Neurology A Deeper Insight Into The Mind 3
Although mental illnesses are believed by some to be neurological disorders affecting
the central nervous system, traditionally they are classified separately, and treated by psychiatrists. In a 2002 review article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Professor Joseph B. Martin, Dean of Harvard Medical School and a neurologist by training, wrote that "the separation of the two categories is arbitrary, often influenced by beliefs rather than proven scientific observations.
And the fact that the brain and mind are one makes the separation artificial anyway." . However, the view that mental illness is purely a physical illness reflects a school of thought known as epiphenomenalism, which argues that the mind has no causal effect at all, and is just the subjective experience of our brain at work.
Epiphenomenalism has been roundly rejected by the majority of contemporary neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers. The most common view of mind and brain is school of thought known as property dualism. In other words, the mind is changes in the physical structure of the brain, and changes in the physical structure of the brain are the mind. The mind and brain can both be described and being based in the physical world, but explaining the mind, or mental illness, purely in physical terms, may not always be appropriate or useful.
Neurological diseases often have psychiatric manifestations, such as post-stroke depression, depression and dementia associated with Parkinson's disease, mood and cognitive dysfunctions in Alzheimer's disease and Huntington disease, to name a few. Hence, there isn't always a sharp distinction between neurology and psychiatry on a biological basis.
The dominance of psychoanalytic theory in the first three quarters of the 20th century has since then been largely replaced by a focus on pharmacology. Despite the shift to a medical model, brain science has not advanced to the point where scientists or clinicians can point to readily discernible pathologic lesions or genetic abnormalities that in and of themselves serve as reliable or predictive biomarkers of a given mental disorder.
The emerging field of cosmetic neurology highlights the potential of therapies to improve such things as workplace efficacy, attention in school, and overall happiness in personal lives. However, this field has also given rise to questions about neuroethics and the psychopharmacology of "lifestyle drugs".
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals-that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish. It contains the majority of the nervous system and consists of the brain and the spinal cord. Some classifications also include the retina and the cranial nerves in the CNS.
Together with the peripheral nervous system, it has a fundamental role in the control of behaviour. The CNS is contained within the dorsal cavity, with the brain in the cranial cavity and the spinal cord in the spinal cavity. In vertebrates, the brain is protected by the skull, while the spinal cord is protected by the vertebrae, and both are enclosed in the meninges.
by: Sabina Kucz
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