The Mind

About the Book

A review of recent findings in key cognitive sciences shows that the human mind’s power is unique since it is an information processing device that can program itself. The unconscious within us isn’t just a mass of destructive instincts, as we used to believe. To the contrary, it is the real engine of our minds, being the unconscious parallel processing system that learns about the world around us, and uses this knowledge to suitably program its conscious linear counterpart, just as our linear computers are programmed. The intricacies of the interaction between the two systems are summed up and evaluated in this book, so it can supply new insights into the roots of human emotional power, its suppleness and also weaknesses. But if our minds are such incredible machines, shouldn’t knowledge of their operations equip us not only for advances in science, but also for reaching superior knowledge of ourselves, and the means for self-improvement?  

About the Author

Andrew Tershakovec, M.D., witnessed the beginning of the struggle for the new model of the mind in the 1970’s, when he was in charge of Psychiatric Residency Training at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York University, and on the faculty of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis in New York City. Among several of his papers published in psychiatric and psychoanalytic journals, some became chapters of this book.