THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Robert Ornstein
Prentice Hall, 1992
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Describe how the mind “evolved” the way it has
• Determine how rational the mind is
• Explore the “central mystery of the mind”
• Examine the basic relationships of the brain, body and nervous system
• Review Darwinian views on biological evolution and “fitness”
• Review brain-size knowledge of early humans, Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon, and how this applies to current brain studies
• Describe what “flexibility” of the brain means to the evolution of the mind
• Describe the connection of stress and brain development
• Describe the growth of the brain from infants to adulthood
• Describe what “neural selection” means
• Study the role of consciousness in directing behavior
• Review research on memory
• Describe what the author calls “mind shifts”
Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., President of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, is the author of 20 books on mind, brain, and health including THE RIGHT MIND, MULTIMIND, NEW WORLD NEW MIND, THE HEALING BRAIN, and THE ROOTS OF THE SELF.
Based on his life's research, the author of the bestseller "The Psychology of Consciousness" provides a provocative look at the evolution of the mind. He explains that we are not rational but adaptive, and that it is Darwin, not Freud, who is the central scientist of the brain. Photographs and line art throughout.