Phantoms in the Brain

Empirical Studies of RCR

Whilst acknowledging the recurring horrors inflicted by powerful agencies on millions of individuals, generally in day to day experience suffering in normal individuals is a cerebral event determined by neurones and the way the brain is. Something of minimal significance in the outside world, a harsh word perhaps unintended, may be transmuted into suffering so that it becomes a life changing, or life threatening event, whilst intense suffering and imminent death such as the death camp experience might be overcome even briefly by the recollection of a few words of the Canto of Ulysses as recounted by Primo Levi. The ebb and flow of individual suffering is determined by thoughts and feelings generated by self and directed at self. This, because there are two selves in each brain. Neuroscience has identified one in each hemisphere each with separate consciousness. We have an inner double with many possible roles, perhaps a wise counselor and perhaps sometimes an adversary. In the creative individual, internal dialogue with the double is a possible agency for suicide. Neurology and Neuroscience relating to free will, feeling and reason in decision making, empathy and imagination are drawn upon as are insights not accessible to scientific enquiry, gleaned from ancient Hebraic and Greek sources, and from modern literature citing works by Paul Celan, Jorge Luis Borges and others.

Phantoms in the Brain

Citations

Empirical Studies of RCR

Mental Suffering and the Brain: Insights from Neurology and Literature

Development of RCR

From biblical dreams to children's dreams: A challenge for religious educators in Catholic schools

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