David Brooks. University of Chicago B.A. in economics. Writing sociology. Writing biology.
No thanks.
68
"Our culture" doesn't pay attention to emotional granularity? No, David, YOUR culture doesn't pay attention to it. Many teachers and mental healthcare professionals, women and mothers, artists, people from California, trauma survivors and "libtards" talk about these things all the time, and have long done so. I work on emotional skills every hour of every day with my kids, building on what my mother taught me, which she learned from thought leaders and books that existed decades ago as well as her own wisdom. (All those mysterious conversations women have? "What are they talking about for so long??" ....Emotional granularity.) And for a long, long time we've been mocked and derided by people from your culture, David. Conservative white churchgoers, men with inherited power, and the many footsoldiers of status quo. "Touchy-feely", weak, soft, limp-wristed, navel-gazers, "not real men", etc etc. I'm happy that you've "discovered" all this wisdom now and are bringing attention to it, but I see you erasing the part where your culture actively fights against and seeks to harm these ideas and the people who hold them. But anyway, welcome to the party. May we all come to greater understanding.
209
"You are not just thinking with your brain."
Can't decide which is more worrisome: that scientists are actually researching what everyone on the planet already knows (and could have told them for free, if they'd listen) or that David Brooks gets paid to write this drivel for the flagship newspaper of this country.
Cliffs Notes: "Hormonal teenagers."
35
There is ONLY body. Your brain IS one organ of of your body. It is time to learn that we are all one entity.
65
Apart from the simplistic neurophysiology, half anatomy and half metaphor; apart from the superficial psycho-philosophy; Brooks is recapitulating the old mind-body dichotomy. But the brain is body.
37
this made me feel good. Happy thanksgiving from another bobo in paradise.....:)
11
Good piece!
17
I seem to recall that David Brooks was considered a noted conservative pundit when he came to the Times, but now he seems to have eschewed that role in favor of being the new mental health advisor to the paper's readership. Impressive.
David, while you were busy researching and writing this column, some of us might have preferred that you regress (the proper term at the Times) to some conservative opinion-influencing that might have offset the horrendous experience of seeing two - repeat, TWO - anti-Thanksgiving pieces on the Opinion page of the Times, one by the proselytizer on the continuing history of American Evil, Charles Blow, and the other an actual entry from the Times Editorial Board, both of them printed ON Thanksgiving as the Times's infelicitous way of driving yet another stake or two into the American Soul.
Perhaps you should request removal from the Opinion pages
of the Times and reassignment to their Health and Medical Sections.
26
"Peace of body is always required for peace of mind."
Zhao Li (946 - 1022)
32
Amazing intellect and breadth
14
David might have a look at W.B Yeats’ essay, “The Thinking of the Body.”
8
Somewhere in this op-ed, the Democrats are being blamed for something...
34
Clearly our President doesn’t.
13
But what to do when brain and gut disagree?
What if, hearing the latest discoveries of the human sciences, your brain says: “That makes sense,” but your gut goes: “Bah, humbug!”?
10
So, there's something to be said for feeling something in your gut. Other times it's more nuts than guts!
8
This is all very nice. It might even be true. But what are we supposed to do with any of it?
My vagal tone has been in recession and my sympathetic nervous system has been on high alert ever since November 8, 2016. Have I been drinking more? You betchya. Nothing like bourbon & branch water to take your mind - er, your intestines - of the wretched state off our politics...
But to be honest, David, I don’t turn to the NY Times Opinion Section for distraction from the fight for America’s soul, I come here to engage. Such literal naval gazing as this essay is out of place. If all the conflict is getting to be too much for you, maybe you should think about taking early retirement.
23
David Brooks reminds me so much of Fox News. When all of the headlines are about the impeachable offenses committed by Donald J Trump Fox leads with a story about a dog falling in love with a kitten.
44
David Brooks has outdone himself with this one. By sharing his thoughts on these breakthrough studies, he’s opening up a conversation that is still in its infancy. Thanks David!
15
David welcome to land "the embodied mind" a concept that was been realized scientifically for over the past 25+ years; where experience is the emergent third in our binary reality... and yes that includes both hemispheres of the Brain...
5
Consciousness does not exist in the absence of the brain, neither do emotions.
It is nauseating(vagus nerve) to read another erudite discourse that distracts and misleads us from the conscious efforts of those without any conscience to undermine democracy, as in “government is the problem”. The American people are sufficiently inflamed, frightened, and disoriented by those who think “government is the problem”. Those who are in a fight-flight state are either numb or pushed to non-conscious irrational choices. While rich persons on the “right” may enjoy the prosperity, or others the sense of revenge against non-whites or women or Muslims, or anyone who they have identified as their persecutors. Champion Trump has remained in place because those on the right who are conscious and rational support him and all of the damage he is doing for a reason. The funniest thing about this essay on vaso -vagal responses is that the author cannot embrace his own obliviousness, his own blindness to his motives. How does this narrative help?
A person with an unimpaired brain is reveling in Moscow. Republicans are trapped into doing his bidding because they are the servants of a Golem that they created. Republicans with elderly parents, young children, gay family members, non-white or non American or poor, ignorant family members, have vanquished their consciences and bought a narrative in which they are “good, moral, and normal”. No, not even if their guts say so. They are not.
26
In one example, it's actually fairly easy to consciously feel the response connection between your brain and the rest of your body. Close your eyes (not always necessary, but useful) and think about either a variety of different people, or a variety of experiences, being aware of how your body reacts to those thoughts.
Example 1: Think about Mr. Rogers and Mr.Rogers Neighborhood and notice how your body feels. Now switch to thinking about your least-favorite politician (or relative) and notice (feel) how your body responds.
Example 2: Think about going to the fair; rides, cotton candy, clowns. Now think about going to the dentist for a root canal. (sorry dentists)
Example 3: Think about how happy your dog is to see you after having been locked in the garage for six hours. Now think about your wife's reaction to seeing you after you accidentally(!) locked her in the garage for six hours.
In many cases, your body's response to such changing thoughts will be subtle, but usually detectable. It's real, and it influences our lives every day. It's the mind-body connection.
12
Yes.its amazing how much our bacteria in our gut control our body. WE are evolved from bacteria, almost all of our trillions of cells are bacteria pieces. There is a direct highway from gut to brain. Depression, dementia etc.related to this. Anxiety and other feelings also.
Diet is key. More vegs, less meat, more fiber all important. Exercise related/ When we fly toEurope our gut bacteria changes, when we miss sleep, when we eat a high meat, sugar diet all change for the worse.
It is now accepted that if we had the best bacteria our health, mental, function etc/. would all improve.
For details see letswakeupfolks.blogspot.com-Our important bacteria.
8
More than 60 years ago, Moshe Feldenkrais, the founder of the Feldenkrais Method, said, "“I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality. They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think.”
I'm glad to see that people like David Brooks, who I would consider to be a representative of the conservative mainstream, are beginning to realize that intelligence does not merely reside above the neck.
11
Funny, you should write about this, I recently fell and the vagus nerve came to mind, as the fall seem to shake my entire existence.
3
This is why people should go to Med school and study science and not dismiss intelligent advancement in science. This is why planet Earth needs people trained in rational, well thought out research. And that means research without immediate applicable usage. And they should be highly qualified in their field...the best and the brightest-not chosen because they fit the latest politically correct quota ( written or secret.)
6
Uh, David, has it occurred to you that, in fact, the brain is a physical entity. The brain, in fact, is a body part, is body.
7
This explains why I have felt nauseous and sick to my stomach for the past three years. Something is very, very wrong: my mind knows it and my body feels it.
27
There's an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Personality, decision making, reasoning, judgment are centered there (Marieb, Human Anatomy and Physiology). This brain area doesn't finish developing until the mid 20's. Its development is influenced by "feedback from our social environment". Our cognitive processing of and reactions to emotions are heavily influenced by the prefrontal cortex.
Brain activity in this and other areas varies by position on the conservative-liberal spectrum. Several studies indicate that people on the conservative end are likely to be more reactive to fear and resistant to change. https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.16030051
Imagine how differently prefrontal cortices develop when people live in "their bubble" compared to a time when most people taking in the news watched the ABC, CBS, or NBC evening news and took in a shared set of incoming information. Imagine how differently this area develops when religious leaders steep their congregations in conservative ideology and leave "do under others as you would have them do unto you" out.
No wonder there is such a steep political divide by rural/urban, coastal/inland, white/nonwhite dimensions.
What can we do about that?
12
David, my doctor told me I have six months to live.
I told him I couldn't pay my bill.....he gave me another 6 months.
8
G.W Bush's "I go with my gut" led us into the Iraq debacle.
10
Mr. Brooks gets the Subscriber's Award--a wise and thought-provoking column that does not mention he magic word, "Trump."
3
Which is why Trump "posture's up" to everyone and is constantly unleashing barrages of threats and insults to everyone -- to keep everyone's nervous systems in a constant chemical state of fear so as push them into either fight, freeze or flight. His chief political mechanism is to hi-jack your nervous system for his own nefarious ends.
The best way to protect yourself against someone like Trump is to experiment and familiarize yourself with how his bellowing presence is designed to trigger your nervous system and steal your autonomy. Pick some truly outrageous speech of his and watch it on YouTube. Notice what's happening in your body, how you tense up and start worrying about what this rascal is going to do next. Just watch your own inner process. Then, run the video again and mute it. Notice how your internal reaction changes. Lastly, don't watch the video at all, but read a transcript of Trump's words (if you can find one, which admittedly might be hard).
Notice anything as your read the transcript? It contains zero meaningful content. Zilch. Nada.
That's because Trump's sole purpose, whenever he opens his mouth, is to trigger us into either fight,flight or freeze using the polyvagal hi-jack.
19
Great article. Here is a New York Times OpEd that shows a practical application of these ideas.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/its-not-always-depression/
1
That explains when someone walks into the room when we can't see them but the hairs on our neck stands up. This article explains so much. Thank you so much, David Brooks and New York Times.
3
Can we back away for a bit on this frenzy of brain theories? So subjective are these, and ripe for misuse and abuses---including eugenics.
Yes, yes, yes, in reading the comments I am more convinced that we collectively need to sue President Trump for "intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress." Minorities, victims of emotional physical, sexual abuse, truth-seekers; are all feeling visceral and real-time emotional repercussions of this administration. Lawsuits are the only language he understands. If you find this to be a far-flung idea just consider the fact that he sued Deutchbank for under the auspices of a natural disaster (mortgage loan crisis and surrounding mayhem) to get out of paying back his loan in 2008.
14
Thank you, David Brooks, for continuing to articulate the fundamentals of our relational human nature from the growing scientific knowledge of the mind and body thinking, the fundamentals of intimate relationships, and the awakening of essential interconnectedness. The science of human development now recognizes the centrality of relationships for building health, achieving human potential and healing adversity and risk! Building from visionary leaders like Steven Porges, Martha Welch, Jack Shonkoff, Stanley I. Greenspan, and Barry T. Brazelton, let's bring this transgenerational wisdom to every new family and community, even before the birth of their baby, on the importance of a focus on relational health and, in particular, early relational health. The First 1000 Days, prenatal to age 2, develop the brain and body's capacity of thinking together. No other period of human development is more important for building these fundamental human qualities. Yet our culture conveys an over-emphasis on autonomy, a tolerance of policies that compromise the needs of babies and their young families, and a lack of public awareness of the fundamental truth of early relational health to realize our hopes for each child's future health, development and wellbeing. Thus the development of high emotional granularity, as so noted, for better mental health will only be achieved by recapturing the intimate relational and emotional connections essential to our very essence and existence.
12
Man walks into a room and instantly feels even better than he, 87 years old, already feels. The 10 to 12 asylum seekers or former asylum seekers in that room at the Red Cross exude welcoming waves, vibes that come from the physical "thems" even though they have faced unbelievable events in their own earlier lives in Kurdistan, Iraq, Congo Kinshasha, Syria, Afghanistan now physically behind them.
Outwardly, they do not look like the man, but inwardly they are 99% identical with him, the genome does not lie. Yet in that man's America each of these individuals is not welcome - wrong religion, wrong country of birth, wrong skin color. American tragedy.
They, after 23 years, in the 1000s, are Sweden's gift to this man. The green light shines, every time.
Find a counterpart where you live and your autonomic state will make itself felt in brain and body.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
5
This is indeed a strange week. I spent the week discussing Jewish mysticism with a friend whose field of study is mysticism. I mentioned that Jewish mysticism seemed to lead down paths that required an extremely intense immersion in math and science and seemed to always end up in humanism rather than in theology. Naturally Steven Pinker was front and center in the discussion.
In our little backwater the University of Sherbrooke runs our health, education, and welfare and it also happens to be a world center for brain research and it was not too long ago that it was the Catholic Church ran health education and welfare and people like myself went to Protestant schools and Jewish and Protestant hospitals.
