My Genome, Not My Self

In a recent article, My Genome, My Self, (The New York Times Magazine, January 11, 2009, page MM24, (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all) Steven Pinker (professor of psychology and cognitive science at Harvard University) argues, the Personal Genome Project (PGP), the mapping of an our genome, our genetic map provides insights into both our biological and psychological make up. Our genome, Pinker writes, offers insights into questions of who we are - ancestry, vulnerabilities, character and choices. Genes are predictors not only of our medical and physical, but also of our behavioral traits. Genes define our essential nature or essence, and they contain information regarding ancestry, but also about temperament and abilities. For Pinker, the shapers of a person are "nature, nurture and brute chance," the brute chance of 'gene modification, random noise, or genetic roulette,' although "no one knows what the nongenetic causes of individuality are."

Leaving aside our physical characteristics, which indeed are defined by our genetic make up, Pinker argues, that our psychological or mental characteristics also are defined by our genes. For Pinker, we essentially are hardwired in our mental characteristics, mental faculties, behaviour and actions, how we respond and deal with the conditions, demands and challenges of existence, and changes in them. We are hardwired in our individuality and personality, in what we do in the mind and mental existence, in our mental behaviour and actions, and resulting outward or overt behaviour and actions. We are hardwired, Pinker writes, in intelligence, school and job performance, marital stability, openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, antagonism, neuroticism, personality, religiosity, political orientation, television watching or cigarette smoking. For Pinker they are defined and governed by our genome, our genetic make up. The genetic conditioning of our individuality and personality, individual behaviour, actions, how we conduct ourselves is acted out by our brain and its neurological structure.

The position and view Pinker presents in the article is a limited, antiquated, false and quite misleading view and understanding of what defines and governs who we are, our individuality and personality, our behaviour, actions, and how we conduct ourselves. It is a view and understanding that fails to understand the mind and mental existence from the inside, as the place where we consciously exist and act. It equates what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence with the brain, its neurological structure and processes. It is a view and understanding of the mind and mental existence that does not reflect reality, as we know it, which individually we experience and of which we are aware.

Pinker ignores and fails to understand what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, the mental behaviour and actions in which we engage. How we respond and deal with the conditions, demands and challenges of existence, change and changing conditions. What defines our individuality, what makes us who we are, beside our physical features and make up, is how we behave and act, how we deal with, respond and adjust to the conditions, demands and challenges, change and changing conditions, in our own mental and physical development and in the world around us. To understand our individuality and personality, what makes us the individual we are, our behaviour and actions, how and why we behave and act in the way we do, we need to understand ourselves from the inside, from inside the mind and mental existence, where we consciously exist and act.

Pinker fails to distinguish and differentiate between the mind and the brain. They are two distinct and separate elements of our existence.

The mind is where we consciously exist and act. It is where we experience, become aware, and where we must consider the conditions of existence, our own mental and physical existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. The mind is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. The mind and mental existence is where we exercise our mental faculties, mental powers and abilities.

What takes place and what we do in the mind define and govern how we view, understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us. It defines and governs how we behave and act, how we deal with, respond and adjust to the conditions, demands and challenges of existence, change and changing conditions. The mind and mental existence is where problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings, and where answers and solutions must start.

To understand ourselves individually, individual behaviour, actions and how we conduct ourselves we need to understand the mind and mental existence, what takes place, what we do, and what we need to do, what we must establish, develop and maintain in the mind and mental existence from the inside. They cannot be understood from the outside through observing outward behaviour and actions, as is the case with psychology. Neither can we understand what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence through studying the physical-biological roots and foundation or the genetic-neurological systems and processes that lie behind the mind and mental existence, as the "sciences of the mind" - cognitive science, neuroscience, behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology attempt to do.

The human brain is the "muscle" of our mind and mental existence, metaphorically speaking. Our muscles give us our physical faculties, the power and ability of movement to engage in physical action and activity, which we can translate into specific physical skills and practices, such as walking, tap dancing, rock climbing, playing instruments, operating machinery, doing brain surgery, etc.

The basic structure of our muscles develops naturally, but to use the potential of our muscles for physical movement we must develop them. A basic level of our physical faculty of movement can be developed without much effort. Developing fully our potential for movement, and translating it into specific physical skills and practices requires conscious and deliberate work and effort, exercise and practice. Learning how to walk is relatively easy. Learning how to tap dance, being a violin virtuoso or to use our fingers to do brain surgery requires focus and concentration, work and effort, exercise and practice.

