Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

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.Additional ISBNs0742547922, 9780742547926Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century is written by Michael Grosso; Edward F. Kelly; Emily Williams Kelly; Adam Crabtree; Alan Gauld and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBNs for Irreducible Mind are 9781442202078, 1442202076 and the print ISBNs are 9781442202061, 1442202068. Additional ISBNs include 0742547922, 9780742547926.