Because we speak French it isn't widely known but unlike the rest of Canada and the United States Quebec has a state religion and we are Secular Humanists. When religion is not allowed to interfere the mysteries of the universe are open to investigation. After centuries of clerical oversight the soul can now be mapped measured and investigated and our essence can stop being outside human understanding.
Last week the local headline read Sherbrooke has given students and staff the right to choose their own names and gender.
I wonder if the Kabbalists who understood all the math and science knew what they were saying when they said God occupies the spaces we have yet to understand.
I know American conservatives understand without magic their world disappears. We see the anger.
18
@Montreal Moe
The Judea-Christian worldview made science possible. Created by a God outside of time and space, the material world was deemed by that worldview as good and worthy of study and the made the discovery of the laws of nature inevitable. The earliest pioneers of science include hundreds of Catholic clerics and Jews. Universities that lead in the study of science were originally established by members of institutional Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
3
@Garry
We had math and science long before Yahweh. The oldest known writings were rent receipts. Why do you persist in telling us this nonsense. We know a great deal of human history and linking Judaism Christianity and science is another of conservatism's logical fallacies. We had the Dark Ages, we have Trump and his "unChristian Right" we have pro and anti science movements throughout the history of Judeo Christian civilization which by the way is only true if we discard the fact that these are two very different theologies and that the Roman Church comes of Roman and Greek mythology and Judaism never was able to create demigods.
The very brain studies Brooks references are older than Judaism and may even precede their place in Hindu mysticism.
We burned scientists as witches until the enlightenment. I don't know what inspired your comment but Empirical data seems to inspire the kind of anger currently roiling the USA.
The Bible is a tribute to man not God it is wonderful poetry and allegory it is literature and is wonderful for what it is. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they gave us non submission to authority as a sin they did not give us science. Science and the discovery of science got us kicked out of the garden. Eating of the fruit was the first scientific experiment and those who quest for understanding celebrate our expulsion from the garden.
9
@Garry
What I would most like to explain is that there is no link between religion and morality. Humanism has its own morality and religions have their own vision of morality. Good and evil despite what the guardians of the temple say are dependent on what animates us as individuals and the information we possess and understanding good and evil is sometimes based in believing thing that are not true.
"He who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
12
Thank you, this is very helpful and will help more people learn about the hugely important work of Porges and others. I would add two things. 1) In addition to the activiation described here in response to perceived lack of safety, Porges identified a senond branch, the dorsal vagus, that causes de-activation or shut down of the organism when fight/flight activation is not successful (e.g., a traumatized child that cannot simply flee her home, or a rape victim who has been overpowered). This can cause a habitual reaction to stress that is very much related to what we call "depression." 2) As important as early infanthood is, polyvagal theory is also enormously helpful in healing trauma later in life and there are many therapists working actively in this vein. See Deb Dana's books, based on her collaboration with Porges, for starters.
9
As a person who has long somatized feelings, I have been told by more than one doctor (after various GI tests) that my problem is not my hardware, but my software. So this makes perfect sense to me.
3
I'm not only a human being but I am a human being. I don't have a body. "Body" is a figure of speech used to mean different related things about our physicality depending on the context. Consider that people often use the term when they mean their form and appearance only, their "figure" or "physique", for instance. David is merely communicating that our brains and nervous systems as a whole are composed of multiple parts with different compositions and responsibilities. Rather like the entirety of our physical human selves.
Apart from being human beings we are persons and - of course - both simultaneously. What makes us a person is information acquired, accepted and retained from our past experience. How such is stored, arranged and made available in the present for our use is complex in itself and not entirely understood. One thing we can be sure of is that it is the nature of a human being to become a person. Another is that we contingently but decidedly become the person we are - we can change in part, but not entirely.
Sometimes our subscription and devotion to beliefs is irrational or at least extra-rational, indicating that not only our higher brain but our lower brain and nervous system is involved in this fact. Consider the common belief that each of us is solely or primarily an ego or soul for whom one's material self is just a body we as such control. However imperfectly, I'm glad David has made a contribution to eradicating this persistent and pernicious belief.
2
For some time now in my adult life, I have observed that we humans seem to take as a given that we are unique in the animal world in that we have some power of 'rational' thought, and it seems to each of us that we live lives of thought whereas the beasts do not. I have also observed that most of what we think about from moment to moment is how we feel . . .
2
I appreciate this and some other columns by David Brooks for highlighting important ideas about social and individual health and happiness, how we communicate with each other, and related themes. About one question posed in a number of the other reader comments, one approach to developing stronger abilities to describe our emotions with more granularity, or detail, is giving younger kids more exposure to a wider range of vocabulary and words that describe emotions in more detail. There's substantial research and writing about this online, including a lot of guidance materials for parents and teachers. I first came across Lisa Feldman Barrett's work in a recorded book talk she gave on CSPAN several years ago that included a reference to teaching more detailed emotional vocabulary, which has been shown in some research to help reduce negative behaviors in kids (if you cannot explain why you feel bad, you're more likely to get angry, etc.). About Dr. Barrett's work and 2017 book cited by Brooks, a central idea is that people experience emotions in far more ways than many scientists have described and her theory of constructed emotion on these ideas has been controversial because it contradicts a reigning paradigm that groups human emotions in a small number of categories. These ideas, and the polyvagal theory, seem to have real merit and I'm glad to see them getting more attention here.
7
Rational thought is constantly playing catch-up, thinking up justifications for actions that have already been performed for non-rational reasons.
2
A more comprehensive explanation is found in Dr Robert Sapolski's lectures . A neurologist and many other degrees, he explains the complex interation among the brain physiology (insula, cingulate, frontal cortex, amygdila, etc), hormones, chemicals (oxytocin, testosterone, etc) genitics and epigenetics, culture, and so much more on human response and decision making. In sum, it ain't simple and the human being is fascinatingly complex.
4
Fascinating. I can attest to everything in the fifth and sixth paragraphs, particularly the fifth. I have a history of trauma, starting when I was quite young. I have such a strong reaction to crowded places that I become panicked, dizzy and nauseous. I cannot focus my eyes. My heart and breath rate go up, my head spins, my ears hum. I need to escape, immediately. If I have no quick access to space and fresh air, I can go into a full panic attack. These episodes feel so much like a textbook heart attack that when I described one to my doctor she scheduled me for a stress EKG.
The detail about being attuned to high and low frequencies explains something I’ve always though was more of a personal quirk. In difficult social situations I have always had trouble focusing on conversation, so I trained myself to find one person to talk to, off to the side of the crowd. I watch their lips while they talk. It keeps me anchored.
In the years that I maintained an intense yoga practice, I had to avoid certain poses because they triggered the vagus nerve. Any form of backbend would cause immediate vertigo, panic and severe nausea. So I have long been aware of the role the vagus nerve plays in our panic reflex. However, I did not know how much it determines our animal instincts.
I have seen all of these panic reactions in dogs and horses. If your your animal exhibits signs of stress, please honor that and take him or her to a quiet space. Ditto with your tender human friends.
7
I expect research to confirm my hunch that skin (with its complex effector-organ systems of intrinsic epidermal muscles, exocrine & endocrine glands, & multipotent immune cells, along with its obviously exquisite sensory-organ systems within it), like the vagus system addressed in this article, plays an even more overlooked yet key role in creating & modulating/processing the thoughts & feelings of our conscience awarenesses.
2
Specifically, for example, I think of the microscopic muscles in our epidermal system as emotional & thought end-organs, which stimulate the various sensory nerve endings nearby to collaborate in a feedback message to that thought/feeling center, to give that thought/feeling a somatic “meaning”.
I expect our epidermal muscles should be recognized as a major effector end-organs of our emotional feelings.
I feel conflicted these days when I read DB's pieces. He publicizes important insights, due to his platform combined with what I will call his midlife spiritual awakening. He has gone from head to heart, and now tries to try to combine these in a utilitarian way in his column. I appreciate this. But the other part of me wants to say "Yeah, duh. So many of us have been living these insights and been trying to make structural changes with them for years!". This brain-body understanding is not new, which can make DB seem naive. In this case the body-brain connection is bound up in why so may of us fight for social justice, because we have understood (and have known the science behind) how trauma affects people's ability to pull up by bootstraps (as Republican policy is so fond of invoking). This is why Dems are more often teachers and social workers. One cant help but see the social implications of this research, and vote that way and work that way when one understands this connection. But as DB is working that way now, I appreciate it and say Welcome
10
I don’t want to sound like a know it all, but people who have lived through childhood trauma knew this a long time ago and have either been successful in developing coping skills to overcome the constant cortisol release through fight or flight ( music therapy, meditation, interaction with nature) or not. I’m sure most of the prison population and soldiers with PTSD know this only too well also.
11
@Kelly Grace Smith
Your integral perspective is inspiring (in spirit) and lovely. I would simply add that it's good to see, hear, feel, think, and believe from my Source that a shift is taking place. Better late than never!
I’ll add muscle memory to the equation. I’m a guitar player. If I try to play a song I haven’t played in a long time, I can think and think and look at my hands and try to remember how the tune goes and it just doesn’t come.
If I relax and just let my hands do their thing, the tune usually just flows magically from somewhere. Little stored up memories in those hand muscles. Amazing!
7
@Steve, I think that has more to do with the parts of your brain you are using. Someone with a severe stutter may not be able to recite the lyrics to a song without getting stuck on troublesome letters, but will be able to sing it without trouble.
The pioneers who paved the way for Martha Welch's recent research deserves recognition (and re-reading!). Most notably, Ashley Montagu (his book "Touching: the Human Significance of the Skin," 1971). He in turn drew on the findings of such researchers as psychoanalyst Rene Spitz and psychologist Harry Harlow. (The latter demonstrated the pre-eminence, among primates, of the infant's need for sustained tactile contact with the mother figure; cf. also John Bowlby.)
4
Sometimes an intended distraction directs and focuses instead of obfuscating and obscuring. By all means, let's use our brains in the next presidential election. You might try being more direct with your party, Mr. Brooks, in this regard.
6
As the leadership of the country spirals into a tornado of lies and brings America to the brink of violent crisis, thank goodness we have a commentator here brave enough to skedaddle away from the hot topic and deliver another 500 word Hallmark Card rife with vintage Brooksian pseudojargon.
David's right, of course. Our culture pays almost no attention to "emotional granularity", likely because until this column went live, those two words never collided in a sentence, and likely they won't ever again. But credit the man with inventiveness, absent actual courage. By the time Trump's impeachment goes to the Senate and the nation is at its own throat, Brooks will have explained his theories on quantum viscerality, neo-paleo obscurantism, parochial globalisticness, and rockabillinillification. He'll make us see how important they are.
14
Your comments are petty. Brooks writes on all sorts of topics and has written on politics and commented on important issues. His writings reflect the variable interests of an active, curious mind. Even if I don’t agree with him at times, his honesty, elegance, eloquence and writing style are always interesting to me.
20
@James Costello. Yes, “petty” is the right word.
2
I have often found that the very people who most insist that our "natures" are bad--and the right/"moral" thing to do is mistrust our feelings and subjugate them to our rational minds--are the angriest.
3
So now you know how women feel on a daily basis Mr. Brooks.
Attacks on women have gotten worse over the past few years so we are always on guard.
9
@Jacquie Men are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes than women, as anyone could easily ascertain by visiting the Bureau of Justice Statistics site.
1
As a child that was raped and that through mindfulness (of the body, of thoughts, emotions...) has healed greatly, along skilled help of meditation teachers and therapists, this is not theoretical. It is as real as the sun rising and setting.
3
Today is Friday. If Brooks has decided to write in the Science Times than it should be Tuesday. If he is paid to be a conservative writer let him do so or join George Will in writing about the Cubs.
2
Huh! So socialism, that sees us as groups of people, seems to be on to something.
2
Please read „ The Body Keeps the Score“.
6
Sounds pretty much like Vedanta. You know, from some 4500 years ago...
6
David: When you write about these realms of human experiences, you are at your best. Please continue to do this
(unlike most other media writers), and please do this instead
of your political columns, which do not show you at your best
and in fact, are a turnoff for many who could learn from this other kind of writing of yours.
It is clear to me when I try to read your political columns that you are not in touch with the lives of the American working and middle classes, who are the majority of Americans, and how they suffer because of those folks you think are ok. I call you and Thomas Friedman the 'flyover' media; you fly over the middle of the country and the poor, the wounded and struggling, and pontificate your political opinions from a high, rarefied, out-of-touch altitude, from what you know about the upper middle class and the rich.
Please: stick to what you are really good at: the larger issues facing mankind. IF the NYT will continue to allow you to write thought-provoking columns on concerns bigger than politics, you could do a real service to the necessary debate in this country and elsewhere about what is truly important in life, rather than the latest media show.
