Some Thoughts on the Mind and Brain

I've recently been reading a few things on philosophical counseling and philosophical practice, and it has caused me to think about the brain and its functioning.

What affects brain function?

1. Nutrition
2. Physiological Health
3. Chemicals in the Brain
4. Neurogenesis
5. Brain Wiring
6. Mind Emergent from Brain Functioning -- in turn affecting brain structures

We could easily put neurogenesis in with physiological health, since aerobic exercise is what affects the amount of neurogenesis (creation and growth of new nerve cells in the brain) which occurs.

So what do we need if we want to be mentally healthy?

Certainly 1. requires a nutritionist.

2. requires exercise, and thus could require some sort of trainer and medical doctor which could recommend appropriate exercises for you

3. could require a psychpharmacists -- though personally I would wait until we saw if 1., 2., and 6. worked, and then turn to psychphrmacy as a last resort.

4. is affected by 2.

5. is affected by education -- constantly challenging the brain with new things, and training yourself to pay attention to more things.

Finally, we get to 6.

It seems to me that philosophical counseling would deal best with the emergent mind -- for precisely the reason that philosophical counseling necessarily assumes that there is a mind emergent from the brain's activity which can in turn act in a top-down fashion on the brain itself to change thought and behavior. Many psychological theories don't even believe in an emergent mind. At best they deal with the lowest-order emergent structures of mind: the emotions. Animals too have emotions. But what about higher order mental functions like reason, development of meaning, goals, etc.? Again, this is what philosophical counseling deals with. So it seems that if psychotherapy has any real role in the world, it is to deal with this primitive emergent structure -- emotions -- and to pretty much recommend that the patient go to someone who is more competent to deal with their real problems: a nutritionist, a trainer, a psychphrmacists, or a philosophical counselor.

My relegating psychotherapists to this minor role, it would also help us to get out of this mindset that everyone is mentally sick. Why shouldn't mental health be the rule? But we assume that everyone ha some sort of problem, and that we should medicate it away (indeed, therapists are increasingly handing over all their responsibilities to psychopharmacists, which is also not healthy).

Insofar as the actions of the brain result in an emergent mind which can in turn affect the functions of the brain, doesn't it make sense to first try to change the mind so that it can affect the brain and change such things as brain chemical balance? Proper education will help in this (meaning, not the way we educate nowadays), as will proper philosophical counseling. I suspect, though, that you won't find a lot of support from psychologists, who would find little to do if people were to become psychologically healthy from proper diet, exercise, education, and a balanced mind.