“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Orthodox Christian writers have had at times a hostile relationship with Freudian psychoanalysis, seeing its assumptions and goals as being godless and hostile to religion.
Psychoanalysis has also been held in disregard by neuroscience which has often doubted and sometimes discredited the ideas of Freud as being philosophical/religious rather than based in the scientific method or in materialism.
Despite Orthodoxy and neuroscience sharing a suspicion of psychoanalysis, the two have not found having a common enemy makes for friendship on any level. Neuroscience has been founded in scientific materialism and to the extent that its practitioners hold to materialistic assumptions there is no common ground between neuroscience and Orthodoxy. In fact a number of atheists in their arguments against religion have pointed to neuroscience as having disproved any idea of a self or of consciousness. They claim free will is a delusion created by the brain’s chemistry.
Because of these apparent oppositional ideas between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, I found an article by Kat McGowan in the April 2014 issue of DISCOVER, “The Second Coming of Sigmund Freud”, to be interesting because it is showing some of the dividing walls of knowledge are coming down between the science of the brain and the science of the mind, and this might have implication for how believers approach these sciences. McGowan points out that:
“By the end of the 20th Century, the two disciplines (psychoanalysis and neuroscience), did not seem to be talking about the same thing. Psychoanalysis was hostile to the idea of testing hypotheses through experiments. Neuroscience claimed to explain the brain but ignored its finest product: the dazzling, intimate sensations of human consciousness.”
But a few scientists have begun to realize the brain and the mind are not separable and must be understood as a whole, which has resulted in the creation of Neuropsychology which blends knowledge from both sciences into a more holistic understanding of the human. One of the founders of this new science, Neuropsychologist Mark Solms says the purpose is:
“to put the study of the mind back in the study of the brain … ‘What neuropsychoanalysis is all about is this: How does the actual stuff of being a person relate to the tissue and physiology and anatomy and chemistry of the brain?’”
The questions,”what is to be human?”, or “what does it mean to be human?”, become scientific questions. They are also the questions religion has been asking for centuries. The relationship of the ‘self’ or soul to brain tissues, to the “anatomy and chemistry of the brain” are questions that are of great interest to the believer who also values the work of science.
“These observations, and the experiments that followed, led (Neuroscientist Antonio) Damasio to conclude that emotions are not irrational intrusions into reason. They are intrinsic to rational thought.”
The relationship between emotions and reason are issues discussed frequently in the fathers of the church. That science might now be recognizing these issues as real knowledge opens many doors for Orthodoxy and medical science. The new thinking of neuropsychology should be of interest to all those who study the fathers and their discussion of depression.
“Psychoanalytic thought is fundamentally humanistic. It honors the unique experience of individual human beings – something often overlooked by the current medical approach to the mind.”
“Depression is a perfect example. The prevailing theory in biomedical research is mechanistic: Depression is just another biochemical problem, essentially no different from diabetes or gout. That approach leads to the creation of dozens of medicines that tamper with serotonin and other brain chemicals – drugs that, for more than half of patients, don’t work. ‘Pharma has dumped a gazillion dollars down the drain and never [has] come up with a new concept,’ say (Neuroscientist Jaak) Panksepp.
Like most psychiatrists, he and Solms say the place to begin is with the existential reality of depression—the soul-crushing hopelessness and despair.”
The approach being described will be of interest to those Orthodox who are interested in the relationship between Orthodoxy and medical science including psychological illnesses. The book RAISING LAZARUS: Integral Healing in Orthodox Christianity comes to mind
“’What is most significant about the brain, in comparison to other bodily organs, is that it’s not just an object but subject,’ says Solms. ‘To truly recognize that has massive implications. That’s really what’s motivated me consciously in my scientific life.’ We must embrace the fact that a brain is also a mind, that it thinks, it experiences, it suffers. In a word, that it is us.”
The ideas of Mark Solms should be welcomed by Theists as a possible bridge between psychoanalysis, neuroscience and Christianity. They may also have an impact on the ideas being pushed by some atheistic materialists that say the consciousness and free will have been disproven and so our efforts to deal with criminals, addicts and miscreants is totally misguided. (see my blog Environmental Clues, Shaping Behavior and Free Will)
Though some like evolutionist Jerry Coyne seem to think that modern science is the first to consider these issues, St. Basil the Great (d. 379AD) raises similar issues in the 4th Century.