Thank you!
I really enjoyed this article. Thanks for writing it.
1
"…the thinking that happens not in your brain but in your gut…" where it is driven by the gazillions of microscopic "non-human" critters that live in our guts and drive our emotions, which drive our "thinking", which drives our actions…
There is no "Me", there is only the universal "We".
2
The gut emotions are not to be trusted.
They are not benign.
Trusting the guts and distrusting the rational mind leads to genocide.
They are where we get Hitler and so many violent irrationalists appealing to our emotions and rejecting rational thought and action.
Gut actions are to be trusted. However, they are only one instrument on the dashboard of human. We drive using more than the speedometer. We use the understanding of speed limits, velocity, gravity, mass, impact and peripheral vision to add inputs to what we experience.
Ethics, and cooperation are also survival instincts. When all our senses, heart, mind, body, and awarenesses are awake and harnessed, What is good for us, turns out to be what doesn’t damage ANY of us, and what benefits our community, generates well being for more than just one. Golden Rule applies.
Thank goodness we were invented more than one to a planet. Aloha.
4
Interesting piece. The correct transliteration from Russian is "toska."
2
This is a refreshing topic and welcome conversation starter. Psychology and medical science, mind-body research, has been around for several decades. It's not about pathology, but health and growth! So here in the NYT, Mr. Brooks is starting a discourse that I hope will continue. Here are some connections with current events:
First, modernity and post-modernity are followed by what philosopher Ken Wilber calls the Integral (actually, almost Integral) age. (Look up "An Integral Age at the Leading Edge.")
We're moving into an age of Integration of what was previously considered separate: mind-body, science-spirituality, traditional-progressive thinking. We need to integrate the political polarity made painfully conscious by the election of Donald Trump.
You may think I'm stretching the theme a bit far, from mind-body integration to political polarities. So let's bring it down to one basic mind-body topic: Love.
Candace Pert was among the first to show that "Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind". In an interview, she said, " Love is an integrator and a healer, but you have to do the work to love yourself and you can start by loving others. That’s the core of human health." "...every cell is talking to every other cell in a rhythmic, ongoing way (Quotes from candacepert.com/news)."
Fear is under Trumpers' hate." Let's all go from there.
6
I like where you’re going with this. I’ve never seen such distinctly differing views held so strongly be distinctly different people. We have a long way to go on this.
1
The reported visceral reaction to others seems to differ per culture. At 63 I emigrated from the Netherlands to the USA.
First contacts feel different in both countries. Dutch people explore each other by teasing. In the US first contacts tend to be friendly. In Holland teasing is safe because people trust each other. Here, I feel suspicion in first contacts. "What is the pecking order.?" It would be interesting to repeat the reported research cross-culturally.
8
Thanks for sharing that. I live in the US and spend several months a year in Medellín, Colombia. For Colombians, they seem to reach out, not simply with politeness, but with a generosity. They don’t seem to have the same social/physical boundaries as we do in the US. They often initiate contact. But maybe that’s because I’m a foreigner? My immediate response is I love Colombianos, haha.
One fascinating area of research concerns the "microbiome": the collection of microbes that live on our bodies. Turns out some in the gut release the same chemical messengers brain cells that control our mood respond to in the brain. Those messengers in the gut bind to receptors in neurons that send their messages via the vagal nerve to the brain.
This is a hot area of research, and one that may hold promise for people who suffer from depression, anxiety, etc.
5
I love this whole discussion! We need an additional forum, I think.
2
Wow! One of my all time fav subjects. How about this: The microbiome contributes to the "subconscious?" Or the biome is your "intuition" source? "Gut feelings" for sure. Who's to say that hundreds of trillions of microbes of various sorts (bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea), that have co-evolved with us loveable primates, might not THINK, just not exactly like our more orderly brain?
I've been so fascinated with those possibilities, I wrote a book about what would happen if our biomes 'woke up,' and became conscious. Funny stuff would undoubtedly occur, since we would effectively have two brains. I called the book GUT 4.0. I believe David might agree with some of it.
5
One of mine too. Fascinating stuff really.
1
yes, and what about Mitochondria....those exogenous organelles, that hijacked human cells for increased survival, and guess what? The human species began to prosper! Whoopee to the immigrants inside us!!!!
Thanks David, more evidence, if any was needed, that there is no such thing as free will. And please don’t jump to determinism, it isn’t an either/or question; think randomness, probability, not certainty.
4
I was hoping you were going to say “genetic”. Ah well.
1
Why promoting and supporting breastfeeding and"kangaroo care" right after birth is so important for both physical and emotional health. Newborns are put into a state of panic if they cannot smell, feel. hear or taste mom. This disconnect affects their brain wiring for the rest of their lives. Studies have found that if a mom does not breastfeed her body reacts as if the baby was born dead. So many human reacts don't depend on rational thought.
5
That's probably why childhood memories and a troubling childhood is so hard, almost impossible, to overcome when we grow older. Our "core values" also start forming during that time which largely would dictate the way we like to see the world and react to it. No wonder various people see and hear so very different things in same social situations or in a picture hanging from the wall.
It's also becoming clearer that bilingual people with extensive first hand experience in other cultures/countries are better equipped to have "emotional granularity" and handle such situation better.
5
To learn a process that puts you in touch with your emotions and the needs that stimulate those emotions (needs for connection, safety, adventure, autonomy etc - Maslow-based), see the book (or many youtube videos) of Marshall Rosenberg, "Nonviolent Communication" and "Say What You Mean" by Oren Sofer. Sofer is a current teacher of mindfulness and nonviolent communication. And, to benefit from this study, realize that every time we harshly judge ourselves or another, we are using violent language - "NVC" can help you translate your judgmental thoughts into empathic ways of thinking..
3
Nice column. Dr. John Sarno was onto this decades ago, and Spinoza about 350 years before that, and Gautama Buddha about 2000 years before him. Maybe it was Plato that got us started off on the wrong track.
5
Ok, so, now we have David Brooks trying his luck at explaining the brain/body interaction. I think that all this dissertation would make much more sense if we would be in the midst of a THC high, in which Mr. Brooks might have been on when he wrote this column.
I appreciate David's Brooks intellect and some of his forays into amateur Psychology and Philosophy. I think this time he might have missed the mark.
2
This, of course, is very true. It affects every aspect of our existence: our decision making, our reaction to other people (relatives, friends, strangers), our reaction to authority, our reaction to change, politics, sex, religion, etc. It’s very easy (and self flattering) for humans to believe that we’re rational, but the reality is that we’re primates, with a slightly thicker layer of cerebral cortex on top of a 100 million year old core of fundamental animal behavior.
4
The danger of having a narcissist as a parent, or at the most extreme, a president, is that the subject is in a constant state of emotional arousal. Narcissists suffer from underlying insecurity so they need to constantly prop themselves up by putting other people down and have an insatiable need for power & control. This is a type of, to use transactional analysis lingo, "I'm okay, You're not okay" communication. Even if they are charming, glib & exciting one minute, they can turn around on a dime & be cold, calculating, exploitative, aggressive & vindictive.
Even if they are around healthy, self actualized people who have learned to rise above the amygdala's fight or flight early mammalian response, the narcissistic won't stop until the other person is rendered weaker & defeated. This isn't a healthy dynamic especially for people who've undergone psychic trauma in the past.
This is why so many people have an irrational response to President Trump's narcissistic behavior. The "Polyvagal Theory" provides an explanation for our repulsion and knee jerk reaction in perceiving everything he does out of a prism of suspicion & hostility. On the other hand, for those who are enamored of his style, he might just reinforce their early childhood experiences of having a strong dominating father who tells them what to do. In contrast to allowing safe spaces for those who disagree with his style to feel empowered & able to flourish with higher levels of creativity & self enlightenment.
8
They see what they see but at what cost? To abandon rational thought and succumb to baser instincts, if that’s what’s happening, also puts our democracy at risk.
2
I nominate David Brooks for the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the human bodies of the vast majority of human beings and all they have to endure and go through in this world and in this life.
For these people, it is all they can do to "get out" of their bodies for a moment in the day –– perhaps with sleep. For so many of those that Brooks talks about, it is all they can do to "get back" into their bodies after spending a day orbiting in obscure ideas and psycho-socio theories.
It's about time that journalists, politicians, planners, and organizers realize this "new world" of human reality. The Body! Who knew? Mr. Brooks has made a great discovery here. He should start packing his bags for Stockholm.
1
Oh good something else to get worried about. How exactly does one "teach" emotional granularity.
1
You don’t teach it. You live it.
I am always slightly amused when "pundits" think they are writing something original when they are actually reinventing the wheel. I suppose that David Brooks missed out on reading Merleau-Ponty when he was a student.
5
I re-read Mr. Brook’s column. No where does he say he thinks he is being original. This human condition may have been understood and known for a long time by many but what Brooks is reporting is verification and expansion of the knowledge we are now learning about it that has been gained by techniques not known or used before.
I have to wonder why the personal attacks? Agree or disagree but stop inferring or impugning his motivations or character.
9
The gut or "second brain" influences our mood & is forcing the field of psychology to incorporate more emphasis on nutrition & prebioticis & probiotics into a full wellness treatment. The enteric nervous system is responsible for feelings of wellness and coordinates the amount of serotonin & dopamine that reaches the brain. Therefore, people with poor gut health often suffer from depression or, even worse, mental illness including schizophrenia. Drug & alcohol & food addictions can result from a poor gut biome. People are constantly seeking a shot of dopamine whether through hugging, social interactions or, more dangerously, through more self-destructive endeavors. Social psychology has already studied what happens to people, especially infants, who are deprived of maternal nurturing. As the old saying goes, "An apple a day, keeps the doctor away." Eating an apple core every day is the key to a healthy key and the foundation for keeping a balance through nutrition, exercise, social connections & laughter, to avoiding the dreaded "anti-depressant" or "anti-anxiety" route which essentially destroys the gut biome & replaces them with chemicals.
2
While 'tocka' is a letter-for-letter transliteration of the Russian word, in Russian the 'C' is always pronounced as an 'S' and in English, 'ck' is always pronounced as 'K'. It would be better to write the word as 'toska' in English.
2
@SAO And it tells us that he doesn't really know the word or concept (much less the language and culture where it is used) and just was careless in copying from somewhere. In fact this is a typo, and the editors should correct it.
1
I didn't know any of this. Thank you!
2
I love it when David Brooks shares his fascination with topics like this, and I wish others would leave politics out of the discussion.
7
This is the most useful column Brooks has ever written.
Very insightful. I would recommend “The body keeps score” by Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk to better understand the relationship between mind body and trauma.
2
Neuropsychology....the phrenology of the 21st century
1
@Emily, nope.
1
"Connect,only connect"
Thank you, David Brooks! These concepts are SO important to get out to everyone!! And, once we add the microbiome to the conversation, the sky is the limit on how we can finally help ourselves and our loved ones be whole and healthy. Imagine how we could prevent so much suffering because we properly nurture our children and ourselves. I could go on....
Let's support this research and expect/demand this science be integrated with our educational and medical systems.
3
In discussing the Welch Emotional Connection Screen, Brooks makes the assertion that encouraging deep visceral connection between mothers and babies during the first 18-months of life “can mitigate the effects of autism.” That's a huge statement for which empirical evidence needs to be presented. Additionally, this assertion brings to mind 1950s type explanations for autism that claimed autism was caused by a defective relationship between mothers and babies. This theory for the origin of autism was debunked a long time ago and was criticized for unnecessarily placing blame and guilt on mothers for something science does not yet understand.
6
By the end of the column while Mr. Brooks seems to emphasize relations saying we are-- physical vicera interacting deeply-- he still ignores basic mention of how constructed environments and historical realities shape outcomes for and between individuals- on the negative, for example like lack of trust, anxiety, living in a survival mode...etc
Mr Brooks parades his deep insight into the mind/body to obscure his predictable omissions- a rhetorical magic act worth noting.
2
Of course, I don't think just with my brain. I had a gut feeling that nothing good would come out of Trump's election, I feel it in my bones that unless Trump is defeated in 2020 he would do the nation untold damage, and I have a visceral reaction to some 40% of the population supporting Trump even after three years of his presidency. Judging by some of the responses I just finished reading, I am far from alone in my reactions. Now only if Mr. Brooks would turn his talent to confront a state of affairs that preoccupies most of us and inform us on how to deal with our outraged viscera.
33
David: I used to think I was an emotionally complex, nuanced and sophisticated person; but whenever I see and hear Donald Trump on TV, my emotional state goes directly south to: "I feel really, really, really bad!"
