tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5380967664965787351.post877759607120192025..comments2023-10-11T03:51:55.424-07:00Comments on Psychothalamus: Existential NeuroscienceQHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08016453287066720229noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5380967664965787351.post-86368097147028342512011-03-12T21:36:29.920-08:002011-03-12T21:36:29.920-08:00For a start you might enjoy the book, 'The Den...For a start you might enjoy the book, 'The Denial of Death', by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker published in 1973.<br /><br />Drawing on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, and Otto Rank, it is both a psychological and philosophical treatise on how human civilization is ultimately a symbolic defense mechanism against the awareness of our mortality and impermanence, which in turn acts as the emotional and intellectual response to our basic survival mechanism.<br /><br />Man therefore engages in "immortality projects" (e.g. immortality through art, immortality through wealth, etc) to become part of something eternal. This, in turn, gives man the transcendental feeling that his life has meaning, purpose and significance in the grand scheme of things.<br /><br />Extending from this basic premise, Becker argues how mental illness (such as depression and schizophrenia as a result of faulty engagement in immortality projects) and war (as a result of incompatible immortality systems between one's culture/civilization and another's) may result.<br /><br />While this isn't specific to direct studies of the brain, it provides a pretty insightful backdrop on matters of existential angst against death and inter-faith conflict.Josehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17838857677618174153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5380967664965787351.post-41664042311773520612011-02-17T17:03:10.570-08:002011-02-17T17:03:10.570-08:00Taking a wider view: It would be interesting to se...Taking a wider view: It would be interesting to see what te brain does when religious and other secular strategies to manage existential terror of the common death fate and consider if their are any implications of this eg: managing inter-faith or faith based/secular conflicts.Malcolm Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05471912982142260350noreply@blogger.com