The Brain Takes Shape

An Early History

Robert L. Martensen

This fine book tells an important story of how long-standing notions about the body as dominated by spirit-like humors were transformed into scientific descriptions of its solid tissues. Vesalius, Harvey, Descartes, Willis, and Locke all played roles in this transformation, as the cerebral hemispheres and cranial nerves began to take precedence over the role of spirit, passion, and the heart in human thought and behavior. Non of this occurred in a social vacuum, and the book describes the historical context clearly. It also shows how debates over investigative methods and models of body order that first raged over 300 years ago continue to influence biomedicine and the broader culture today. No other book on western mind-body relationships has attempted this.

The Brain Takes Shape

An Early History

Robert L. Martensen

Description

Using historical and anthropological perspectives to examine mind-body relationships in western thought, this book interweaves topics that are usually disconnected to tell a big, important story in the histories of medicine, science, philosophy, religion, and political rhetoric. Beginning with early debates during the Scientific Revolution about representation and reality, Martensen demonstrates how investigators such as Vesalius and Harvey sought to transform long-standing notions of the body as dominated by spirit-like humors into portrayals that emphasized its solid tissues. Subsequently, Descartes and Willis and their followers amended this 'new' philosophy to argue for the primacy of the cerebral hemispheres and cranial nerves as they downplayed the role of the spirit, passion, and the heart in human thought and behavior. None of this occurred in a social vacuum, and the book places these medical and philosophical innovations in the context of the religious and political crises of the Reformation and English Civil War and its aftermath. Patrons and their interests are part of the story, as are patients and new formulations of gender. John Locke's psychology and the emergence in England of a constitutional monarchy figure prominently, as do opponents of the new doctrines of brain and nerves and the emergent social order. The book's concluding chapter discusses how debates over investigative methods and models of body order that first raged over 300 years ago continue to influence biomedicine and the broader culture today. No other book on western mind-body relationships has attempted this.

The Brain Takes Shape

An Early History

Robert L. Martensen

1. Bodies, Words, and Images
2. Matter, Spirit, and the Heart
3. The Human Mind and "Gland H": Cartesian Models of Mind, Brain, and Nerves
4. When the Brain Came Out of the Skull
5. Toward a New Physiology of Human Conduct
6. Body of Witnesses
7. The Transformation of Eve
8. Mind Without Brain: John Locke, Thomas Syndenham, and the Constitutional Body of the British Enlightenment
9. On the Persistence of the Cerebral Model and Its Alternatives: A Cultural Anthropology Perspective

The Brain Takes Shape

An Early History

Robert L. Martensen

Reviews and Awards

"This is a well-researched book about an important topic that is underrepresented in the history of science: the transformation, mainly during the 17th century, of the widespread belief that the heart is the primary locus of personhood to the belief that, in fact, the brain serves this function." --The New England Journal of Medicine

"While fascinating as a textbook of medical intellectual history, the greatest thrill comes when the reader connects the historical material to his or her 21st century experience...Any psychiatrist, physician, healer or therapist who seeks to increase his or her perspective beyond the constraints of current schools of thought will cherish this book." --Ole J. Thienhaus, M.D., University of Nevada Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

"Matensen has provided a rich and fascinating account of the origins of our modern understanding of the relations of mind and brain."--Bulletin of the History of Medicine

"...this is an excellent book that integrates Martensen's earlier writings on anatomy, theology, and women's bodies with newer materials in challenging and satisfying ways. It deserves a wide readership."--Journal of the History of Medicine