It seems that mental health has become fragile and tenuous for many people, without lasting relief in sight. Many have come to expect a deterioration of their mental faculties with age or as the result of accident or disease. When people receive a diagnosis of a mental health condition for themselves or for a loved one, it can leave them feeling hopeless or as if they just have to live with it, usually with the aid of medications.
Yet in recent years some medical professionals have questioned the claim that the brain governs our capacity to think intelligently and clearly. Dr. Michael Egnor, a professor of neurological surgery at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, challenges widely accepted beliefs about the brain. He wrote: “I’m a neuroscientist and professor of neurosurgery. The mind-brain question haunts me. Neurosurgeons alter the brain on a daily basis, and what we find doesn’t fit the prevailing view that the brain runs the mind as computer hardware runs software.
“I have scores of patients who are missing large areas of their brains, yet who have quite good minds.… [One is] a normal junior high kid who loves to play soccer. Another patient … is an accomplished musician with a master’s degree in English” (firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/06/a-map-of-the-soul).
