Conscious and Unconscious Programs in the Brain

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

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2. Fundamentals of Psychobiology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Anatomical and Functional Organization of the Central Nervous System

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 3-12

   3. The Biological Origins of Motivated Behavior

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 13-29

   4. Adaptive and Affective Roles of the Emotions

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 31-43

   5. Perception, Learning, and Engram Formation

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 45-62

   6. Language and the Higher Cognitive Processes

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 63-77

3. Mechanisms of Conscious and Unconscious Thought Processing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. Functional Organization of the Consciousness System

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 81-93

   3. Self-Awareness and the Anatomy of the Subjective Self

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 95-104

   4. Attention as Directed Consciousness

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 105-123

   5. Recognition, Memory Retrieval, Mental Set, and Other Decisional Operations of the Neocortex

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 125-141

   6. The Alert Conscious State: Controlled Processing of Episodic and Affective Data

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 143-157

   7. The Procedural Unconscious: Automatic Processing of Mechanical, Structural, and Semantic Data

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 159-173

   8. The Episodic Unconscious: Semicontrolled Unconscious Processing of Episodic and Affective Material

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 175-187

4. Hierarchical and Hemispheric Origins of Repression and Other Defense Mechanisms

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 189-189

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   2. The Effects of Emotionality on Conscious and Unconscious Information Processing

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 191-205

   3. Differential Cognitive and Emotional Functions of the Cerebral Hemispheres

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 207-221

   4. The Disparate Levels of Consciousness in the Two Hemispheres

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 223-233

   5. Psychological Defense Mechanisms as Interactions between Hierarchical and Hemispheric Functions

      • Benjamin Kissin

      Pages 235-247

For almost a century now, since Freud described the basic motivations and Pavlov the basic mechanisms of human behavior, we have had a reasonable concept of the forces that drive us. Only recently have we gained any real insight into how the brain really works to produce such behavior. The new developments in cognitive psychology and neuroscience have taught us things about the function of the brain that would have been inconceivable even ten years ago. Yet, there still remains a tremendous gap between the two studies-human behavior and brain function-a gap which often seems irrec­ oncilable in view of the basic differences in the methodologies and approaches of the two fields. Students of behavior are frequently disinterested in the underlying neu­ rophysiology while neurophysiologists tend to consider the concepts of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists too vague and theoretical to be applicable to their own more limited schemata. Several valiant attempts have been made by experimentalists to develop a theoretical context in which behavior is described, not separately from brain function but rather as its direct outgrowth. This present work is still another attempt to develop a theoretical system which, given the limitations of our present knowledge, as completely as possible, the underlying brain mechanisms that influ­ will describe ence and determine human behavior. The main emphasis of this work, however, will be not on normal behavior but rather on more neurotic manifestations.

• Motivation
• behavior
• brain
• cognitive psychology
• human behavior
• neuroscience
• physiology
• psychology

• Health Science Center, State University of New York, Brooklyn, USA

  Benjamin Kissin

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