7
If we look holistically...the growing anxiety among the young, the increasing suicide rate, the increasing drug dependency, the decreasing life expectancy...maybe it is time to look at the complete depletion of the soil nutrients that agribusiness has brought about. Maybe it is time to look at the ubiquitous poison of pesticides we are all ingesting. We do need to look holistically. We are what we eat, and what we don’t eat.
4
Its not surprising that neither DB's column nor the picks comments say anything about the poor, the underemployed, the under educated large percentage of our population who endure a CONSTANT pressure of money/health/living problems that are not of their own making. This large segment of our population, (ignored or baited) by the current government's leaders and policies, is literally worrying people to death.
9
The wisdom of the body or that the body knows things the brain does not know,--that you can "think" with your body or vice-versa, make your brain operate as if a body--the entire brain, body divide?
I read somewhere the most thoughtful description of the human eye: It's an extruded part of the human brain. Your eyes are literally your brain sticking itself out, looking out at the world, and we study each other's brains when we look into each other's eyes.
From that observation it was a simple step for me to discount the existence of the human body entirely. Insofar as we have the five senses, and they are connected to the brain, and the eyes, an extruded part of the brain, are one of the five senses, you might as well say all of the human senses are extruded parts of the brain and the entirety of a person is a living brain.
Poetry, science, imagination, advanced medicine can envision the entirety of a person being a brain which requires development, and that each person is different, with different requirements for development, but society, politics and economics treats humans as little more than bodies constantly involved in dominance/submission games, or at best in crude games of equalization (zero sum, non-zero sum reasoning).
The best I've seen of the human body is in gravity defying feats--ballet, basketball, free solo rock climbing--and the best of the human brain is something of pattern comprehension, problem solving, escape artist reasoning, brain one move ahead.
2
The wisdom of whole people with bodies would be a better title.
Our brains integrate the sum of our experiences.
We experience the world through our bodies including touch, smell, taste, light, heat and wind on our skins in addition to sight and hearing.
A lot of our communication is not verbal, we pay attention to visual cues, our environment in addition to the words we hear.
So, is there much "computing" taking place outside our brain ? It does not really matter once you understand how intertwined our mind/brain/body are.
Now when we interact digitally, we definitely loose something that make the interaction more personal and meaningful.
1
In many ways, modern technology work against the interconnected human response system. For example, the use of computer-mediated social media limits the physical connection between people. And the increased use of artificial intelligence is implicitly an assumption that intelligence is the most important human characteristic, ignoring the emotional, physical, or spiritual aspects.
7
Wow. Thanks. That the first hours of a touching life can make a life-long, world changing effect on all of us — is wonderfully amazing. And calm touch throughout life begins.
Thanksgiving and hugs to us all.
2
I think it was Betrand Russell who, when asked, where does it hurt, replied "in my brain." Other parts of the body may send pain signals but only the brain can interpret the signals.
5
David, you say that a wise person has greater emotional granularity. It is obvious that emotions drive political decision-making rather than facts. How can we increase wise decision making and stop ignoring important facts? If we can accomplish that maybe our political divisiveness may heal a bit.
5
If you have a conversation with a genuinely spiritual person – not a pseudo, guru, or a “woo-woo” - you will discover a couple of things…
One, they have never considered our physical, emotional, mental (including the brain), or spiritual aspects…as separate entities. They know we’ve always functioned as a complete, comprehensive, complementary whole; each aspect of who we are…able to powerfully impact all aspects.
Two, they would humbly share that the most recent discoveries in neurobiology, etc…they understood 20 years ago. Or more.
Three, the concept that “what you feel” alters what you see and hear is not new; it is as old as the ancients.
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” isn’t about doing good works, it’s about loving you so well – whole-heartedly and w/out judgment – that loving your neighbor well becomes second nature. (We still conflate this with narcissism.)
The Eastern adage “Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water,” is about the integral, on-going connection between body, mind, emotion, and spirit.
I hope one day those who are genuinely spiritual and the science community will come together and begin to discuss and to share; free of judgment of one another; open to the wisdom of one another.
This will propel our understanding of the body, brain, mind, emotions - and our spirituality – forward at a level of momentum heretofore unknown to us.
548
@Kelly Grace Smith The Spirit "wants" to come through now. It is really quite simple. Once you begin to put away the things of childhood i.e., ego and all that is associated with that and replace it with an understanding that we are all made of the same stuff i.e., the universe (quantum level) we will love one another as ourselves. (A wave on the ocean cannot say to another wave "I don't like you," We are only temporary waves of life on the surface of the ocean of life.)
58
@Kelly Grace Smith
Yes, genuine spirituality and science, especially quantum physics, will intersect if the human species is to survive. The Dalia Lama knows this too, which is why he wrote the book The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality back in 2006.
55
@Kelly Grace Smith
Thanks for your response, Kelly! I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed David Brooks' piece. Hadn't heard of the "chop wood, carry water" adage before. Ooh, that's a GOOD one! Happy Holidays to you and may every blessing wrap around you like a blanket. Peace, sister!
36
Yes, our body can trigger an emotional response in the brain, but it is important to recognize that when we feel the emotion, we don't have to identify with it. We have an opportunity to let the brain recognize the emotion and determine why we are feeling, if it is valid, and then if things are safe....use the brain to send the message back to the body to let it go....relax. Some of the emotions being triggered in many of us now by the current global circumstances are valid....but with knowing that the negative emotions will have a negative health impact, we can still let go of the tension and stress to preserve our health and remain functional and clear-headed for responding to these crises in a better way.
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@Jessie Paul
That is sometimes but not always true. Those who have developmental trauma especially do not have the capacity to self-regulate in the way you describe. This can be learned with body-base therapies that are poly-vagal informed, but it takes time, practice and a good therapist.
But along the lines of what you've said... when feeling stressed or afraid, take a pause. Feel your feet. Inhale slowly, count about 6 seconds. Hold your breath for a second. Breath out slower - about 9 seconds. This will change your state. This will lower your heart rate and prompt your brain to release a little bit of feel-good chemicals. The change is subtle, but can prevent a world of pain if you don't act out.
39
But it all starts with the brain. The vagus is a cranial nerve, and it controls a multitude of visceral reactions to emotional events. Yes, the gut and the heart, for instance, have their own spontaneous activity, but ultimately, reactions to external events (anger, stress, love, on and on) begin in the head.
88
.... read the research on bones ... where stress reactions are regulated. Plus the heart seds more messages to the brain than vice versa.
18
@DocM - The executive function is what regulates emotions & sensory input as well as memory. When our gut sends messages, the higher cognitive functions process them & relay information based on prior memories. This is why childhood education is so important because most of our personality is ingrained by age 5-7. Only during the later years are we able to process information abstractly building on the foundation.
It's interesting the difference between Eastern & Western belief systems, though. The ancient art of Kundalini Yoga believes that our body, mind & spirit is, in essence, simply energy from the source. The seven chakras of the base of the spine, sexual organs, gut, heart, throat, third eye & crown are all energy axis in which the body interprets the world. The goal is to breath & let the "wheel of dharma" do its magic.
17
@DocM - that's chicken and egg.
14
The pendulum in the social sciences has been focused on the brain for a while now and for many good reasons. But there have always been mind-body-gut theories. As a research psychologist I've been intrigued by the work of Feldman Barrett and Porge. The reality is that our emotions, thoughts, behavior, etc. are a complex feedback loop. It's not an either or state of affairs. The gut-body part of the equation has been neglected for sure. I'd like more on the relationship between anxiety and gut. I work in a different area but often consult on children's health and wellbeing. I'm wondering how much the current rise in mood disorders in our youth and young adults could be remedied in part by healthier guts (or vagus nerve). I didn't put much stock in this idea even a decade ago but have seen so many teen/tween stomach gastro issues combined with anxiety, depression, etc. that it truly makes one wonder.
4
@Concerned And credit is also due to Candace Pert, who did pioneering research on the body-mind connection.
1
It's amazing to learn that there are neurons, i.e. brains cells, all around the body. Article is not about unconscious and subconscious, but close to them. There seems to be an unconscious intelligence in man that works, acts, helps all the time. When facing a difficult problem, the unconscious works in the background, without we noticing it, and after some time, which may be several months, full understanding and solution just jump out into the conscious and we act upon it. Thanks!
76
@T.Molnard The well known "sleep on it" before making a decision, also the "don't go to bed angry at your spouse....work it out first" adages.
3
“But real emotional help comes through co-regulation.” Really good teachers of children with emotional disorders seem to know this, and respond to escalation in the child with active calmness, increased quiet and gentle waiting— allowing the child the support of external co-regulation. Unfortunately, the typical adult response to emotional escalation in a child is just the opposite: raised voice, aggressive posture, demand for compliance. As a result, we see more and more children who have experienced trauma and have difficulty self-regulating (because of body memory) unintentionally re-traumatized by adults whose responses are damaging, rather than healing.
83
@Kris K The work of Dr. Welch in previous decades was decidedly not crafted to create co-regulation between child and adult caregiver. Her website has no links to her past research and programs but her protocol for "attachment therapy" can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdWhcyz6KbY
1
This should be part of the handbook every patent gets when they birth a new baby. It should be part of the handbook law enforcement gets as polices are crafted and training is conducted. Judges, prosecutors and jury pools should have it as part of their qualifications. It should be taught in entrepreneurial and MBA courses. It should be taught in etiquette classes.
Scouting should make it part of their policy and practices approach. Same for Little League and Pop Warner. Every Sunday school should have this along side any religious training.
And daily, it should be taught in schools through college.
One more. It should be a PSA on every media outlet including social media.
What we don't know can and really does harm us. And our fellow humans.
110
@Larry Heimendinger What does "PSA" mean?
@Gary P. Arsenault "Prostate-specific antigen?" No. I suppose it's "Public Service Announcement."
6
@Larry Heimendinger
I often think if I won the lottery I would set up a non-profit to spread this information as far and wide as possible. It's the best hope for humanity - we can know effectively cure most trauma. That means in a few generations we could stop war, we could experience every person on the planet as part of a whole.
12
There is much, too much, I want to include in this comment. I have read much about Polyvagal Theory. The vagus nerve itself is more than a single wandering nerve. The 10th cranial nerve has myelinated and unmyelinated branches that transmit signals at different speeds and intensities. Carrot and stick enculturation will lead to different wiring. While the first 1000 hours of mother/child contact might lay down markers for emotional stability, ie. optimal vagal wiring, a fetus's nervous system develops amid the neurochemical emotional context of the mother who is herself the product of cultural, emotional, ideological and physical connection to or disconnection from her own feelings. Culture drives the emotional "wisdom" of its members. People, wise or not, think of themselves in words, words which sometimes mislabel feelings. And, when we discuss how fMRI studies "light up" parts of the brain during certain feelings and activities, it should be said that fMRI illumination follows oxygen flow and not neuronal activity. How neurotransmitters work within individuals, families, religious groups, at political rallies and in the world at large can only be inferred from their results. All individuals, wise or not, grow in context.For too long, authorities seeking to control individuals have sought to disconnect individuals from their feelings through "mind over matter" indoctrination such as sit quietly, control yourself, and listen.
10
Our ancestors survived not by cognitively surveying the landscape but, instead, by reacting emotionally before their brains could be engaged.
Yet we believe we are cognitive creatures. We aren't--we are emotional ones.
131
@Travelers
Evidence please.
2
@Travelers I agree...judging from what is going on in Amerika...we are not just emotional..we seem to be primarily feral...the Universe help us all!
9
There's a lot of truth here but the next question is what do we do with it? Brooks will surely fall back on his usual "supportive communities" prescriptions, reinforced by "faith" and "family values" while most of us in the NYT readership call for more robust social safety nets and related public policies. At least we agree on the underlying facts and science.
The problem is that advancements in technology and globalization have outpaced the evolution of our brains. We can't wish ourselves back into cohesive villages where everyone knows everyone else. We have to come to grips with anonymity and economic externalities, making use of human reason. Understanding our emotions should help us in designing solutions. Let's hope Brooks gets on board with that process one of these days.
5
Mitigating the effects of autism is a huge claim to make. I wish Mr. Brooks had provided more detail.
4
@mmk Yes, I was surprised by the NYT that they would publish a piece with unprofessional insinuations/no claims etc. I like David Brooks, but there has to be a higher standard for fact vs. opinion.
1
I really think we are super connected on subconscious level, when I go to place and try to think about what I say and how I say it usually people give me the gist of it I tried different topic in different places and found out they need to hear something and I weather I like it or not have to oblige to their norm otherwise I won’t able to stay any longer!
1
How's does this work? Gut feelings occur, are then filtered through the brain, based on experiences stored in the brain, which then corroborates the feeling or not.
Seems like an unnecessary extra step.
Or there are those who brag about "going with their gut" and we wind up with the Iraq War.
