Dualism Between The Brain And The Brain

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The mind and brain can be both interconnected and yet distinct. As the text says, the mind is a realm of logic, induction, ethics and morals, while the brain as an organ is composed of cellular machinery, hormones and gene expression (Hassert, 194). However, these two layers often overlap and are not easy to distinguish. I do feel like there is a dualism between the mind and brain. The text suggests that positive attitudes in treatment can cause the placebo effect. This shows a link between the mind and brain; the positive thoughts of the mind help express a change cellularly that causes the placebo effect. If the brain did not have this duality, why would biological influences effect our thoughts and feelings? Similarity, pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, and alcohol can do damage to the brain, but also alter our behavior. It seems that you cannot effect the mind without in turn affecting the brain. This information all suggests that the thing that changes the mind (drugs, learning, etc) is able to change the brain physically. On discussing the linkage between the brain and mind, Hassert says, “Taking note of these everyday occurrences suggests a very tight linkage between the psychological and the biological, a linkage that supports taking both elements seriously in our discussions related to the ethical implications of psychological/behavioral and neurological/biological manipulations” (Hassert 195). The brain can address how something has occurred, but the mind might