ABSTRACT
The majority of consciousness research is steeped in an evolutionary perspective and a fundamental assumption of ‘mind-brain unity’. Single-cell organisms do not need brains, because they interface directly with their environment through chemo-tactic receptors. Because the concept of consciousness is complex, it is studied much like the fabled elephant, in which one wise man touches the ear, another the trunk and another the leg. There is a growing consensus that whatever consciousness is, it is not a unitary thing, but is a class of phenomena that includes several different states, all having in common the general property of being aware. A distinction is often made between the content of consciousness and the process that produces it. A number of neurological syndromes initially led neuroscientists to the conclusion that some localised region was the ‘seat’ of consciousness. It is becoming more apparent that the ‘self’ and consciousness arise from a dyadic, interpersonal milieu.
