The Brain - an Overestimated Mediator?

Cognitive neuroscience has mainly been driven by the assumption that one can best understand how the human mind is constituted by reductionist analyses of a solitary brain. Thus, the brain appears as the producer of the mind and the self. However, this view separates the brain from the living body and from its interactions with others. I will argue for an enactive approach which regards mind, self and brain as being rooted in bodily experience and inter­action with other individuals. According to this view, the mind is not confined within the head but is distributed among the brain, the living body, and the environ­ment. The brain operates as an organ of interconnections which mediates the cycles of interaction on different levels, but in turn is continuously shaped through them.

Curriculum Vitae

Thomas Fuchs, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Head of the Section "Phenomenological Psychopathology and Psychotherapy" at the Psychiatric Department, Uni­versity of Heidelberg. Fellow at the Marsilius-Kolleg (Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies), Heidelberg University. Coordinator of the European Marie-Curie Research Training Network 'DISCOS - Disorders and Coherence of the Embodied Self' (2007-2011), Coordinator of the National Research Project  'The brain as an organ of interrelations', funded by the Volks­wagenstiftung (2008-2011).  

Major Research Areas:
Phenomenological psychopathology, psychology and psychotherapy, Phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience,Theory and ethics of medicine and psychiatry

Some Recent Publications:

Fuchs, T. (2006) Ethical issues in neuroscience. Current Opinions in Psy­chiatry 19: 600-607.

 
Fuchs, T. (2008) Das Gehirn - ein Beziehungsorgan. Eine phänomenolo­gisch-ökologi­sche Kon­zeption. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart.

 
Fuchs, T. (2009) Embodied Cognitive Neuroscience and its Consequences for Psych­iat­ry. Poiesis and Praxis 6: 219-233

 
Fuchs, T., Schlimme, J. (2009) Embodiment and psychopathology: a phenomenological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 22: 570-575.

 
Fuchs, T., De Jaegher, H. (2009) Enactive Intersubjectivity: Participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8: 465-486.

e-mail: thomas_fuchs@med.uni-heidelberg.de

homepage: www.thomasfuchs.uni-hd.de

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