Consciousness and the Mind Body Connection – Professor Mark Solms

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness is very topical in neuroscience today. It asks why our brains, which function unconsciously for the most part, require consciousness at all. It also asks how the subjective stuff of experience can be inserted into our mechanistic account of brain functioning. There seems to be no place or need for subjective experience in the physical universe.

In this talk, Mark Solms will outline the novel approach to this problem that he has taken in his recent work as reported in his new book, the Hidden Spring: a journey to the source of consciousness. The argument begins with the claim that it is a mistake to take human cognition as our model example of consciousness. Why tackle the problem from its most complex end? If we begin with the simplest forms of animal consciousness, he argues, the ‘hard problem’ becomes less hard.

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Professor Mark Solms is best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming, and for his pioneering integration of psychoanalytic theories and methods with those of modern neuroscience. He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology). His other positions have included: Honorary Lecturer in Neurosurgery at St. Bartholomew’s & Royal London School of Medicine, Director of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Centre, London, and Director of the Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuro-Psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

Professor Solms’ books include: Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis (winner of the NAAP’s Gradiva Award Best Book, Science Category in 2001), The Brain and The Inner World (2002), and most recently: Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness (2021)

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[patriciajob]

I Thanks everybody that makes this vidéo possible. To the team that imagine to invite this Professor to the techniciens to put it on line. I learned a lot even if I needed to ear it several times to fully appréhend concepts. Your lectures give to us (that could not offre long studies) to learn and to see our horizons grow wilder. So Thank you to all of you for the usefull and generous share you do. Namasté

[MarttiSuomivuori]

Things change radically when a real clinician is talking about something that real people experience.
Away with dry constructs of words, in with blood and flesh, soul and creativity.
This I like!

[shamanic_nostalgia]

psilocybin + sound therapy is the way forward. and we really should be talking about how DMT effects consciousness

[R-mz]

Observing that the mechanics of the brain allows a person to be a person and jumping to the conclusion that the brain IS your soul, are two different things.

[dedre]

Thank you very much for these videos. I know it's not easy getting world class academics on. You are really helping improve my knowledge

[elizabethmansfield]

Really interesting, excellent presentation and great food for thought. Thank you!

[fordstone]

You’ve shown brilliantly shown where the homunculus lives, but where is the agent, the subject, who is experiencing the feeling? Error sensing control systems are some the most fundamental we’ve created, and they don’t require consciousness at all.

[stephenkerensky]

What is needed is not just work, it`s sense of meaningfulness in the work. You can survive in meaningless jobs, but you won`t feel good about it, or yourself.

[realcygnus]

Good Talk ! But I still don't see how you think you have or that we can "bridge the gap" between the "quantities" of physics(mass, charge & spin etc.) & the "qualities" of experience(red, love & hunger etc.) in a "NON-arbitrary" way, even in principle. The two domains are simply incommensurable with each other. That is the actual core of the so called hard problem imo. & even if there existed a 1:1 mapping(which there doesn't), you'd still need a comprehensive theory as to why only that particular map & not ANY/ALL others. You're just focusing on function & structure. Its not even a "problem" to be solved in some future version of our models, its just an artifact of the flaws in our built in assumptions of materialism/physical realism which even QM has been refuting for nearly a century. We just need to upgrade our Not at all to say that such work isn't useful. The more we know about structure & function & such the better off we are. But science can only(NOT derogatory) deal with the "behaviors" of nature & should not even be expected to settle questions of what nature is, in & of itself, except of course to rule out certain ideas, which is also just part of progress. Our current preferred philosophy(often unexamined mind you) is so obviously flawed that its finally at least "fashionable", even for those in academia, to put panpsychism & such on the table publicly. Though a modern monistic outright idealism such as Kastrup's alters is what currently connects the most dots, & by FAR imo. Believing in an infinite number of imaginary physical universes popping into existence every single Planck time, for which there is ZERO empirical evidence, is precisely what you MUST do to save mainstream physicalism.

[venkataponnaganti]

I am a fan of Solms, who resurrected Freud in recent times. 🙏

[LD-iozv]

Fantastic, amazing and so helpful! Q&A section best I’ve seen/ heard . Thank you

[craigcarleen]

Awesome, rare it is for such a great acedemic hold my interest ...you have a new fan and follower...

[saizen]

The secret to consciousness, is both in the observation of the physical universe we live in, and it's properties (like frequency, vibrations, energy, mass, time, and all the inner workings of it), and inside our own perception of this universe through your senses, and within the reality which we project onto the world around us

[heartsongful]

I find that your hypothesis regarding the location of consciousness compelling. But I wonder about other aspects of consciousness that becomes apparent in split brain cases. It seems that consciousness can be localized in either the left or right hemispheres. Each half acting differently and separately. Maybe the reticular formation is the source affecting each hemisphere differently. What is your understanding about these split brain cases?

[charliefarley]

Very interesting and clearly superbly researched and presented
Now I am a just an ordinary average IQ person
But I still do not fully understand what my 'awareness' is
Its like reality is a personal quality
I can only vouch for my reality as I cannot provide evidence that any other person has the same kind of experience as my self (probably Solipsism)
However I feel and react I am still the experiencer
The metaphor of the part of the brain that acts like the plug to connect the TV to the power I understand
But where does the signal required for the TV to 'come alive' originate?

[jesternotclown]

Information is stored as Energy. Energy releases Mass and Information.

[millenialmusings]

Doesn't have a solution to the hard problem of consciousness

[outsidethepyramid]

I think consciousness is a natural state of the universe and when u go it carries on

[georgegrubbs]

Thanks for the video and a stimulating presentation by Dr. Solms. I've read "Hidden Spring" and highly recommend it.

[shaun]

Universal Consciousness is One. The universe functions like a brain. the empty space no different than gray matter. we’re in it. part of it.
inseparable. It’s electric. boogie woogie woogie💯