3
What if you are exactly who you are suppose to be? That is my question. In this medical science driven world it's very hard to be your self. Why? Numbers. Lots of them. Test to test the numbers from the medical probes connected to our bodies by medical professionals. But, can the numbers measure my soul? No. The soul is exactly who you are suppose to be.
1
How's does this work? Gut feelings occur, are then filtered through the brain based on experiences stored in the brain, which then corroborates the feeling or not.
Seems like an unnecessary extra step.
Or there are those who brag about "going with their gut" and we wind up with the Iraq War.
1
Mr. Brooks has picked up on the EQ, the emotional quotient that is as important as one's IQ for success in human endeavors. This emotional granularity allows people to communicate, to bond, to cooperate at higher levels than your typical schoolyard bully. Women develop higher EQ's earlier than men, some men never get it.
With his description of how our organs can affect our perception/reality, it's just like old times when the phrase "we are what we eat" was popular.
2
Mr. Brooks: in queer- and trans-centric contexts, my community and I make much investment in the concept of “safe space.” Many of us work on things like sensitivity training, gender neutral bathrooms, and so on, work that strikes observers from the right as authoritarian and from the economic materialist left as merely symbolic. How does your new understanding of emotions and embodied cognition change your understanding of our projects in this regard? How does it make you think differently about, for instance, Twitter’s two-faced hate speech policy, or Facebook’s refusal to fact-check microtargeted political ads? What implications does it have for the line we are all learning to walk protecting free speech while refusing a platform to emotional violence?
6
Wait for it. In one, maybe two or three columns, we’ll get Brooks’ kicker: that voluntary associations—churches, bowling clubs, and knitting circles—are the best means for achieving the full bodied bonding necessary for effective social support, NOT government programs. Mr. Brooks only reads to confirm what he has already decided is true, to build the conservative, anti-government case he is always looking to make.
4
I can apply these concepts to what the Trump presidency does to me and to many others. The granularity of emotions includes depression, despair, rage, disgust, astonishment and disbelief, much humor, and a deep sensation of solidarity with others similarly affected and happiness that they exist.
Mr. Brooks owes us an honest discussion of what Trump as President does to his emotional granularity, to balance the complacent pomposity he often inflicts on his readers, at least on those who do not see themselves reflected in him.
4
By some estimates the half-life of current medical knowledge is 2 years or less. Sometime within the next five years that may be down to roughly 6 weeks: https://hms.harvard.edu/news/medicine-changing-world .
I have no idea where Mr. Brooks' column here fits within yet another hypothetical continuum. I wonder what people with think of the Welch Emotional Connection screen in a decade.
As far as that "old distinction between reason and emotion"-- it may have been out of date some time ago: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2014/09/18/emotion-is-not-the-enemy-of-reason/ .
I don't know what to do with much of what Mr. Brooks writes in this op-ed. A lot of it sounds awfully fuzzy. I wonder what the "brain only" paradigm really means in this day and age: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11691978 ("A paradigm shift in brain research," 2001, Science).
Happy Thanksgiving to all--even those disagreeing with me politically and emotionally.
2
@JSK Polyvagal Theory isn't new. It's been around for decades but it seems Brooks just found out about it.
I can't speak to the longevity of the Welch Emotional Connection, but Dr. Welch's previous work with attachment disorders seems to have been controversial. Curiously, there is no mention of this work on her website at this time, indicating to me she would it to be forgotten.
1
What a fantastic article! Thank you!
1
Our bodies are is fine-tuned to perceive any threat, and our minds are fine-tuned to rally to protect our tribe - and every political scoundrel knows this. They appeal to our most visceral fears and project themselves as our protectors, the protectors of the nation. Those directly affected by their policies are dismissed as irrelevant. By the time the majority realizes they, too, are facing an existential threat, it may be too late. This is, in a nutshell, the story of the rse of every rabble-rouser in history - including the one in the White House. And this is why citizens should be careful to examine what kind of emotions any political candidate is stirring up.
5
Brooks' discussion explains exactly why so many people have strong, negative visceral reactions to Trump. Long before Trump ever talked about shooting people on 5th Avenue, our bodies told us that the man is a physical threat to the well being of those around him. Hillary Clinton experienced this directly during the 2016 debates as Trump kept sneaking up on her from behind in the debates when she was speaking to the crowd.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/oct/10/donald-trump-behind-hillary-clinton-debate-video
As human beings, we are wired to become anxious when people sneak up behind us. Intimidation is a central value in Trump's operational style.
As Brooks reminds us though, human beings are social animals, at the embodied emotional level. If you put a bunch of dogs that don't know each other into a fenced-in acre of land, the males will joust with one another for Alpha Male status. It can take quite awhile for this to sort out. But towards the end of this clarification process, after the Alpha has been identified, all at once the 2nd tier dogs converge from all sides, burying the Alpha and pummeling him with chest banging and paw smashing. Any Alpha which resists this final onslaught of the 2nd tier dogs will not be allowed Alpha status. It's the dogs' way of reminding him that his status is dependent on their consent, and he shouldn't forget it.
Trump is a fake alpha. He never learned that government is by the consent of the people.
7
I'm very skeptical of "emotional intelligence" because people tend to rationalize their hysteria, or their personal desires - who said "people put out their reason to justify their will?" was it Lord Chesterfield? Emotions have been behind religion, fascism, inequality, racism, cruelty to animals, war, you name it. I'm tired of hearing about people's "gut feelings" which lead to witch hunts, and I'm sure that most cops who shoot unarmed, innocent people reacted to their "gut feelings." As for the "mind-body" connection, it's another way to blame the patient when the medical establishment is ignorant of the cause of disease, or when we permit industries and big ag to pollute our air, poison our water and our food. Your emotions aren't killing you, car emissions and pesticides will do the job very well, thank you. This society could use a lot more rational thinking and a lot less emotion.
1
So we’re really a connected mass of humanity, communicating at deep levels, in an ocean of emotion? Gee, I thought Americans were rugged individualists, riding the open range with nothing but our trusty six shooter, a bible in the knapsack, and a healthy distrust of government. Oh, there I go confusing urban modern profitable America with that other rural lonely impoverished America.
5
The real sickness you identify here is profitable vs impoverished. Always about money, isn’t it?
When beyond the realm of our better judgment we operate by gut.
1
IMHO, human connections can mitigate a lot more than just autism. Love is powerful stuff. It can carry humanity to the next level of evolution; but if we fail, self-love, which is no love at all, will destroy it all. The choice is ours.
While I am no qualm of anyone religious, in whatever legitimate religion one chooses, our efforts of praying for our loved ones to get well etc. are really channeling our loving kindness to our loved ones. But it has to done in accordance with medical knowledge and greater sincerity. Remember, if one is faithful to one's God that is legitimate, isn't medical knowledge part of its plan? If one needs any convincing!
Greater sincerity is a bit more complicated. If your loved ones are in a hopeless scenario, say total brain dead, organ donations are a possibility, if your loved ones have indicated such a wish. Why, humanity is bigger than an animalistic existence. And even animals like cats, dogs and even squirrels would exhibit selfless behavior in times of greater needs. So, we humans, sitting at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, should not the instinct of doing good.
Sadly, somehow the current epoch is filled with selfish people of the highest order. Trump, anti-vaxxers etc. They encourage people's baser instincts and discourage people's enlightened notions. I am directing my accusation not just the right-wing plutocrats but also the left-wing extremists who spread the us-versus-them mentality
2
Patriarchal society has valued "male logic" (brain thought) over "female intuition." But we now understand that gut reaction (intuition) is much more efficient and accurate. Always trust your gut. Pay attention to it.
4
Good and useful op-ed, but it’s amazing how it seems necessary to provide scientific verification of non-scientific insight. I always thought there were forms of knowledge other than scientific knowledge and that we could legitimately call them knowledge.
Like the exasperated villager explaining to the Western cosmologist how the world lies on the backs of a string of various animals—he finally blurts out: sahib, it’s just turtles all the way down.
I guess it’s just science all the way down—no need for religion and poetry and art and all that nonsense.
This is a day-after-Thanksgiving column if I've ever read one.
2
Damasio published book about this along time ago. I am not surprised. To proclaim that's new is surprising though.
Well, now.
How soon will we be able to organize and segregate people according to how thorough and efficiently their brain works. A side benefit will be the ability to weed out brains that don't conform to a norm.
I suppose the brainiacs will be able to make these determinations by, let us say, age 5.
“When you enter a new situation, Porges argues, your body reacts.” What seems to be forgotten here is the fact that this reaction is controlled by the EFFERENT part of the autonomic nervous system. The brain processes the information it receives ABOUT the new situation, and causes the body to react—appropriately, one hopes. The reaction it chooses may be genetically determined and intrinsic—“hard-wired”, if you insist—or it may be shaped by experience, or some combination. Thus, a veteran of combat with PTSD may have a very different autonomic reaction to a fireworks display than his wife and children.
The point is, it’s not the body that is making decisions about how to react, independent of the brain. It is in the brain that the decision making takes place. Which kind of negates the whole thrust of your column.
1
Thanks for synthesizing all this. Mr. Brooks.
Can you please find another word than "granularity" to describe the subtleties of feeling?
1
Stephen Colbert told us the "gut has more nerve endings in your gut than your head". I believe there is a definite connection between brain and body, because as I read this article and Google the "experts" I start to feel ill, as my gut considers this "science".
1
I truly think articles of this nature are monumentally helpful ... NOT because the content is new ... it isn't ... but because a source such as the NYT & this particular columnist ... mean the message goes out in greater depth. Those reviewers who denigrate the worth of the article because its content is not new, clearly fail to comprehend the importance of the message going out more and more widely. THAT is the service this article fulfils.
An interesting percentage of the highly intelligent individuals who come to me in private practice are not necessarily familiar with these concepts, simply because their specific reading & fields of interest might take them down entirely distinct paths, and thus they have missed this bit of information that is no longer new. Ditto a good number of those in my social circles, many of whom outshine my knowledge fourfold in varying fields, yet don't necessarily know this. Not even all physicians I know, know this ...
And of course, the more broadly this type of information is spread, the greater a chance the world has - in each of its individual components - of growing towards that increased state of self-responsibility towards which the internalisation of this knowledge points.
This article is important. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi
2
The secret is to get the brain to listen to the body. Could save you a fortune on doctor visits and medications.
3
I wish these folks who Mr. Brooks consults with would remind him that the body’s nervous system is just an extension of the brain and that the “mind” is just what the brain does and isn’t something separate. Of course the gut sends messages back up to the brain just as the big toe does but you’re not thinking with your gut or your toe. Having a “gut” feeling is a misplaced analogy. It’s still all in your brain where all signals are processed to produce all your emotions and feelings and social interactions.
Brooks and Trump must listen to the same people. Poor education, poor analysis.
1
This has all been laid out before in a book called "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman.
2
Our esteemed President well illustrates these points.
His decisions are made with his gut, not with the area of his skull which --- in normal people --- contains a brain.
Thus, the President's decision-making apparatus is located at the opposite end of his spinal column.
As evidenced by his words and actions.
1
Thanks for this essay. It reminds me of something that can help lots of people manage emotions during the day. Eat breakfast. Really. When we starve our bodies, it tells our brain we are in trouble. Our bodies talk to us in so many ways we ignore. And ignoring breakfast is a good way to end up losing your temper in a traffic jam.
1
Thinking "from the neck up" and 'thinking' with "the whole body" are decent enough metaphors for what an increasing number of neuroscientists say are 2 very different modes of attention, 2 that are common to all humans.
There's one mode that attends primarily to conceptual aspects of the world. Psychologist Les Fehmi refers to this as "detached" attention. it focused on the details of the situation, often to the point of failing to grasp the larger context. When in this detached mode, we tend to set aside emotional nuance, kinesthetic experience and what we loosely refer to as "intuition."
There's another mode of attention which Fehmi refers to as "immersed" attention. Thinking is integrated with sensation, emotion, imagination and intuition. It sees the "Whole" context of any situation and involves metaphorical as well as analytic thought. When these forms of attention are well-integrated, we feel as if we're in the "flow" - we're "in the zone," sleep is easier, we just "make the foul shot" almost as if without effort; our fingers seem to fly over the keyboard making music as if spontaneously; we know just what to say to comfort a grieving friend.
(hint: Jonathan Haidt and David Brooks have it backwards; 2nd hint – Paul Ray’s 3-fold distinction of traditionalists, modernists and cultural creatives may point you in the right direction).
3
This is great. I’ve read Alan Fogels framing of rhis distinction in his book the Psychobiology of Awareness. He talks about ‘conceptual and embodied self awareness’ and point to the way those are reflected in the brain. We need both but the embodied self awareness is mostly neglected.
