The Loss of a Great Mind
Yesterday a colleague called my attention to an obituary in The New York Times of January 10, 2008, about Dr. Paul MacLean, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist. This obituary provided me with my first chance to learn of Dr. MacLean’s work. I can now see that his studies of how the brain works, conducted primarily in the 1950s and 1960s, actually laid out the basic foundation for own my work over the last 20-some years. Those familiar with Being Human will see this clearly in the following quotes from his obituary:
[Dr. MacLean developed the] intriguing theory of the “triune brain” to explain its evolution and to try to reconcile rational human behavior with its more primal and violent side… Dr. MacLean termed the brain’s center of emotions the limbic system, and described an area that includes structures called the hippocampus and amygdala… He proposed that the limbic system had evolved in early mammals to control fight-or-flight responses and react to both emotionally pleasurable and painful sensations… The idea of the limbic system leads to a recognition that its presence “represents the history of the evolution of mammals and their distinctive family way of life.”… In addition to identifying the limbic system, he pointed to a more primitive brain called the R-complex, related to reptiles, which controls basic functions like muscle movement and breathing. The third part, the neocortex, controls speech and reasoning and is the most recent evolutionary arrival… All three systems remain in place and in frequent competition; indeed, their conflicts help explain extremes in human behavior… Writing in The New York Times in 1971 and surveying the problem of intolerance and violence worldwide, Dr. MacLean found that “language barriers among nations present great obstacles. But the greatest language barrier lies between man and his animal brains; the neural machinery does not exist for intercommunication in verbal terms.
I am frankly amazed at the uncanny way that my more detailed description of how the brain works is so totally consistent with the basic framework described by Dr. MacLean. Obviously, I must have learned a great deal from his work without even being aware of his existence. Note, for example, that the last sentence quoted above is
parallel with my claim that it is through the emotions and intuitive senses, not through words, that the limbic and neocortex systems communicate with each other. I am greatly indebted to Dr. MacLean and very pleased that I can now acknowledge it.
Posted on: Friday, January 18, 2008 - Tags: Darwinian Theory of Human Behavior.
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