“If the origin of our virtues and of our vices is not in ourselves, but in the fatal consequence of our birth, it is useless for legislators to prescribe for us what we ought to do, and what we ought to avoid; it is useless for judges to honor virtue and to punish vice. The guilt is not in the robber, not in the assassin: it was willed for him; it was impossible for him to hold back his hand, urged to evil by inevitable necessity. Those who laboriously cultivate the arts are the maddest of people. The laborer will make an abundant harvest without sowing seed and without sharpening his sickle. Whether he wishes it or not, the merchant will make his fortune, and will be flooded with riches by fate. As for us Christians, we shall see our great hopes vanish, since from the moment that one does not act with freedom, there is neither reward for justice nor punishment for sin. Under the reign of necessity and of fate there is no place for merit, the first condition of all righteous judgment.” (St. Basil the Great, A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, Kindle Loc. 3624-31)
Predestination whether ordered by Fate or by genetic determinism is an old idea which Christians rejected long ago as being pagan mythology and not capable of fully understanding humanity. We might hope that the new science of neuropsychology might be open again to the insights of those great observers of humanity and human psychology, the Fathers of the Church. And while neuropsychology admits that both mind and brain are real, their interests in the mind/brain will continue to be different from that of Christianity which further understands that the mind and brain relationship is also looking at the soul, the very place where the Spirit of God interfaces with the physical brain/body.
“God formed the human out of dust from the ground, and breathed in his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
Fraternized 
Fr. Ted, this is a very good post and raised many questions.
I think there are two approaches one can take regarding mind (immaterial) and brain (material). The first is the prevailing view of science which is that the brain evolved from lower organisms and recapitulates evolutionary history in the way that Ernest Hackel described human embryology, “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” So, we have the early “reptilian” brain that takes care of our automatic behaviors, flight or fight response, and emotions. Then, we have the mamallian brian which is ordered to the present and has basic problem solving abilities. Finally, the human brain with the frontal cortex that has executive functions to keep everything else in order. And the problem is that it may not do such a good job of that.
In this first approach, consciousness and “mind” is viewed as an epiphenomenon of biochemical activity in the brain. Mental illness is, therefore, an imbalance of chemical neurotransmitters or another organic defect. Mind is a function of brain.
The secon view is that mind and brain are not equivalent. Mind is something so much more than the brain. Some would say that it is an “emergent” property. In other words, the total of mind and consciousness is greater than the sum of the parts that make up the parts. Something “new” emerges from the substrate that is mysterious and cannot be explained solely by mechanistic functions.
At one point, in the Mind and Life conference with the Dalai Lama back in October 2013, the Dalai Lama posed a question that made the scientists uncomfortable. He asked whether the changes being seen in the brain are the cause or the effect of the sick mind (in this case people with addiction). The scientists said it was the cause. The Dalai Lama thought the neuroanatomical changes where the result of the problem. In other words, a sick mind caused the diseased brain. He would not concede that the mind was part of the brain, but something greater than it.
Now, let’s consider Orthodoxy. I would argue that the Orthodox view of the mind, the “nous,” is not located in the brain at all. Rather, it is very clear that this nous is located in but is not the same as the physical heart (kardia) in the center of the chest. Here is where the thoughts originate. Granted, this is not rational thought which is different and located in the brain, but the thoughts that drive us to do things. Does this pan out scientifically? Perhaps.
Research is showing that the heart experiences emotions miliseconds before the brain does. In fact, there are connections that convey information from the heart to the brain. These emotions are experienced in the heart and then travel via these afferent connections to the brain. Erratic heart rhythms, associated with disturbed emotional states, decrease coherence between the heart and the brain. When positive emotions are felt, the rhythms become more sinusoidal and entrain the brain waves. This state of coherence is desirable for optimal functioning.
Thus, certain hesychastic practices like the Jesus Prayer instruct us to breath in during the first half of the Prayer and then breathe out during the second half. We should focus on our hear area while we do this. The heart-rate variability science also tells people to focus on the heart area, imaging breathing through the heart, and to think of a positive emotion or calming place. I do not think this is coincidental at all. I believe that science is finally catching up to what the hesychasts knew for centuries.
So, I do not think we can equate the mind and brain mechanistically. Nor do I think mind (nous) is soley an emergent property of the brain. I believe the human body and soul are intimately connected and that mind moves beyond the brain and involves the heart.
Just my 2 cents. A great interest of mine.