1
@Maria Holland
Thank you so much for that, Maria. Our website, www.remember-to-breathe.org, is based largely on Dan Siegel's "interpersonal neurobiology" (IPNB for short). I had never heard of Fogel, but I checked out the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Psychophysiology-Self-Awareness-Rediscovering-Interpersonal-Neurobiology/dp/0393705447#customerReviews
and I see it's part of the IPNB series!!
The really cool thing is, according to contemplative traditions East and West, when you begin to harmonize both the conceptual and embodied self-awareness, you begin to discover a boundless center that is simultaneously an infinite well of Silence and a pervading field of Radiant Presence (sorry for the capital letters - i don't mean to make it "religious" but in that Silence one tends to find words coming out that just seem to call for Capitalization:>)
I think William Blake sometimes wrote that way.....
1
My clients tend to avoid painful or conflicting emotions in their lives—just as most of us do, because that’s what we were taught. But to heal the mind, we need to experience the emotions that go with our stories, and those are located in the body. When we are taught about the automatic nature of emotions and learn to identify and work with the core emotions beneath our anxiety, we feel and function better. I teach "the Change Triangle" (google it!) to all my AEDP clients so they understand the relationship between emotions, anxiety, the physical sensations they cause, and their symptoms. Then we have a clear path to healing in and out of therapy, and managing our feelings in everyday life. Emotion education is a game-changer. "It's Not Always Depression," sometimes it is blocked emotions stuck in the body, also known as trauma, which is often invisible and invalidated. We have an epidemic of addiction, depression, anxiety, and suicidality, which is caused in part by a lack of emotion education. Emotion education is a public health imperative and has great power to make our world a more emotionally healthy place. Practical tools to understand and work with emotions, like the Change Triangle, need to be taught to everyone starting in high school if not before. But until that happens, we must take it upon ourselves to get educated and teach our children so we diminish shame, anxiety, and stigma.
2
@Hilary Jacobs Hendel Thanks for the suggestion, I will look up the Change Triangle, not my field and it looks like something I would benefit from exploring.
1
Another angle of the body/mind connection are found in our nightly dreams. The category of “prodromal” dreams depicts a health issue prior to its diagnosis. For example, an image of rotting meat in a dream could indicate cancer. I say “could” - one of course needs to look at the dream from other perspectives, and perhaps a visit to a doctor wouldn’t hurt. I believe each cell in our body has consciousness, and that our dreams do give us spot checks on our physical and emotional well-being.
2
I would encourage David Brooks to take care before making unverified conclusions based on research. Nothing in the original article regarding the Welch Emotional Connection Screen suggests that the findings of positivity "mitigate the effects of autism." In a single sentence, Brooks has suggested that if only the mothers of autistic infants had exhibited more positive connectivity on the scale the extent of their autistic children's behaviors might have been reduced. This is a conclusion based on unverified data. Nowhere in the study did they conclusively diagnose autism in any of the subjects at 3 months. Therefore to suggest that the outcome of this developmental disability could have been improved is just irresponsible and hurtful to millions of mothers vulnerable to the accusations that somehow if they had done something differently, their childrens' lives might have been eased.
Stick with the data and eschew conclusions that you or others may have drawn without valid supporting evidence.
8
@Mary
Could you explain a bit more about this? My understanding is (not related to your specific critique of Brooks' point) if children with autism are treated as early as possible with a comprehensive approximately valid problem, it can make a profound difference.
I may be totally misunderstanding you, but it seems almost as though you're saying that **anything** that suggests that "the outcome of this developmental disability could have been improved" is potentially irresponsible and hurtful.
I hope I'm misreading you - what is wrong about my interpretation of your comment?
1
Part of the puzzle of the complex issue of body and mind may be at the subcelluar level and beyond under gene control.Social observation and abstract theories are vital contributors as well.
2
This is an excellent piece, but let’s take it to the next level. All of the communication that David refers to is in the form of electrical impulses across neural pathways. In other words, these are forms of energy.
And what we know about energy from quantum physics is that it transcends matter. What we thought of as matter is really energy changing from wave, to particle to wave again.
So when we think of “ourselves” or the self, we are really experiencing an intelligently designed expression of energy from the zero sum dimension of the quantum field into what we commonly understand as the human form.
Some refer to this zero sum field as God. Ancient cultures understood this connection and assigned different names to the forms of energy/wave as it oscillated from wave to energy to a denser quality that we call matter.
When introduced to the West this science was mischaracterized as as polytheism, or the worship of many gods. In reality it was a highly sophisticated understanding of the same principles that quantum physics has more recently uncovered.
Just as a physicist in a lab develops precise experiments to understand and manipulate the energy field, ancient cultures did the same thing by using sound, gem stones, precious metals, herbs or flowers. Anything with a corresponding energetic quality that could promote healing.
What they knew was that the solution to our illnesses and problems lie at the subatomic level. That is the next frontier of medicine.
10
Obviously you don’t understand quantum physics just as nobody else does. Feinman warned about this. Since quantum physics is so poorly understood even by those who know it best, folks use it to justify their own personal desires for the way they want the world to be that it becomes a universal explainer for everything and anything and therefore nothing. Just look at Depak Chopra. He’s one of the most confused, pompous people I’ve ever read who understands nothing and uses it to explain his gibberish on some weird mystical universe. Your whole wave to particle back to wave explanation isn’t an accurate statement no matter how much you think it is. Read the quantum physicists again and more than one. Start with Sean Carroll.
1
Excellent article, Mr. Brooks!!! Another insight to ponder on Thanksgiving that relates to so much we are experiencing not just as individual people as citizens but as a nation in the aggregate.
Much food for thought. Well done
4
"High emotional granularity" -- the ability to name (and hopefully manage) nuanced emotions -- and knowledge of the mind-body connection all sounds to me like an outgrowth of exposure to the arts, including language, literature, and music.
Who has not felt a surge of bodily warmth from inside their stomach at the finale of Beethoven's 9th Symphony? Or the slowing of one's heart after reading a single poem by Robert Frost?
It's hilarious when "new" science underscores phenomena that artists, and lovers of art, have long known to be true.
Only connect!
9
@minkairship Surely explanation often trumps experience.
Discoveries by medical professionals over the past 100 years have shown us how connected our bodies are to what we experience as mind. In the long terrible millennia that, the body was our enemy. We had to master it. Break it down. Beat it because it did not live up to our illusions of power and immortality. Our body and our mind are the same thing. What stories will we tell ourselves about our minds and our importance in the Universe at large when at last we stop hating our bodies and begin truly loving and caring for them? Well, when we do that, we can expect our society to change from one of abuse and control to love and compassion.
6
@TDHawkes Well said. Thank you.
1
Mr. Brooks' article gives value and credence to the socially used phrase: my gut feeling is.... A call for re-examining faith away from conflict (negation) in favor of integration or whole.
6
And the best way to teach, and learn, emotional granularity is to read. An advanced vocabulary allows for the expression of subtle differences. The greats in literary fiction are priceless vehicles for allowing us to experience the emotional life of others.
23
Polyvagal Theory has deeply enriched our understanding of how life threat can change us if we do not have healthy ways to cope with intense fear. Read/listen to Peter Levine's writing on trauma first aid to understand how to care for children who have experienced some form of threat.
Trauma often intertwines fear with guilt and/or shame: the ingredients for moral stress or injury, as extensive research on military moral injury shows. A research study of 155 veterans demonstrated that religious, spiritual, and moral struggles fully mediated the relationship between potentially morally injurious events and PTSD (Evans et al., 2017). This study suggests that if we can help people talk about their shame, guilt, and fear of being judged (especially by God and those in authority), they will be less likely to develop PTSD in the aftermath of traumatic stressors.
Evans, W. R., Stanley, M. A., Barrera, T. L., Exline, J. J., Pargament, K., & Teng, E. J. (2017). Morally injurious events and psychological distress among Veterans: Examining the mediating role of religious and spiritual struggles. Psychological Trauma, 10(3), 1-8. doi: 10.1037/tra0000347.
10
I would prefer if in the future Mr. Brooks wrote more columns like this, and the sort of sociological book reports he does from time to time, and keeps his mushy politics to himself.
Sure, the mind-body connection is not new to most of us, but some musing about it and mentions of some recent related research were welcome respite from the political day to day. Also a reminder to me to tend more to the spiritual than I have lately and to read more philosophy and cognitive science.
22
Yes, and when you're old (I'm 81), you notice all this more easily because you have time to pay attention to your body (and mind).
19
Yes our bodies have intelligence but they also have to follow the rule of law. To push this article to its rational conclusion would be to respect each other’s feelings and sensations. That is fantastic yet there are also limits of what we should do and respect. In the US, no matter where you are on the political spectrum, you must follow the law, which protects individual liberty. This is what separates us from China and this is why the current GOP is horrific. It has few connections and does not care about the Constitution.
13
@Anthony
....and this is why the current GOP is horrific.
Anthony, your lack of granularity is showing.
"Human thinking is not primarily about individual calculation, but about social engagement and cooperation."
That is true for most of the human kind. But we have seen a rapid growth of the numbers of people in whom the pro-social impulse is dampened or absent. These are people who share common traits on the autism spectrum or narcissistic personality disorder category.
David Brooks knows these people: they plan, make policies and laws, and govern with only self-interest in mind. They are attracted to authoritarian despots and the Republican Party.
12
We are meat. We are cells, organs, chemicals. We are bacteria and viral DNA. None of it separates out into body vs mind or brain vs self.
We can get spiritual or religious, and define the "more" that rests atop the meat - the feelings, emotions, memories, thoughts that make us human - as our soul, but it is all driven by the essential fact that we are our animal selves first. The "more" is what we meant when we described ourselves as made in God's image.
We know that who we are, at the base of it all, is a series or cellular connections, built by the chemicals released when we experienced something; that the connections drive other connections, to places that create the chemicals we interpret as emotions. None of this is really new - we just know more about how it all works now.
The key and fundamental truth - that how we act, how we connect with each other, how we experience justice, outrage, love, anger, compassion - forms us, and forms our community.
We decided on calling all of that our spiritual selves, not because it is separate from our meat, but because we can foster our experiences, education, training to be valuable to ourselves and others. To make the meat work for the whole of our community.
7
This is the basis of Vipassana meditation. It teaches you to be aware of every subtle signal the body sends you.
16
@Pam Lewis Yes, this is what I was going to say. Zen meditation as well.
6
I wonder if this is not why computer generated animation, though far more supple and variegated than the hand-drawn kind, always strikes me as less life-like. The latter might be equally stylized, and even more subject to technical constraints than the former, but unlike it, it must transmit what the brain has decided through the fleshly medium of the muscles of the fingers.
9
PL: That is something I have also felt. Thanks for expressing it so well. The kind of computer-generated animation you refer to tends to leave me cold — but I never could put my finger on exactly why.
3
Yes, and we evolved mechanisms to protect ourselves over millions of years. We’ve all felt threatened on occasion, without knowing why. Maybe a new place, new person, etc. You feel the need to be cautious at that moment. This has been called instinct. Follow your instincts. Approaching your car alone at night in a parking deck? Something doesn’t feel right? Pay attention and get a security guard to accompany you.
4
David, thank you for this article. I totally agree with the premise that what happens in one's mind also shows up in one's gut - disconnection is impossible. As the last commenter mentioned, Van Der Kolk has done incredible work studying this and his book is terrific.
I have been practicing meditation for the past 5 years or so and I've found it to be an easy way to strengthen awareness of my own mind/body connection. I am now able to reduce my tension level when I get into a stressful situation most of the time in a way that I was not before. A routine of 10 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week really makes a difference.
7
I'm a bit of a romantic and a walking paradox when it comes to America's future and at times I'm purposefully irrational when I listen to my heart instead of my brain. How so? I'm aware the salutary or awkward consequences matters little to those who question themselves and are comfortable with bringing light to uncomfortable truths. Hence, some of us meditate on the negative without concern for the harm we can cause others or ourselves. I'm aware our emotional side is the metaphysical Elephant and our rational side is the rider. Perched atop the Elephant, the rider holds the reins and seems to be the leader. But the rider's control is precarious because the rider is so small relative to the Elephant since it is not reason who guides life, but customs and emotions. My self preservation appeals to the rider, but it seems to me most people are pulled by the appeal of the Elephant. How am I irrational? I am of the belief what America needs is more of its citizens to be role models through unconditional love. How do we spread unconditional love? Place no expectations on others when sharing love, kindness & good vibes. Since at times, you’ll go unnoticed, unheard, ignored & unvalidated. Despite this, strive to be conscious, grateful, forgiving, envisioning a perfect future, in the moment and blessed.
10
Observing the complexity of the brain and body, how can anyone believe that this is the result of random evolution and not of design? It takes much less faith to believe in creation by God.
@Aaron Adams ..."by God" or by primitive science-based design of human beings -- body, brain, the works -- to protect the species so it can flourish and not go the way of dinosaurs. I respect your faith but mention this in respect to those who differ.
