Foundations Of Mind Research Articles

Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications.

Mental Illnesses, particularly anxiety, insomnia, and depression often involve vicious cycles which are self-perpetuating and can trap one into a more chronic state. For example in the case of insomnia, sympathetic overactivity, intrusive thoughts, and emotional instability due to sleep loss can perpetuate further sleep loss the next night and so on. In this article, we put forward a perspective on breaking these vicious cycles based on preeminent theories in global and spatial cognition, that the foundation of the conscious mind is a spatial coordinate system. Based on this we discuss the potential and future of virtual reality therapeutic applications which utilize massive virtual spaces along with biofeedback designed to help break perpetual cycles in depression, anxiety, and insomnia. “Massive spaces” are those which are truly expansive such as when looking to the clear night sky. These virtual realities may take the form of a night sky, fantastical cosmic scenes, or other scenes such as mountain tops. We also hope to inspire research into such a spatial foundation of mind, use of perceived massive spaces for therapy, and the integration of biofeedback into virtual therapies.

Brains in Literature/Literature in the Brain

Since the 1990s, several disciplines, from neuroanthropology to neurotheology, have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. These “neurodisciplines” share basic assumptions about the brain/mind relationship, a preference for neuroimaging methodology, and the goal of establishing the neurobiological foundations of mind and behavior. A neural turn has also been taken in some quarters within the literary field. The neurosciences have provided writers of literature with resources for depicting characters and psychological processes and states; at the same time, they have inspired new interpretive approaches within literary studies. A twofold motif structures what might be called the neuroliterary field: brains in literature/literature in the brain. There has been a certain convergence between the rise of “neuronovels,” on the one hand, and the neurologization of literary analysis, on the other. This article studies that twofold motif. It first sketches how neuronovels fit into the history of neurological fiction and fictional elaborations of brain-related issues. It then examines three aspects of several major neuronovels: narrativity, solipsism and sociality, and memory. The article concludes by underlining the difference between incorporating “brains in literature” and placing “literature in the brain.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Theologian for our Time

Coleridge saw and welcomed the steady progress of scientific thought though it seemed to threaten the traditional defences of faith. As poet and philosopher, he turned instead to the subjective human experience of God as the foundation of mind, encountered within the self. God might thus be discovered in moments of intuition, in dreams, or in awareness of thought. This subjective experience was of an underlying unity, and through this the God within is also found to be the necessary ground of the natural world. Thus religion was delivered from irrelevance and science from a purely mechanistic understanding of the universe.

Constructing a Mind, One Image Schema at a Time

In The Foundations of Mind, Jean Mandler describes how perceptual analysis provides a mechanism that allows infants to begin their journey into conceptual life, and subsequently to enter the advanced worlds of conceptual systems, memory, language, and consciousness. This review provides an overview of Mandler's theoretical position, celebrates her accomplishments, and supports the claim that The Foundations of Mind is a “must read” for all developmental scientists.

A welcome turn to meaning in infant development: commentary on Mandler's The foundations of mind: Origins of conceptual thought

Developmental ScienceVolume 7, Issue 5 p. 506-507 A welcome turn to meaning in infant development: commentary on Mandler's The foundations of mind: Origins of conceptual thought Katherine Nelson, Corresponding Author Katherine Nelson Psychology Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USAAddress for correspondence: Katherine Nelson, Faculty of Psychology, City University New York, NY 10021, USA; e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Katherine Nelson, Corresponding Author Katherine Nelson Psychology Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USAAddress for correspondence: Katherine Nelson, Faculty of Psychology, City University New York, NY 10021, USA; e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 20 October 2004 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00370.xCitations: 2Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume7, Issue5November 2004Pages 506-507 RelatedInformation

The Practical Turn in Psychology

Parker (1996) alleges that Wittgensteinian presuppositions of essentialism and relativism obscure the role of social power in linguistic discourse. Not only is this claim self-contradictory, it is wrong in each of its component counts. Strands of essentialism in Wittgenstein's early writings were skewered effectively in his own later philosophy. Although Parker is not alone in charging Wittgenstein with relativism, we argue that a careful reading of Wittgenstein's work belies such a claim. This is because the meaning of a given language-game is fixed by patterns of ongoing social interaction among people who share a particular `form of life'. Against Parker, we show that Wittgenstein's (anti-)philosophy is in fact largely congenial to Marx's (anti-)philosophy, with both writers allied against the doctrines of individualism, subjectivism, mentalism, idealism and metaphysicalism. Although it may be true that Wittgenstein the person was relatively silent about issues of social and political power, Parker has failed to establish that Wittgensteinian metatheory is incompatible with the analysis of power in social discourse. In sum, we argue that Wittgenstein, like Marx, was a social materialist (rather than a social constructionist) whose writings articulate the foundations of mind and meaning in terms of concrete social practice.

Intellectual Norms and Foundations of Mind

Intellectual Norms and Foundations of Mind

The Feelings

It is convenient to regard the mental part of man, or his ego, as being made up of feeling, will, and thought. Feeling I place first, because it takes precedence in evolution, and because it may be said to constitute the foundation of mind.