Review of Self Comes to Mind

 Review of Self Comes to Mind

The main theme of Antonio Damasio’s book Self Comes to Mind is that the conscious self is the product of biological value. The book is meant for persons who are generally interested in understanding the concept of consciousness. However, the simplistic nature of title is misleading as the contents revolve around complex scientific concepts that only the scientifically-apt readers can grasp. The book is a reference book that intends to inform readers on how a one achieves the state of self awareness.

In the book, Damasio explains that self consciousness comes about when one is aware of his or her respective body states, a process that is coordinated by the nervous system. He further states that the brain is able to establish a consciousness of self by gauging the pains or pleasures that the individual comes across. Moreover, he argues that the body has a separate consciousness system from that of the mind.

He further argues that the mind does not overshadow the body’s conscious as it is the body that informs the mind of its needs. In this regard, he refers to the “genomic unconscious” that controls several behaviors that may appear to be the product of conscious cognition though they are actually driven by non-conscious dispositions. Towards this end, he uses examples of ordinary life experiences such as the feeling of tasting chocolate and the pain of suffering from a headache to explain how bodily stimuli affects the brain. . As such, he argues that biological valence exerts its influence even at the most basic levels of life.

Even then, Damasio states that the brain does not play secondary role in establishing self awareness. Rather, it is capable of independent action as it can correlate prior experiences to guide such bodily processes as homeostasis. As such, it is able to impose conscious inputs onto the unconscious system. As such the mind is capable of informing the body about itself just as the body informs its consciousness.

Damisio also discusses the concept of neuro-mapping. Neuro-mapping involves encoding activities in the outside world into chemical changes that are connected to homeostasis. By this, Damasio means that we are able to incorporate the objects we interact with into our bodies.

In all, the book consists of four sections divided into 11 chapters. In the first part, Damasio describes general concepts about the mind and its role in self-awareness, while in the second chapter he delves deeper into the concept of neuro-mapping and emotions. In the next section he explains how an organism builds consciousness of self and finally, in the last section, he correlates the ideas of self-consciousness to other aspects of life such as the concept of justice.

One area that Damasio seems to have not thought through properly is that of proto-self and its relationship with the environment. He draws a clear demarcation between the two though there is a definite dependence between them. The fact that we obtain energy necessary for reacting to external stimuli from the environment is good indicator of organism-environment interdependence. Also, by presenting the self’s emotional reactions, to events in the environment, as a passive, Damasio mistakenly separates the organism from its surroundings yet they are they that make it portray various emotions. As such his ideas in this respect contradict his main proposition since he presents organisms as actors rather than reactors in their surroundings.

He also seems to overlook the fact that organisms satisfy their quest for pleasure by involving external objects too. As opposed to Damasio’s claim that organisms respond to discomfort by employing internal processes only, organisms also look outside in such situation. For example, there are people who draw pleasure from interacting with their pets.  Thus is it not erroneous for one to think that by these people do not engage their emotions when they interact with their pets?

In this book, Damasio uses a mixed style as in the other books he has authored. An ordinary person will find most of the books easily understandable but grapple with some other parts which are a bit technical. Decety and grezez’s assertions, in their book The Power of Simulation: Imagining Ones Own and Others behavior, also disagree slightly with Damasio’s model for developing consciousness in that the two claim that one can be self-aware by visualizing possible situations besides engaging in real-life experiences.  Also in his book Origin of Species, Darwin contradicts Damasio’s idea that organisms can react to external factors without being affected by the environmental conditions. In contrast, Darwin believes that organisms are affected by and affect their surroundings.

Nonetheless, the book is an exciting one to read and also quite thought provoking intellectually. It also is quite educative about the functioning of the brain, its interaction with the body and the environment. The book also elaborates the psychology behind self-consciousness which is crucial as it enables the readers to be careful about what information sources they interact with since one obtains a sense of self-awareness from external influence. From reading the book, I have also understood the role of feelings and emotions in consciousness as they interpret the state of being of the body.

This book was authored by Antonio Damasio, one of the most prominent neurosurgeons in the world today. It is titled Self comes to mind: constructing the conscious brain.. Pantheon Books published the book in New York, an associate of Pantheon Books Inc., United States, while Random House of Canada Limited located in Toronto, Canada under ISBN 978-0-307-37949-8, in 2010. The book comprises of 268 pages in total.