States of Mind: New Discoveries About How Our Brains Make Us Who We Are

In 1997, eight prominent scientist writers, experts on thought and the brain, met to give public lectures on the state of the art of the mind. Their talks emphasized the practical aspects, especially how emotions and stress affect the brain. States of Mind gathers their presentations in one place. The question they all ask is, "What can science tell us about ourselves?"

Steven Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, says, "There is no more compelling reason to attempt to understand the causes of mental illness than that these various afflictions exact an enormous human cost." He describes "the breathtaking complexity of the genes/environment dance," in which we now understand only a very few steps. Jerome Kagan, author of Three Seductive Ideas, talks about one such step: shyness. Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind, talks about another step: manic-depression.

This is not a book about the mind-brain problem or the nature of consciousness in a general or philosophical way; it's about what it means to have a specific human brain. What factors shape our personality, our temperament, our dreams, our sense of self? What does it mean to be "me" in particular? --Mary Ellen Curtin