I\u2019d like to take some time to talk about \u201cinterpersonal neurobiology\u201d (or more simply, IPNB).\u00a0 It\u2019s the \u201cbrainchild\u201d (pun intended) of psychiatrist Dan Siegel (who was trained as a pediatric psychiatrist). \u00a0Why IPNB?\u00a0 I think among all the attempts at understanding the mind and consciousness among modern scientists, IPNB may provide one of the best links to Indian psychology (IP)<\/p>\n
For my discussions of IP for this series of blog posts, I\u2019m going to use Sri Aurobindo\u2019s version of IP (or what he called \u201cyogic psychology\u201d, and sometimes \u2018the science of consciousness\u201d).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because in 35+ years of studying his writings, I\u2019ve found that among all Indian spiritual\/philosophic writings I\u2019m familiar with, Sri Aurobindo\u2019s terminology is probably among the easiest to relate to contemporary neuroscience.<\/p>\n
For this post, I\u2019m just going to talk about the \u201cbuddhi\u201d. Here are some of Sri Aurobindo\u2019s descriptions of the buddhi (or, \u201cintelligent-will\u201d, as he sometimes referred to it. In the next post, I\u2019ll talk about IPNB and Siegel\u2019s term \u201cthe mid prefrontal cortex (or MPFC \u2013 for those neurobiologically informed, this is not the same as the medial prefrontal cortex).<\/p>\n
The following passages are all taken from \u201cThe Synthesis of Yoga.\u201d\u00a0 The entire text is available online at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram website.<\/p>\n
First, a definition: The buddhi is, Sri Aurobindo says, \u201cthe discerning intelligence and the enlightened will.\u201d\u00a0 In the next post, we\u2019ll see how remarkably close this is to Siegel\u2019s description of the mid prefrontal cortex (MPFC).<\/p>\n
In the following passage, Sri Aurobindo first describes what in Indian Psychology has been known as the \u201cmanas\u201d (what Sri Aurobindo refers to as the \u201csensational thought-mind\u201d). He then contrasts with the buddhi, the \u201cseparated and partially freed intelligence\u201d which distinguishes human from animal cognition.<\/p>\n
This sensational thought-mind which is based upon sense, memory, association, first ideas and resultant generalisations or secondary ideas, is common to all developed animal life and mentality. Man indeed has given it an immense development and range and complexity impossible to the animal, but still, if he stopped there, he would only be a more highly effective animal. He gets beyond the animal range and height because he has been able to disengage and separate to a greater or less extent his thought action from the sense mentality, to draw back from the latter and observe its data and to act on it from above by a separated and partially freed intelligence. The intelligence and will of the animal are involved in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by it and carried on its stream of sensations, sense-perceptions, impulses; it is instinctive. Man is able to use a reason and will, a self-observing, thinking and all-observing, an intelligently willing mind which is no longer involved in the sense-mind, but acts from above and behind it in its own right, with a certain separateness and freedom. He is reflective, has a certain relative freedom of intelligent will. He has liberated in himself and has formed into a separate power the buddhi. <\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Taking this passage alone, we find a remarkable similarity (remarkable given that this was written almost 100 years ago) to the most recent discoveries regarding animal and human intelligence. But we don\u2019t seem to see much that goes beyond conventional contemporary psychology \u2013 a psychology which generally views the human being and human consciousness from what Indian psychology would consider a superficial, surface consciousness.\u00a0 In \u201cThe Synthesis of Yoga\u201d, Sri Aurobindo touches on a great deal that goes far beyond what contemporary science considers within the bounds of acceptable research, but which has been taken for granted by Indian psychology for millennia.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go into this in later posts.<\/p>\n
But for now, keep what Sri Aurobindo wrote in mind as you read the next post, where I\u2019ll describe how Dan Siegel came to discover the various functions of the MPFC, and perhaps more important, how those functions can be further developed.\u00a0 It is here \u2013 particularly in the startling similarity between what Siegel refers to as the \u201chub\u201d of the \u201cwheel of awareness\u201d and what Sri Aurobindo refers to as the \u201cpsychic being\u201d (what the Katha Upanishad refers to as the Purusha or being in the heart \u2013 portraying it symbolically as the size of a \u201cthumb\u201d) – that IPNB may have the most to offer as a bridge between IP and contemporary psychology and neuroscience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019d like to take some time to talk about \u201cinterpersonal neurobiology\u201d (or more simply, IPNB).\u00a0 It\u2019s the \u201cbrainchild\u201d (pun intended) of psychiatrist Dan Siegel (who was trained as a pediatric psychiatrist). \u00a0Why IPNB?\u00a0 I think among all the attempts at understanding the mind and consciousness among modern scientists, IPNB may provide one of the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}