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Scher has brought together the predominantly original contributions of thirty-five prominent psychologists, philosophers, physiologists, psychiatrists, and theologians to suggest answers to his basic
question, 'What is Mind?'. The volume has three parts: 1, Mind as Brain: physiological aspects of the brain, nervous system, endocrine glands, and the behavior of animals and men; 2, Mind as Participation: humane, psychiatric, and cybernetic definitions; and 3, Mind as Method (Of Elephants and Men): a miscellany of methodologies—introspection, memory, mathematics, hypnosis, and paranormal communication.
As not uncommonly occurs with such an arrangement, the book suffers from a wide variety and unevenness of styles and orientations. Two quotations seem appropriate here: Angell's dictum, 'We should glean information wherever it can be found', and Wittgenstein's, 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent'. Thus it is indeed distressing that several contributors, apparently established and distinguished in their academic fields, still harbor so primitive and distorted an understanding of both clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis. Moreover the articles by Percival Bailey and Jules Masserman are marked by diatribes against classical psychoanalysis. It is equally unfortunate that no definitive psychoanalytic article or point of view is included. Several quotations may suggest the flavor of the articles dealing (usually peripherally) with psychoanalysis. Bailey: 'Classical psychoanalysis applies a somewhat peculiar form of demi-theology'. Taylor and Wolpe insist that we 'must correct the widespread belief that abnormal mental processes are responsible for neurosis', the etiology of which is 'an intrinsically simple conditioning process'. Glad, using an inflated beach ball as a metaphor, remarks, '… psychoanalysis expresses the intensity and anxiety of being overfilled with a seminal surplus'. Fortunately Angell's dictum about gleaning information