It interests me as well. Thanks for your comments. I’m never convinced that the scientific understanding and the understanding of those of faith can ever be perfectly meshed, but they don’t have to be as they look at reality from differing points of view (different dimensions?). The Genesis 2:7 passage takes up the story of humans at the point in which God’s breath/spirit enters into the dust of the earth and the soul (Greek: Psyche) forms. The soul is thus the interface point of Creator with creation, of Spirit with material existence, of divinity with humanity. It is a point at which the immaterial and the material interact together to form us. Science in trying to trace the human brain along an evolutionary path is looking merely at a physical/material development. But both are looking at what it is to be human. Believers assume being human has something to do with interacting with God whether by God’s initiative or by human initiative. At some point the immaterial connects to the material. No matter what the original spiritual or divine initiative is it eventually reaches down to the level of synapses in the brain. The divine and human, the spirit and the flesh, the mind and the body do at some point connect. So we are looking at one whole – the human being, but along the lines of different dimensions. Many scientists locked into materialism cannot allow for these other dimensions. The believer on the other hand is not limited by the material in his understanding of the human. Additionally, beyond the spiritual, there is also the social dimension which shapes what it is to be human (one could further say there is an anthropological dimension as well). Humans as conscious beings and beings with conscience have interacted with their doings to shape who we are. We no longer are merely being carried along by random evolution. We have an ability to alter evolution through science – we keep alive people who would normally die off through health care and keep them in the gene pool. Computers and other technology enable us to go places and do things we normally cannot do. There are thus multiple dimensions shaping what it is to be human. To limit us to mere material things following the laws of physics is to deny reality.
A friend who prefers to remain anonymous sent me these comments, which I think are very important to the discussion:
One thing that is important to remember is that a human body is more that a soul and that the sense of being human is not solely from the brain. The brain will return to dust and we will not cease to be human; so how will our sense of self will be articulated?
The other thing, is that a human being has a whole body, not just a brain and that body is not dumb at all. The whole body is ensouled; that means the brain, the toes, the heart,the gut, everything. I think that it would be a mistake to restrict the sense of self to the brain, it belongs to the whole body.
In fact there our mood can affect our lymphocytes and bring our immunity down (when we give-up mentally, the body also gives up and cancer are more common for people who are depressed and it is not mediated all by the brain.). In fact there are platelets in the blood stream that can reflect the level of depression independently from the brain.
One could also say that the brain extends itself in the body.
It takes more than a brain to make a human being.
We really are pretty fancy pieces of dirt.
Fr. Ted:
Precisely on these last comments. Hence my point of saying that the “mind” or nous cannot really be localized to the brain and involves the heart. Yes, the whole human bieng is a psychosomatic unity. Mind and body are intimately connected. Descartes “cogito ergo sum” was one of teh greatest travesties of Western philosophy. Mind-body dualism still plagues medicine until today, but it is changing very slowly.
Physical pain affects us spiritually and emotionally. Our mental states can cause physiologic symptoms. Biofeedback teaches us that paying conscious attention to so-called involuntary processes can bring them under control and relieive pain and anxiety.
It would be an understatement to call the human being a “complex-adaptive system” but that is what we are. Scienctific reducationsim has focused on the parts to the ignoring of the whole. Systems thinking needs to be introduced to medicine. And one of those “systems” is our spiritual life soul.
Yes, the problem with modern science is that the scientists attempt to be able to explain things which are beyond the ability of science to make any pronouncements. I am thinking of the militant atheists here who believe that science somehow disproves the existence of God. There is no way that this hypothesis could be tested, so scientists really have nothing to say about it.
I certainly don’t believe that we are going to find anatomical substrates for spiritual things. I do think, though, that we are just beginning to be able to measure “subtle energy” and the field of energy medicine is growing. If, as Orthdoxy says, the entire world is permeated with God’s “uncreated energy” might this energy be characterizable but not fully describable…much like how light can be described either as energy or a particle.
Within the human body, the tissue tensegrity system, once thought to be “useless connective tissue” that holds us together like glue is actually responsible for much cell-to-cell interaction and can, itself, carry energetic information throughout the body faster than the nervous system. It is no accident that we carry stress in the form of muscle and tissue tightness. The tensegrity system is getting this information and reacting to it.
I think the Orthodox should form our own “mind and life” institute and start dialoging with science like the Dalai Lama is. I believe the Ecumencial Patriarch started something like this a while back in the form of conferences. But we need to bring it to the masses on YouTube, just like Mind and Life does.
Errata:
“sum of the parts that make up the whole” plus small typos.
On a more practical note, I do believe that there is a good connection between Orthodox psychotherapy and Cogntive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The goals are not the same, but there are similar understandings as to how our thoughts about things (rather than the things themselves) determine our lives. This is an idea as old as Epictetus.