ABSTRACT
Minds are easily swayed, and words alone, whether spoken by politician or prophet, preacher or psychotherapist, can change a person’s mind and alter the structure of his brain. The newborn’s brain is relatively unwired, the neurons relatively unconnected to one another, but their potential for connection is vast. There are many more potential connections in the brain than there are atoms in the universe. Phineas Gage’s unfortunate accident showed that the prefrontal cortex was central to social functioning. Yet it was hard for scientists of the time to accept that a chunk of brain could control such lofty human functions–motivation, judgement, morality. Human language is infinitely flexible; there is no limit to the number of sentences that can be constructed. The human brain continues to grow larger and more complex, perhaps in response to the stress of coping with overwhelming information and constant social stimulation.
