Learning and Unlearning in the Formation of Social Bonds *

Learning is the set of processes by which intentional structures stretch forth and change themselves through self-organizing, chaotic dynamics. It leads to solipsistic isolation of individual brains progressively with increasing complexity of learned tasks. In order for understanding between brains to develop as the basis for trust and cooperation, neurohumoral mechanisms are postulated to exist in mammals, which bring about unlearning through a meltdown of intentional beliefs, without loss of procedural and declarative memories. Evidence for unlearning exists in the physiology of conversion (“brain washing”) and in the secretion of oxytocin and vasopressin in human and other mammalian brains during behaviors directed toward reproduction and the care of altricial offspring.