It’s this unthinking belief in a ridiculous “god” that causes all the problems. If a god has just been a brute fact in his existence “forever”, then why couldn’t the evolving energy and material of the universe? You underestimate your evolved, socially conditioned strong desire to believe in some kind of god. That desire doesn’t make it true, or any sense, for that matter. The universe will exist for hundreds of billions of years after our species is gone just like it did before us. Just a different kind of “intelligence” but while we’re in our temporary little bubble, we’ll think we’re special. Maybe it’s a necessary illusion for us to deal with existence.
Upbringing, family, culture, education and ethnicity establish the basis of our behavior or at least how to gain control of it .
Our brain should make rational decisions, but often our gut and the solar plexus take over the situation compelling us in the opposite direction.
It is also important not to forget the dominance of one of the two hemispheres of our brain that define our personality and perception of life .
4
One can see this at play in the collective body, too. Certain leaders dispense propaganda that creates a sense of fear; certain news sources magnify the propaganda through repetition; social media becomes a means to embellish the message. And then the collective body viscerally responds irrationally on imagined fears to the detriment of us all.
9
Fascinating article. My first reaction was to wonder what happens when human interaction moves online, muting bodily cues and reactions. Perhaps it's not coincidence that in our time, emotional "granularity" in public life seems to have been tossed out the window.
25
And empathy ...
Bessel A. Van Der Kolk "The Body Keeps The Score" excerpt -
Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.
In my practice I begin the process by helping my patients to first notice and then describe the feelings in their bodies—not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow, and so on. I also work on identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure. I help them become aware of their breath, their gestures and movements.
21
Yes! Me too. In the field of Somatic Coaching. It is beautiful work.
3
The gut microbiome consists of over countless microorganism inhabitants that together possess 150 times more genes that the human genome and thus should be considered an “organ” in of itself. Such communities of bacteria are in dynamic flux and susceptible to changes in host environment and body condition. In turn, gut microbiome disturbances can affect health status of the host. Gut dysbiosis might result in obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal, immunological, and neurobehavioral disorders. Such host diseases can originate due to shifts in microbiota favoring more pathogenic species that produce various virulence factors, such as lipopolysaccharide. Bacterial virulence factors and metabolites may be transmitted to distal target sites, including the brain. Other potential mechanisms by which gut dysbiosis can affect the host include bacterial-produced metabolites, production of hormones and factors that mimic those produced by the host, and epimutations. All animals, including humans, are exposed daily to various environmental chemicals that can influence the gut microbiome. Exposure to such chemicals might lead to downstream systemic effects that occur secondary to gut microbiome disturbances.
Studies too numerous to cite here have all substantiated these facts.
6
@USNA73 Trauma can also affect the composition of the gut microbiome.
The family, schools and churches I experienced growing up taught me to control myself especially when it came to emotions. Being excited, noisy, ants in my pants was not okay. When I was home sick (quiet, obedient, orderly -- I was rewarded for being "good." The message was clear - children (especially girls) were good and well-behaved when they obeyed silently and promptly.
Our culture is highly rationalistic. Reason and logic are desirable; emotions are weak and suspicious. I was taught to be nice and polite. In fact being nice and polite (most often a lie) is better than telling the truth.
Thanks for your excellent article, Mr. Brooks.
5
@MARY,
Women of a certain age were also expected to stifle anger and other intense emotions, not just physical boisterousness, while men have been told to suppress sadness and encouraged to live in the physical realm, with anger as the one permissible emotion.
It has taken me a lifetime to learn to be assertive - to speak my truth - and to allow anger in a safe form. So many women have suffered the consequence of being forced to be "ladylike," to the point of being unable to draw boundaries with strangers or intimate partners.
4
So Descartes' famous maxim is incomplete; it should now read, "I feel, so I think; therefore, I am."
16
@PaulC David Hume rebuffed Descartes for this very reason long ago. Hume famously said, be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be a man.
1
Good column. But some of this has been known for quite some time (I recall reading about the mind-gut connection 20 years ago). Missing: whether any of the authors cited provide some strategy to change one's emotional state (i.e. how to actually learn 'emotional granularity').
4
@Rethinking - I concluded from reading this op-ed that the more vocabulary one has for emotions (emotional I.Q.) the more granularity one possesses. Therefore, the ability to label or categorize one's feeling results in higher feelings of control. Thus, instead of "bad" or "good" an expanded vocabulary allows us to process the emotion so we don't feel out of control. In psychology we would say that feeling in control leads to less of the need for Freudian unconscious defense mechanisms like catastrophization, repression, projection or regression.
5
The key seems to be to uncouple our concept of "emotions" from thought by taking into account how the body is feeling. Since those feelings instruct the brain subconsciously, not taking them into account may confuse us. Or at least, that's what I get out of thinking about it.
1
@Rethinking,
Polyvagal Theory points us directly to co-regulation with a trusted partner.
Meditative breathing is another, but solo.
Knowledge is great, but people need to come to their senses.
20
Sounds like common sense to me.
may I quote you ?
"According to Porges’s “Polyvagal Theory,” the concept of safety is fundamental to our mental state. People who have experienced trauma have bodies that are highly reactive to perceived threat."
I related to this column on a personal level, mainly because of the word "trauma". Trauma takes so many forms--car accidents, physical and emotional abuse, war experiences. The list is endless.
Following a freak fall on cobblestones resulting in 6 fractures and chronic pain, my terror
of falling again puts me on high alert everytime I go down stairs, see ice on sidewalks.
Of course, I know what's driving it. I can't imagine how terrifying it must be for those whose mind-body system is held hostage day in, day out, from psychic trauma they may not understand or even be aware of.
49
This is a wonderful column, thank you (to Brooks and NYT), which also made me wonder again, whether or how much Brooks intended to structure his columns nicely complicated and nuanced through a straightforward flow of reports and opinions. The angel came to Mary and said Do not be afraid. All Saints reportedly died in calmness with no physical pain. Heart beats quick when a lover sees the beloved one. Or, just by thinking of. In a night dream or daydream, emotional viscera signals to brain via nerves as to let it know, well, we’re humans? Although this part is my interest as most, all are very well written in this column. In one day, sooner alternatively, AI would catch users’ goodness as conscience-priority to be preferred and ought to be, over preferred faulty or alternative truths. We may be living in an era when physical viscera can be digital viscera in comparison.
2
The awareness of your awareness, of how you feel at any given point in time and why you feel that way, regardless of whether it's great, terrible or anywhere in between is often difficult to perceive due to the self imposed and/or unconscious distractions of daily life. Silence and stillness are essential to transcend and overcome the unnecessary in order to focus on what really matters. Easier said than done. Yet once done, the results are always worthwhile.
Thanks, Mr. Brooks, for reminding of us something we should never forget.
14
Healing the "mind" "heart" or "soul" then is most effective when the treatment is embodied. Following disasters like hurricanes, floods, or such, the activities of cleaning up, reaching out to the stricken, etc. tend to munch more than the environment. A good workout after a stressful encounter does the same.
5
Thoughtful article. Looking at the comments, am I missing something, there is no mention of Trump or politics here. This is thanksgiving, can we give Trump bashing, or all bashing a rest, at least for a day. I am sure there must be something that each of us is thankful for that the politics has not destroyed. If you are reading, then you must be breathing, let us start there...
6
Thank you for writing about brain research, Mr. Brooks. It is a less polarizing subject than politics and deserves our attention.
The late William Safire, who graced these pages and wrote the "On Language" column for the Times, was also at one time the chair of The Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization committed to advancing brain research and to educating the public.
Another New York columnist, Jimmy Breslin, wrote a book, "I want to thank my brain for remembering me," which was, in part, about an aneurysm in his brain.
Though the "Spelling Bee" gets a lot of publicity and is supported by newspapers like The Daily News where Mr. Breslin worked, "Brain Bee," which is supported by Dana Foundation and others, gets much less publicity but is quite important in getting youngsters involved in neuroscience.
Both of my children participated and did well in the Brain Bee and one is now a 2nd year resident training to become a neurologist.
I do hope you continue to write about neuroscience occasionally, Mr. Brooks.
11
This is an interesting post-Thanksgiving speculation. At 83, I'm sick and tired of learning more emotional granularity. I want to go out in relative calm and comfort, but that is now a pipe dream.
8
@Steve
Maybe not so much a pipe dream as you think. David Brooks just did something we need to do to save our vagus systems -- refocus. Forget the polarity and take a walk, pet a dog, tickle a great grand, read a funny novel, take periodic breaks from the news, hug people you love, go for a tasty meal in a friendly place, find a beach or woodlands, look at the clouds and rediscover wonder that we are alive at all. And love, love,love.
2
At last! An informative and interesting column from Mr. Brooks without a conservative "angle" to foul it up.
The mind-body connection is indeed fascinating. The reality of what we are as organisms is only just being uncovered. The interactions we have with all the microbiota in and on our bodies is only just being discovered. Not to mention their interactions with each other and the rest of the outside world as part of that system.
Mr Brooks mentions the critical importance of touch for infants. Attachment and bonding of children are essential for next generation well-being. It is arguable that the unseen and unsung things like birth practices and bonding between newborns and mothers is The critical factor in shaping the nature of a culture. It turns out humans thrive on touch as the expression of love and acceptance all along the way.
It is interesting that we can see science moving medicine, through its own process, toward "folk wisdom" and alternative medical viewpoints in some instances. Our understanding of biology is still primitive. But it is an exciting time for biology and we will be entering a period of sophistication in 20-30 years or so with the aid of AI. The exact processes of molecular biology will be understood in the context of whole ecological systems. Medical interventions will be understood both in that larger context and with molecular granularity and that will make all the difference.
2
@trebor To bad you started your response off the way you did. It made me not want to read the rest.
“We’re not separate brains, coolly observing each other.”
This sheds an interesting light on the Conservative charge of “liberal bias.” If we follow Brooks’ thesis here, I think we have to conclude that where bias occurs, is where all the interesting conversations live. If there’s bias, there are important topics and strong emotions. So let’s discuss, not dismiss!
9
We are far more complex than anyone yet imagines. Our human hearts are not just a muscle pumping blood rich oxygen to cells. Our hearts listen and more than that, as the ancients knew in some mysterious and wonderful way, the human heart is the very seat of wisdom.
9
the whole idea of the chakra system hasn't really caught on mainstream yet here in the United States like it has another countries. The reason your heart has so much wisdom and intelligence is it's the heart chakra itself the energy that we take him through our heart chakra that gives us all that wisdom and knowledge. It's not the organ it's not what's pumping it's not the blood vessel it's the chakra which is an energy system and we're only beginning to understand that on a mainstream level now. Some of us have been much more aware of this than others
The whole problem with humans is we think we are more wise and complex than other animals. Humans are actually very brutal and stupid and selfish and simple-minded, and that's why the planet is a mess. We are always ready with another idiotic invention that will make things even more toxic and wasteful. The best invention would be something to kill sexual desire so that we would stop breeding more idiots. But we are addicted to the stupid notion that lust is noble because we call it "love."
As a voracious reader (and occasional writer and daily diarist), I believe that literature helps one develop this kind of deep emotional and mental connection. Nonfiction helps as well, especially biography, but I find that fiction--even less-than-great fiction, like most murder mysteries and fantasy--have the most influence. And I'm not such a snob that I'd say the book is always better than the movie, but generally the book has the stronger effect.
38
@Carol Robinson Thank you for a unique and invaluable contribution among these excellent comments. IMHO, classics as well as bottom-feeder books can offer a speck or a mother lode of information about the singularity of emotions.
2
I commend Brooks for describing this incredibly important research in his very visible column. Turned on readers who are intelligent and curious can delve into this material in greater depth.
The cognitive insights may then lead to ongoing practices to observe these understandings at work, in our ordinary experience.
And how as human beings we may comfort ourselves and others.
15
Having by complete coincidence spent the past week researching Dr. Porges's Polyvagal Theory and its links to Somatic Experiencing (Dr. Peter Levine) and PACT therapy (Dr. Stan Tatkin), I am thrilled to be living at a time when science can show us the way back to ourselves after loss and trauma.
Though David Brooks is often rightly the target of cynics, cranks, and resentful readers on both the left and right, this time he has done an incredible public service by bringing these vital ideas to a broader mainstream audience so that more folks can seek healing.
Now that is something for which to be thankful.
51
When I have to deal with family, including the dreaded in-laws of relatives during holidays, my body tends to get migraines and occasionally breaks out in hives. The body is quite wise indeed.
25
Smart, smart article. Thank you!
And ... I am really thinking everyone should have a neurologist as part of their core care team.
Or, s/he should BE their primary physician.
5
Watch out, because once you or a loved one develops dementia, you find out that neurologists are the worst doctors. Worse even than gynecologists and dermatologists.
