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Book Details
Abstract
Arguing that our brains are wirelessly connected though non-verbal communication, Digby Tantam presents research to show how our brains are linked in unexpected ways and the implications this has for our understanding of criminal behaviour, autism spectrum disorders, relationships and more.
Digby Tantam is Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist for Sheffield Health Care NHS Foundation Trust, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of 'Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Life Span' and 'Can the World Afford Autistic Spectrum Disorder?' and is based in Sheffield, UK.
Exploring compelling science, informative historical examples, and modern day phenomena, Tantam provides a unique look at human nature; what connects us, what divides us, and what we can learn from knowing the difference.
Claire Nana
PsychCentral
The Interbrain is a groundbreaking, wide-ranging, and endlessly fascinating meditation on our innate ability to feel 'connected' to other people -- and on what can happen when that precious connection is diminished. It's compelling reading for anyone interested in the subtle mechanisms at work behind the essential experiences that make us human.
Steve Silberman, author of 'NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism' and 'How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently'
Digby Tantam's book, The Interbrain, is a necessary and innovative exploration of the biological and neurological essence of human nature. It opens our intellectual and conceptual vistas onto a more expansive and nuanced understanding of our interconnectedness. Such a stance, and such an argument, grounded as it is in first class research and thinking, is vitally necessary in an age in which fragmentation of the world, societies, communities and, indeed, individuals, occurs often unchallenged as the inescapable way of things. It is not. Read The Interbrain to find out why. Highly recommended.
Dexter Dias QC, human rights lawyer and author of 'The Ten Types of Human'
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Interbrain: Embodied Connections Versus Common Knowledge - Digby Tantam | 3 | ||
| Preface | 13 | ||
| A note on organization | 14 | ||
| Chapter 1. The Interbrain | 17 | ||
| Thought experiments | 24 | ||
| Connectedness and mirroring | 25 | ||
| Deliberate and involuntary mirroring | 26 | ||
| Real and not-so-real connections | 27 | ||
| Philosophical intuitions about connectedness | 29 | ||
| Nonverbal communication and connectedness | 33 | ||
| Types of nonverbal communication | 33 | ||
| Reflective or top-down nonverbal communication | 34 | ||
| Top-down theories of nonverbal communication | 35 | ||
| Communication central: the orbitofrontal cortex | 37 | ||
| What is theory of mind? | 38 | ||
| Cognitive empathy | 41 | ||
| A mind of one’s own | 42 | ||
| Theory of mind and self-awareness | 44 | ||
| Bottom-up nonverbal communication | 46 | ||
| Why non-awareness leads to denial that bottom-up nonverbal communication occurs | 47 | ||
| Bottom-up nonverbal communication that is non-reciprocal | 52 | ||
| Pain | 56 | ||
| Humean sympathy, identification, attachment, and attribution | 57 | ||
| The insula and emotional flavour | 61 | ||
| Bottom-up nonverbal connections that are apparently innate | 62 | ||
| Bottom-up nonverbal connections based on similarity or complementarity: the interbrain | 63 | ||
| Establishing interbrain connections | 66 | ||
| Gaze reflexes: orientating to the eyes and gaze following | 67 | ||
| Facial and other imitation | 70 | ||
| The mirror neuron paradigm | 72 | ||
| Emotional contagion | 74 | ||
| Shared attention | 76 | ||
| What makes the interbrain? | 78 | ||
| Notes | 80 | ||
| Chapter 2. The Interbrain in Action | 82 | ||
| Introjection | 84 | ||
| Infancy | 86 | ||
| Altruism | 90 | ||
| Giving over to the other | 93 | ||
| Crowds | 95 | ||
| Deindividuation | 96 | ||
| Organismic analogies | 99 | ||
