Human Psychology and the Brain
Psychology consists of 2 main portions: the study of the bodily structure and the behavior that results from it.
We are exposed to the idea of Dualism, often backed up by Rene Descartes, which is often established from religious beliefs. This idea claims that people have duality, we are not “physical”, and we are immaterial souls that possess a physical body. We are not robots: we are not limited to reflexive actions and we have our own will. This is proven using the method of doubt, that because our bodies and minds are separate; we doubt our own bodies sometimes. We talk about owning a brain like we are not attached to it.
Using “common sense”, we can tell who someone is even if their physical body is changed, therefore we are not entirely connected to our body. For example, we have the case of Multiple Personality Disorder- where someone possesses “many souls inside a body.”
However, Francis Crick has proven this theory entirely wrong, naming it “The Astonishing Hypothesis”, claiming that emotions and aspirations are made up of cells. We are a clump of cells and a brain working together. And even Multiple Personality Disorder is just a malfunction in the brain; there are no souls.
Crick proved that we are not separable from our bodies and presented that Dualism is an unscientific doctrine. Rene Descartes once said humans can do things that inanimate objects cannot, such as communicating and playing chess, so we are not connected to our body because it is an object. However, with the power of technology, physical objects indeed can play chess and communicate.
The brain is connected to mental health: all of our choices, feelings, etc. are all connected to the brain.
The brain is made up of a basic unit: Neuron. Thousand billion of them. Dendrites get signals from other neurons and fire along the Axon. Axon is bigger than dendrites, it reaches from your back to toe along your back, surrounded by a myelin sheath that helps it fire signals faster. This explains the 3 main factors of our body: Sensory neurons, which helps you see; motor neurons, when you raise your hand, controlling your movements, and interneurons, connecting sensation to action.
So how are these neurons affected, and why is medicine used to treat mental illnesses?
Based on our knowledge of nano transmitters, we separate medications into 2 types: agonists and antagonists. Agonists increase nano- transmitters, and antagonist slows them down. This is how medication can affect your mental life. For example, Curare is used by indigenous tribes in South America to poison their hunting arrows. It is an extremely toxic drug and an antagonist, which blocks motoneurons from affecting your physical actions after being in contact with an arrow. Alcohol inhibits the inhibitory part of the brain, which in other words, relaxes the part that tells you to protect yourself. This is why you get reckless and tend to do things you would never do sober, like confessing to your crush or getting a tattoo. Amphetamines increase sexual drive since it triggers norepinephrine, which is responsible for arousal. Prozac makes serotonin more prevalent, used to aid patients with Depressive Disorders. Another example is the case of Parkinson's Disease, where your body possesses too little dopamine, therefore you use medicine to improve dopamine. It all goes back to neuron control and helping the brain function properly with the appropriate amount of chemicals inside the body.
We are our brains, and our brains are us.
But we are not mere objects either. The brain is more resilient than any computer: different parts of the brain can take over if a part is damaged. The brain is faster. It works through a parallel process. Neuro networks are a complicated system that has yet been able to duplicate in the computer system. We are complex beings, with a complex set-up to help us function. We are not separated from our bodies, but neither are our bodies objects. Neither are us objects. We are far too complicated of a system to be considered just a machine.
