Brain: Insights from Neuroscience

How we think and what we do affects our neurology, and our neurology affects our psychology. Simply put, our brains affect how we act – and we have the capacity to change our brains, via psychotherapy, meditation, mindfulness, creative ventures, and purposeful thinking. Involuntary changes within the brain, such as chemical imbalance or tumors, can cause a healthy person to undergo a complete personality shift. This can result in violence and erratic, dangerous behavior. With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that millions of people around the world are on psychiatric medications – some on three or four at a time. All too often, this occurs without the brain scans that can give medical answers for psychological phenomena.

In this fascinating intermediate level course, contributors explore creativity, neuroplasticity, mind, brain, meditation, and common practices for psychotherapists and psychiatrists. The course is comprised of eleven audio interviews with David Van Nuys, all of which come with transcripts. The first section, The Brain and Psychotherapy, contains four interviews. Dr. David Eagleman discusses the secret lives of the brain, Dr. Stephen Porges discusses Polyvagal Theory, Dr. Daniel Amen covers psychopathology, and Dr. William Emerson shares his knowledge of pre- and perinatal psychology. The second section, Meditation and the Brain, contains five interviews. Dr. Daniel Siegel explains mindsight, and Dr. Jill Taylor shares her experience of reaching nirvana via a stroke. In three separate interviews, Dr. Richard Davidson, Dr. Sara Lazar, and Dr. Philippe Goldin discuss physical changes to the brain resulting from meditation.

The third section, Creativity and the Brain, contains two interviews. The first is on visual thinking in the autistic mind with esteemed scholar Dr. Temple Grandin. The second is creativity and the brain, with Dr. Shelly Carson. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.

“Psychiatry is the only branch of medicine that doesn’t look at the organ it treats.”
– Daniel Amen, MD