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In preparing a major paper on the current status of the mind-brain problem and its implications for psychoanalysis, I have waded through a huge number of references and books on that topic; Amazon, for example, lists about 4,000 books on the subject, many of which have been written recently. This review calls attention to one of the two best books on the topic and this reviewer advocates both of them as a wonderful starting point for anyone who wants to really explore the subject in any depth. The first of these two best books is titled The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates edited by Ned Block, Owen Flanagan, and Güven Güzeldere. (1998). The second is the one under review here.
The difference between them is that the former contains excerpts from previously published original writings by most of the major thinkers in the field, whereas the latter contains many new chapters, each dealing with one theory or point of view and is also written by well-known authorities, including some quoted in the former. It goes without saying that reading the original excerpts as they are presented in the former book is extremely valuable and I am happy to report that the chapters in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness also are well written, usually clear, professional, and up-to-date. Some are very straightforward and basic while others are quite technical and complex. The authors come mostly from the fields of philosophy, psychiatry, neurology, and psychology.
The Nature of Consciousness contains an unusually outstanding introduction to the topic as well as a list of suggested readings compiled by one of the editors, Güven Güzeldere, and I would suggest that in studying this subject one should begin with her overall introduction to the