Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century: Edward F. Kelly: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Irreducible Mind

Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

Irreducible Mind

Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

Description

Current mainstream opinion in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind holds that all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by physical processes occurring in brains. Views of this sort have dominated recent scholarly publication. The present volume, however, demonstrates_empirically_that this reductive materialism is not only incomplete but false. The authors systematically marshal evidence for a variety of psychological phenomena that are extremely difficult, and in some cases clearly impossible, to account for in conventional physicalist terms. Topics addressed include phenomena of extreme psychophysical influence, memory, psychological automatisms and secondary personality, near-death experiences and allied phenomena, genius-level creativity, and 'mystical' states of consciousness both spontaneous and drug-induced. The authors further show that these rogue phenomena are more readily accommodated by an alternative 'transmission' or 'filter' theory of mind/brain relations advanced over a century ago by a largely forgotten genius, F. W. H. Myers, and developed further by his friend and colleague William James. This theory, moreover, ratifies the commonsense conception of human beings as causally effective conscious agents, and is fully compatible with leading-edge physics and neuroscience. The book should command the attention of all open-minded persons concerned with the still-unsolved mysteries of the mind.

Chapter 0 Introduction
Chapter 0 Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 A View from the Mainstream: Contemporary Cognitive Neuroscience and the Consciousness Debates: - A compact history of 20th-century psychology from behaviorism to present-day cognitive neuroscience, emphasizing the inability of these theories to account fo
Chapter 2 F. W. H. Myers and the Empirical Study of the Mind-Body Problem: - An introduction to Myers, an important but neglected figure in 19th-century psychology whose work supports the view that mind is not generated by the brain but instead limited and constrai
Chapter 3 Psychophysiological Influence: - A review of numerous phenomena such as placebo, stigmata, and hypnotic suggestion that demonstrate the influence of mental states on the body. Beginning with phenomena now generally accepted because they appear compatible
Chapter 4 Memory: - A critique of "trace" theories of memory, which have been taken as axiomatic by generations of psychologists and neuroscientists but are fraught with profound empirical and conceptual difficulties including those posed by a substantial body of w
Chapter 5 Automatism and Secondary Centers of Consciousness: - An examination of phenomena such as automatic writing and multiple personality that involve conscious psychological processes occurring outside, and often simultaneously with, ordinary waking consciousn
Chapter 6 Unusual Experiences Near Death and Related Phenomena: - An overview of near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, apparitions and deathbed visions, and related phenomena, emphasizing near-death experiences that occur under general anesthesia or duri
Chapter 7 Genius: - A discussion of the importance and challenge of genius level creativity for scientific psychology, emphasizing the need to move beyond pathologizing and to situate genius within an adequate general theory of human mind and personality
Chapter 8 Mystical Experience: - An overview of psychological and physiological dimensions of this large and humanly vital - but scientifically neglected - family of "ecstatic" states of consciousness, which sometimes occur spontaneously or in response to psychede
Chapter 9 Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century: - Having argued throughout for an enlarged scientific psychology that returns to psychology's great central problems and addresses the mind-body problem empirically, the authors conclude by showing that the theore
Chapter 10 About the Authors
Chapter 11 References
Chapter 12 Appendix: An Annotated Introductory Bibliography of Psychical Research

Product details

Published	Nov 16 2009
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	832
ISBN	9781442202061
Imprint	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

The authors have not only plausibly argued that the empirical and conceptual horizon of science, particularly the science of the human mind, is both capable and in dire need of expansion, but-and I use this strong term deliberately-they have proven it.

Andreas Sommer, junior research fellow in history and philosophy of science, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Journal Of Mind and Behavior
a comprehensive review of empirical evidence that questions the assumption that "properties of minds will ultimately be fully explained by those of brains"...Kelly et al. deserve to be praised for their courage and scholarship in dealing with such a controversial topic.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida & Harold Koenig, Duke University, Journal Of Nervous and Mental Disease
Thoroughly scientific, systematically reasoned and courageous... as exciting and enjoyable as it is provocative and profound!

David J. Hufford, Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine
Irreducible Mind is an enormous and daring enterprise. Its scholarship is impressive... and made me think long and hard about many issues.

Etzel Cardeña, Thorsen Professor of Psychology, Lund University, PsycCRITIQUES
a must-read for anyone working in consciousness studies, psychology and the history of science.

Jonathan Edelman, Oxford University
a monumental work...Only a very resistant observer will remain unpersuaded that a proportion, as least, of all this carefully evaluated data presents a significant challenge to conventional views

Paul Marshall, PhD, BSc, RGN, RMN, Journal of Consciousness Studies