Mind and Brain

In philosophy, Descartes believed that the mind and body are two different substances; our mind is the one that provides us with feelings, wishes, desires, and individuality. In short term our mind is just a soul. The body that Descartes described is our brain; it gives awareness of our thoughts, actions, it is simply just an organ that helps us function on daily basis. As much as I find Descartes’ theories interesting and insightful, as a psychology student, I have to disagree with him on this topic. 

In psychology we have learned all different types of development of personality; it could be by genetic, environment, social circle, past experience…etc, our brain is like a computer, it stores the data and memory, processes it, and then configures all the information, and calculates it for a solution which in the physical world would be our action, emotion, and behavior. 

Our mentality is based on all that we have learned and experienced. What we feel in the present is based on the past; our past makes us who we are today, and who we are in the present shapes the future form of ourselves. Our brain figures all of these steps out, it controls our mental and physical state. People often do many things and feel various emotions without knowing why. This is not because we have an external soul from someone else that is trapped in our body, it is simply because as human beings we do not spend enough time on reviewing and understanding our past, environment, and social circles.

As humans, we are physical and emotional beings. Our mind is our brain, to know what we know, and to feel what we feel is understanding how our brain works.