| People enjoy crowd participation | 102 | ||
| Swarms and mobs | 105 | ||
| Equality | 108 | ||
| Equality in spontaneous groups | 109 | ||
| Other animal swarms and interbrain connections | 110 | ||
| Are swarm-like crowds stupid? | 111 | ||
| Cohesion, crowding, and swarming | 113 | ||
| In- and out-groups | 117 | ||
| In- and out-group mobs | 120 | ||
| Religion and crowds | 121 | ||
| Two types of leader | 124 | ||
| Families and familiarity | 126 | ||
| Summary so far | 127 | ||
| Why this chapter is about the brain, and not about, say, extended cognition | 128 | ||
| Notes | 131 | ||
| Chapter 3. Being Dominated by the Theory‑of‑Mind Connection | 133 | ||
| Summary so far | 133 | ||
| Inner conflict | 134 | ||
| When does the opposition between the interbrain and the theory of mind begin? | 138 | ||
| Three examples of the impact of both the interbrain and the theory of mind on social interaction | 139 | ||
| Play | 139 | ||
| Titus Livius | 142 | ||
| Sympathy or law? | 145 | ||
| The trolley problem | 148 | ||
| Kinship | 153 | ||
| The original theory-of-mind studies | 154 | ||
| Narrative | 157 | ||
| Deceit | 162 | ||
| Further problems with ‘mind’ | 163 | ||
| Other people | 164 | ||
| Inequality | 166 | ||
| Gramarye | 167 | ||
| Notes | 168 | ||
| Chapter 4. Connecting to Finnegans Wake | 170 | ||
| When narrative truth comes into play | 176 | ||
| Minds and ‘theories of mind’ | 179 | ||
| Communicating information | 180 | ||
| Perspective taking | 181 | ||
| Connecting feelings | 183 | ||
| Emotional connection through narrative | 187 | ||
| How narratives induce emotions | 188 | ||
| The example of embarrassment or ‘cringe’ | 191 | ||
| The professor of signs | 196 | ||
| Notes | 199 | ||
| Chapter 5. Connecting \nThrough Common Knowledge | 200 | ||
| Cooperation and coordination | 202 | ||
| The madness of crowds | 206 | ||
| How does knowledge become ‘common’? | 207 | ||
| Gaining common knowledge | 209 | ||
| Common knowledge and the interbrain | 210 | ||
| The question arises: in such a world how can people afford to act cooperatively? | 212 | ||
| The public persona | 214 | ||
| Notes | 215 | ||
| Chapter 6. Leaders | 216 | ||
| Submission | 220 | ||
| Obedience | 221 | ||
| The saving idea | 224 | ||
| The connection between the leader and the group | 225 | ||
| How does a leader gain a more permanent connection with others who become followers? | 227 | ||
| Emotions of obedience | 228 | ||
| Common knowledge | 229 | ||
| Disconnection | 234 | ||
| Disconnecting | 235 | ||
| Disconnecting through negativity | 236 | ||
| Hegemony and hate | 238 | ||
| Morality, demons, and beasts | 239 | ||
| Dehumanization | 240 | ||
| In- and out-groups | 243 | ||
| In-groups | 244 | ||
| Justice, obedience, honour, and duty | 245 | ||
| An example from Lodz | 247 | ||
| Notes | 249 | ||
| Chapter 7. Connections and Morality | 250 | ||
| War | 254 | ||
| What leads to war? | 260 | ||
| The moral importance of war | 263 | ||
| Terror management theory | 264 | ||
| What leads to terror? | 264 | ||
| How does war end? | 267 | ||
| The interbrain in war | 268 | ||
| What effect does war have? | 272 | ||
| Does the contrast between types of connections provide any guidance about conducting peace? | 273 | ||
| The connections of terrorists | 275 | ||
| Moral panic: impersonal and disembodied | 277 | ||
| Moral panic or moral terror | 278 | ||
| The lone terrorist | 283 | ||
| The democratization of terror | 284 | ||
| Another story about monsters | 285 | ||
| The psychopath | 289 | ||
| Who is a psychopath? | 291 | ||
| Dangerous, severely abnormal personality disorder | 296 | ||
| Myths about psychopathy and insights about connection | 298 | ||
| The othering manoeuvre | 299 | ||
| If psychopaths existed, what would they be like? | 299 | ||
| Why do we connect to psychopathy? | 300 | ||
| Internet connections | 301 | ||
| Final conclusions | 306 | ||
| Notes | 307 | ||
| References | 309 | ||
| Subject Index | 369 | ||
| Author Index | 376 | ||
| Blank Page |