This Is Your Brain, This Is Your Brain on GLS:
A recent program on Radio-France presented a discussion between neuroscientists and psychiatrists who were interested in the possibility of a rapprochement between psychoanalysis and neurobiology. Until recently, such a concept would have been balked at by the scientific community who, generally speaking, have rejected claims––including those of Freud himself––that psychoanalysis can be properly considered as having any significant scientific application. It seems, however, that recent studies into emotion and the brain––such as those carried out by Damasio and his colleagues––have opened up potential avenues of communication between what were long considered as disparate realms of study that concerned separate modalities of being. Indeed, this new understanding of the psychological and the biological as parts of a complex integrated system––rather than as dual entities or substances––may allow both psychoanalysis and neurobiology to redefine themselves, with positive practical results. Indeed, new conceptions of mind, body, subjectivity and experience appear to be emerging on the horizon of human consciousness.
As the process of investigation creates new images of the self out of the combination and integration of older concepts of mind and body, so it seems that these developments will have profound effects in other areas, such as ethics, economy, artistic expression and our relationship to the environment. Although it remains to be seen whether or not we are on the verge of a major paradigm shift, it does appear that there is a growing need for a deeper integration of the disciplines of study as we currently as understand them––a cross fertilisation of ideas, perhaps resulting in new disciplines––so that we may more profoundly engage in the process of understanding ourselves.
This kind of process seems to be what GLS is all about. As a multidisciplinary field of study, GLS poses large questions which, for the most part, defy categorical solutions: What is the self? How are we to understand the relationship between passion and reason? What do faith and science have to do with each other; or nature and culture for that matter? Multidisciplinary study offers the opportunity to relate seemingly disparate elements to each other in an attempt to deepen the understanding of a given concept, or to create new questions which lead in new directions.
By examining a given concept in terms of its historical and cultural representation in literature, theatre, philosophy, psychology, music, art, economics, religion, and science; and by approaching this examination as a process with an aesthetic dimension rather than purely as a search for facticity, the student of Liberal Studies is in the position to form an evolving image of the given concept out of the diverse historical and cultural expressions he or she has studied in connection with it. For example: consider the image of Desire that may be formed by examining Emma Bovary, Darwin, automobile ads, Freud, Medea, St.Augustine, Weber, Damasio, Brittany Spears and … sub-prime lending? Clearly, a very complicated web of elements begins to emerge under the rubric of Desire––it takes on subtly different forms as we examine it from different perspectives. And, once we begin to interpose multiple idea images formed in this way, a great deal of crosstalk emerges between them. This is also of concern because this creates, in a sense, the landscape out of which our ideas are formed––or perhaps it is better think of this crosstalk landscape existing in conjunction with any ideas we might mould out of it. In any case, viewed in this way ideas do seem to take on a complicated life of their own.
The potential hermeneutic challenges associated with this kind of free multidisciplinary study are indeed daunting. And, with out recourse to specialised normalising theories through which to interpret data, the subjective and non centralising nature of this kind of study may be problematic for traditional Anglo-Saxon academia as well as for those trained in Continental thought, who might well view Liberal Studies as a kind of naive postmodernism. However, for those curious souls who for those who don’t engage in intellectual activity simply for the pursuit of facts or theories, but rather for some more mysterious, aesthetic reason, this kind of open intellectual process, despite its challenges, holds great appeal. And this kind of study has clearly shown itself to be of practical value as well––there is always the possibility for multidisciplinary studies to reveal connections that single discipline studies could find extremely useful.
Clearly, the pleasure and insight derived from facing the challenges of Liberal Studies––especially when these studies can find a healthy critical forum for expression and dialogue––greatly enhances the life of the individual and through him, the society. As a process of intellectual discovery and personal development, the value of multidisciplinary studies cannot be over estimated.
“.. nothing real is absolutely simple; each relation is one aspect, character, or function, way of its being taken or way of its taking something else..” ––William James
FELLED: BY ALEX ITIN
(MUSIC BY MORTON FELDMAN)
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