Oct. 7^th

The Interwoven Machine

DEFINITION: The human as a whole is a very complex and complicated machine made up of several important systems. In the head alone there are several different parts to it each having their own job to do. However, none of the jobs could get done if it were not for the connection that exist between the different parts of the brain. Just because there are connections with in the brain itself that allows things to get done, there must also be a connection between the mind and the body. Descarte argued that there was no connection between the mind and the body. In, Descartes’ Error, Damasio argues that the body and the mind are connected, and one can not function without the other.

I am running around my neighborhood when I see a big doverman pincher off to the right side of the street. He is showing me his teeth and is gralling at me. I slow down, and wonder what I should do. Should I stop and turn around? Should I just keep on going, just speed up on my way by? Wow, I just got that bad feeling in my stomach. Lets think about this for a minute. If I keep on going, I will get to run down this street and discover for the first time what is down there, however I might get bitten by the dog. If I turn around I can just run the other direction, and will not get bitten by the dog, however I will not get to see what is down the street. What should I do?

Why did I get that bad gut feeling? Is turning around the smart decision to make? I know that when I was little and a dog did that to me, I got close to me and he bit me. Would that have happened again? Damasio calls that gut feeling that I experienced a "somatic marker." As a person goes through life, they experience different feeling and emotions. They see many different images and are put in many different situations. They respond to the different images and situation in different ways. As each image emerges, and each outcome of each situation unfolds, the human mind " ‘marks’ an image, I call it a marker"(p173). Along with marking each image with a feeling, it also files away the outcome of a certain situation. When a person is put in a situation "…before you apply any kind of cost/benefit analysis to the premises, and before you reason toward the solution of the problem, something quite important happens: When the bad outcome connected with a given response option comes into mind, however fleetingly, you experience an unpleasant gut feeling. Because the feeling is about the body…"(p.173). It is Damasio’s "somatic marker" that help us make decisions.

However, emotions and reasoning also come into play when we are trying to make these decisions. Take the example above about me running and seeing the dog. The reason I had a bad gut feeling about continueing on and running pass the dog is because of my somatic marker. I my mind had marked the emotion that I had had when I was a child and the dog had bit me. If the example is changed and down pass the dog a child was on the ground dying, than reasoning would have also been factored into the equation. I might have had a bad feeling about running pass the dog, but I would reason through the two outcomes and getting bitten is not as bad as a child dying. Damasio discusses

The body is helping the mind because the body and mind are dependent on each other. Without one or the other we could not function we would not be a human.

Since the mind and body are connected, they can also help each other. Test have been done in where patients might have some problem, such as recurring headaches, and some of the patients are give a real drug that is suppose to fix the problem while others are given placebos. In most cases the patients given the placebos, have similar outcomes as the patients who take the real drug (Classmate in class 9/6/00). This evidence supports the idea of "mind over matter". Patients are thinking, that they have taken the medicine, therefore they are suppost to feel better. Can the brain, so to speak, talk the body into feeling better?

Another story that would support this theory, is of a man that had no longer than six months to live before cancer was going to take his life. The patient needed to have chemotheropy in order to live the six months as well. However, this man checked himself out of the hospital, and rented funny movies from the movie store. He loved the three stogies. After day in and day out of watching funny movies, and after six months he was not only still alive but had gotten significantly better. He soon had been cured of a terminal disease. This story also goes along with a doctor who does not believe in modern forms of medicine always; his name, Patch Adams. He has since opened an institution in Virginia, where he uses humor to help cure patients with terminal diseases, along with patients with psychological disorders. And just as the mind helps the body to cure diseases and problems it is having, the body can help the mind. In today’s society doctors are using drugs to help cure patients with depression. With the body and mind interacting so much between each other, and helping to cure one another, they have to be connected with one another, and this is one area where Descarte made an error.