and the cultivation of well-being in our lives.

Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human

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