Developing, exercising and practicing our physical faculties, powers and abilities builds muscle fiber. Without physical activity, not using our physical faculties of movement our muscles will atrophy. The muscles will shrink and we loose the physical power and ability of movement they provide.

When exercising and practicing our physical faculties we activate the respective muscle. However, it is not the muscle or its activity that defines, governs or drives the physical actions or activity in which we engage. (A situation where the muscle defines, governs and drives our physical actions is what we refer to as being spastic, having lost control of our muscles.) Exercising our physical powers and abilities, practicing given physical skills and practices is the result of choices and decisions we make, despite the fact that at times we may not pay attention or keep track of what we do or engage in. Our muscles are the physical-biological foundation of our physical faculties, powers and abilities, but they do not define or govern when, how or why, for what purpose or to what end we use them.

The brain and its neurological structure are the physical-biological foundation of our mental powers and abilities. But, as with the case of our physical faculties, our mental faculties, powers and abilities do not develop on their own. The basic neurological structure, the foundation of our mental powers and abilities develops naturally. Our mental faculties, our natural mental powers and abilities we must develop before we can use them. Again, a basic level of our mental faculties can be developed without much focus and concentration. Fully developing our mental potential requires conscious and deliberate mental work and effort, exercise and practice.

Translating our natural mental powers and abilities into specific mental skills and practices, such as mathematics, language, paying attention and keeping track of what is taking place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, establishing clarity of mind and understanding requires conscious and deliberate mental work and effort, exercise and practice. Considering issues, experiences, situations and conditions and how to deal with them at some length, in depth and detail, establishing clarity of mind and understanding, establishing mental order and stability, certainty, security and confidence are choices and decisions we make. Developing, exercising and practicing our mental powers and abilities and translating them into specific mental skills and practices leads to the further development of the neurological structure and connections in the brain. A lack of mental activity, not using our mental powers and abilities, not engaging in mental work and effort the neurological structure of the brain will atrophy and shrink, and we loose the mental faculties, powers and abilities it provides.

When we use given mental powers and abilities, practice particular mental skills and practices, engage in mental work and effort, it activates the underlying part of the neurological structure of the brain. However, this does not mean the neurological structure or the brain define or govern when, how or why, for what purpose or to what end we use our mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices. What we do in the mind, the mental behaviour and actions in which we engage are defined and governed by us. They are defined and governed by the choices and decisions we make, the aims, goals or objectives we pursue and what we try to accomplish.

Within this context, MRI and fMRI scans showing activity in particular regions of the neurological structure of the brain indicate an association with given mental activities. However, they do not explain how or why, for what purpose or to what end given mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices are used. Moreover, they do not explain the degree to which particular mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices have been developed, or how they have been developed. What we do in the mind and mental existence, the mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort in which we engage are defined and governed by the choices and decisions we make. They are defined and governed by how we choose and decide to deal with, respond and adjust to what enters the mind and awareness, experiences, perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, and the conditions that lie behind them.

Moreover, MRI or fMRI scans cannot tell us what mental faculties, mental powers and abilities we possess, how to develop and use them, or how to translate them into necessary and appropriate mental skills and practices. However, how we understand, manage and deal with the conditions, demands and challenges of the mind and mental existence, how we understand and meet our mental needs depends on the level to which we develop our mental faculties and translate them into the necessary and appropriate mental skills and practices. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage, how we consider, plan and organize them also depend on the level to which we have developed and use our mental faculties.

MRI and fMRI scans and knowledge of the neurological structure and workings of the brain cannot tell us how to make sense of our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them, or how to deal with them. They cannot tell us about our role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage, or how to manage them. They cannot tell us about problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, errors and mistakes in what we do, what we need to do, what we must establish, develop and maintain in the mind and mental existence, or how to deal with them. This can be understood only from within the mind and mental existence. We need to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Failing to do so, failing to understand and manage the mind, mental existence and mental development from the inside, leads to mental problems and difficulties - mental disorder and instability, doubt, confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of fear, stress, anxiety, frustration, helplessness, depression, and even suicide. Problems and difficulties that are viewed traditionally as mental illness, rooted in the neurological structure of the brain, our genetic make up, or caused by external conditions and forces.