ABSTRACT
I n Chapter 1 , we see that humans have spent thousands of years in search of more answers about the brain and what it means to be human. So, what is the brain? In typical family therapy fashion, it depends on who you ask. Gross anatomy reveals lobes and functions of the brain (see Figure 2.1 ). With white matter the consistency of soft butter, these lobes fi nd strong protection under a series of tough membranes (dura), fl uids that lubricate and cushion, and fi nally, the hard shell of the skull. Th is is what we knew 100 years ago. Th en came the electrical brain, the chemical brain, the cognitive brain, the emotional brain, the social brain, and the psychosomatic brain. Historically, psychosomatic referred to a whole body, multidirectional network of information. Turns out, the brain is one player in a much larger drama. Pert (1997) discovered that the brain was “a bag of hormones” (p. 139). Endocrinologists now realize that the brain is like a giant gland, transmitting two-way messages to distant lands in the form of hormones. In fact, Chopra (1997) refers to the mobile brain as our ability to have consciousness throughout the body, not in the head alone. Th is is how mindfulness and felt sense exercises have become increasingly relevant. A later section describes these
skills. Each of these “brains” will become transparent as we learn the story of survival that grows from a single, fertilized egg.