Excellent! You’re right we don’t teach this type of emotional intelligence and wonder why teen suicide rates have been going up significantly in the past 2 decades. Information and situations hit us with light speed and most of us are not equipped to handle it.
I enjoy treating ptsd symptoms because it’s retraining a brain that rarely sees green or even yellow, just red. It takes tremendous guts and trust to work through it but it can be done.
Simple solution, 4th graders to have a year long class on the brain and the gut. What is a thought? An emotion? And the behaviors as a result. So simple to say I feel .... but most people finish that sentence with logic but not a true emotion. It’s 4th grade material that not taught in our country. My apologies, it was by Mr. Rogers(see NYT Article or movie).
Ask many Tibetans where thoughts come from and they’ll point to their chest.
We have centuries of answers to this question from the Stoics 2,000 years ago stating that man is not disturbed by things but by their perceptions of them and from the Buddha, the experience is that of the mind, but nothing is solid or permanent, it’s the mind that makes it that way. Let go and there is less suffering.
The 4th grade mind is ready for these lessons but we are taught sit, listen, and get a good grade!!! Rinse and repeat and then go to college, get a job, have a family and continue not understanding the mind and the gut. Discernment and Wisdom can start in 4th grade!
30
Although I share your frustration about the school system there are some who teach emotional intelligence. Look at Yale’s center for EI lead by Mark Brackett. His latest book is Permission to Feel. This center works with schools and teaches kids what it takes to be an emotional ‘scientist’. Quite amazing work!
2
@Preston G. A big part of the problem for teens is that they have been so protected from any fall or difficulty by well-intentioned parents that when they get to teen years and some very difficult emotions arise they are unable to tolerate them.
So it's not just the necessity of knowing what you are feeling but allowing yourself to have the disappointment and feeling without a parent swooping in to protect the child.
1
David, I never fail to be amazed by the breadth of your curiosities. Thanks for the brain-gut article... You're right, this has been a golden age for brain research. It seems like every fifth article I'm reading is about neuroplasticity, for instance. But inevitably we bring our old prejudices into even our most current inquiries. There's much to ponder here as you attempt to tease out some of the prejudices from the past so that we can take a fresh look at this thing called HUMAN. Seeing ourselves as "physical viscera, deeply interactive" is a good step in the direction of appreciating how complex, magnificent and ephemeral we are.
27
We humans are the one and only color aka race aka ethnic aka national origin heirs of African apes who appeared 300, 000 years ago.
Our human biological DNA genetic nature and nurture craves fat, salt and sugar. A legacy of 290, 000 years of active hunting and gathering where all three were hard to obtain. And our use- by mortality date was 35 years old.
Agriculture and animal domestication plus antibiotics have extended our lives. And what we crave is readily available. Diabetes and obesity and other conditions can be linked to our lethargy.
4
"You also see that we’re not separate brains, coolly observing each other. We’re physical viscera, deeply interacting with each other. The important communication is happening at a much deeper level."
Why not take this a step further? Why assume that the deep interaction we feel occurs entirely within the individual body/mind complex? We also operate within a realm of shared consciousness.
The implicit fallacy of the scientific materialist epistemology is its presupposition that we are each isolated entities who only contact one another sporadically on the physical plane. We have chosen to see ourselves as wholly separate little spaceships navigating the cosmos, while the greater reality is that we are nodes within an interconnected network. And we have adopted a social philosophy of competitive individualism that conveniently reinforces our reluctance to acknowledge any essential connection with others.
As a consequence, we are living in a society that is visibly but inexplicably falling apart within little lives that seem increasingly meaningless, looking futilely to find value in ever new variations on the eternal theme of personal selfishness. It isn't working.
No solution to our profound malaise will be found until we begin to see ourselves as links within the network of existence -- not just occasionally in contact when it is convenient to do so but in constant communication. Our well-being is interdependent. That is an existential fact, not a consumer choice.
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@woofer My nomination for best comment of the year! I so envy your ability to not only understand the principle you describe but to express it so beautifully. Thank you.
16
@woofer Wonderful comment. We are designed to be like the trees I learned about in Overstory, apart but connected in order to help each other survive. We older ones worry about how many younger people no longer talk to each other face to face or even on the phone. We are a swipe- left-cancel culture now. The older I get the more I need my family and friends with all their imperfections and all the connections we've developed over years.
23
@woofer
Great comment. Just as other creatures can hear, see and smell well beyond the human range, there are perceptions and stimulae out there that we don't experience and have no clue about. We're separate silos closed off from the world.
The cosmic joke is that humans are the supposed crown of creation but we can only perceive a tiny sliver of the creation.
15
This is obvious if we listen with all ability
Athletes train their bodies as do the rest of us with physical memory
I have long thought deep is our intelligent body
and I’m just an old mechanic
next we will realize we and earth are one and so on to star dust
I look forward to our long journey
Together
54
@Lost In America
Yes, we are all made of stars! It's just so easy to forget that during the daily run of the hamster wheel.
14
We are stardust. We are golden. We have to get ourselves back to the garden. (Woodstock by Joni Mitchell)
26
@Lost In America
Yes, dust. Phillip Pullman is right.
2
In nursing we were taught the importance of homeostasis toward a healthy existence, the interdependence of the physical state with the emotional one. Yes, we absolutely rely on our ability to reason, to understand and heed what is wrong and right. The brain is needed as a compass to follow the direction of a universal moral code, to learn, and become knowledgeable. Yet, we are not robots. We are truly humans if we feel, if we touch, if we sense. How many times have we been told to follow our "gut," that vagal reaction to, as David points out, to fight or take flight? Or for the mom or loved one who knows that in spite of what medicine - an empirical science - may state, something is "not right." Instinct is a primitive means of survival, but it has evolved to be a worthy mate of rational thinking.
41
Research by Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley shows that wealthy people feel less compassion than poor people, as measured by differences in their vagus nerve responses to others' distress.
Why?
Keltner says that when poorer people face threats, "The only way to survive your environment is to connect with other people. You reach out to people more. You form strong social ties. You need them, and they need you."
Wealthier people, however, have fewer threats in their environment, because they "go to well-to-do-schools, well-to-do colleges, live in well-to-do neighborhoods and get well-to-do jobs." Thus, they are not exposed to suffering.
Our political leaders—as well as those who influence them—are wealthy. They focus on their own self-interest and are less interested in policies that help the needy.
We see this on display every day in the behaviour of Trump and his enablers in the White House, the Senate and the media.
It helps explain their lack of wisdom.
At the same time, it shows that engaging compassion and reducing segregation by class is necessary for our physical, emotional and civic health.
251
@Michael It has been said that Trump has no friends. And look at the way he disposes of anyone who does not meet his selfish demands.
14
When I look at America, I see a deeply traumatized, not particularly mentally healthy nation. I've believed for some time now that we baby boomers were raised by a generation seared by the traumas of the Great Depression and WWII. Our parents unwittingly passed on the traumas embedded in their bodies and we unwittingly absorbed them. Rather than creating a healthy caring culture, we began destroying ourselves with our macho male code, greed, and our tribalism. Our families began falling apart in the 60s, and we now find ourselves in a collapsing civilization in what increasingly appears to be a dying world.
85
@Boris and Natasha I think more of a rebuilding in many ways despite the current Administration. There is so much more to life than that. I see so much progress in all branches of medicine, psychology and a clearer understanding of history and literature and its' expanding genres and music, also. More appreciation. As a nation, we are growing and much more accepting, as a whole.
11
Wouldn’t the trauma of WW2 and earlier 20th century issues have hit Europe and Japan harder than the US?
Greed and consumerism is the collective trauma of the USA.
37
We've been selfish and greedy from the get-go, when the founding fathers refused to free their slaves. Thomas Paine warned them about this, and urged them to abolish slavery, over 200 years ago. Greed was always the motive in this country, which, after all, was conquered, and the land and resources stolen.
9
Everything has to be in balance. Neither the heart nor the brain is in control,they work together in one whole person. An intellectual person does seem controlled to someone hyped to emote, but this only means that they have their emotions basically under control, especially where emotions are counterproductive, like in the hearings, By the way the Impeachment hearings are just that, hearings, they are not a sitcom. That said, emotions are not supposed to be in control,nor should they be slaves, they need to be informed by the brain and controllable,if necessary. As you age this gets easier and more automatic, and this makes one happier, ready to enjoy life freely. With discipline comes freedom. This is really true but hard to understand sometimes. Good artists and musicians know how this works.
12
I'm a retired neurologist who has seen huge changes in our perception of the nervous system in my career. Not only is the tenth cranial nerve (Vagus, wanderer) travel to at least two thirds of the colon, the hormones in the gut, and probably the bacteria as well, definitely influence the brain.
The macro side of neurology/neuropsychology is equally fascinating. I’ve often turned around the sentence, “Seeing is believing,” instead saying, “Believing is seeing.” Looking at our polarized society today, show people the same event, and there are dramatically different interpretations of it. Take matters out of context, omit a few facts, and it is small wonder so many of us yell at each other. Perhaps a quiet discussion might move people more towards seeing is believing, or at least believing a little less and seeing a little more.
The study of heuristics and decision making shows how all of us can misjudge probabilities, be fooled by our brain, and make profound errors that ought not to occur. It is a fascinating field to study and very sobering as well, as one would discover in reading accident reports. Our brain is very much a work in progress.
231
@Mike S. - Another reason that robots will someday surpass us. Like the Star Trek character, Data, they don't rely on gut instinct, psychological defenses like reaction-formation or projection & will have the entire catalog of information at their RAM when making a decision. Wonder how policing or the military troops will operate without heuristics to color their perception of the world.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/11/25/boston-dynamics-robot-dog-massachusetts-state-police?fbclid=IwAR1Atzj4jQL2YwiqWYdN-yoXvojW_tgl85poudmdguZup33oTDn2vRgjEHw
4
An excellent article that could go further. Our identity, as mentioned is not wholly dominated by the brain, and doesn't much reside in our gut, either.
It is subtended by our DNA, found in every one of our living cells. You can be sure it's watching, and running everything else simultaneously.
5
"Young children say,...... because they haven’t learned their culture’s concepts for hatred vs. badness."
This oldtimer knows now. Badness is in the Whitehouse and I hates it.
94
"We’re physical viscera, deeply interacting with each other."
Yes, and Donald Trump manipulates people with gestures!
Democrats, on the other hand, tend to act in aloof ways.
Democrats, intellectualized, and many voters tune them out.
Look at the ways that Trump uses body language, all the time.
He has his trademark, OK sign, and other ways to dominate.
I hope David Brooks and the Times relate this to politics, soon.
OK, OK, OK?
17
@H Pearle Remember Trump stalking Hillary on stage during the debates? So creepy...
155
@H Pearle are you suggesting Democrats try to manipulate the tribe with gestures? You're talking about a population that honestly believes God put Trump in the Whitehouse. They are quite easy to manipulate.
22
@H Pearle
I can't agree entirely. I think you hit on something significant though. Italians talk a lot with their hands. But its their culture. And they definitely are known for resonating with social groups this way. So in good ways. I rather suspect Trump's body language is forced and manipulative. Furthermore liberals are often intellectualized which is quite problematic. I don't see therapy for them or the need to get in touch with their feeling, emotions, and whatever else is available thru the vagus nerve, saving the party though. But it wouldn't hurt.
8
To write about Dr Welch and state, “her therapy can mitigate the effects of autism” may be a stretch. After reviewing the web site devoted to this instrument and its validity, there’s no mention of autism. Maybe I’m missing something here but, as far as I know, there is no psychogenic etiology for autism. The only therapy that may mitigate the effects of autism is applied behavioral analysis not preterm emotional bonding.
16
@Don Tartasky In the absence of further information, the author casts aspersions on the parents of children with autism, shifting most of the blame on mothers.
It’s so careless to report such a finding without further explanation of the study. If that strikes the author as too tangential, fine- but leave it out of the article.
30
@Don Tartasky Thank you - I was heartened to read the beginning of the article regarding the Polyvagal Theory.
Then, I was reminded I was reading a column written by David Brooks.
Mr. Brooks might look more deeply into peer-reviewed research of what can "mitigate the effects of autism". Dr. Welch's claims and controversial treatment approaches inflict trauma on the child being treated - specifically the type of trauma described in Polyvagal Theory. A quick internet search turns up a lot of highly critical opinions, and disturbing videos of the "therapies" she developed.
Children are restrained physically, and mentally and emotionally challenged (or tortured depending on the accounts given) by their primary caregivers until they surrender. Polyvagal Theory isn't fight or flight - it's fight, flight, or freeze. Dr. Welch's methods clearly force the traumatized child into freezing to make the torture stop because there is no other option available. But, the freeze will thaw eventually. What then? Blame the traumatized child-cum-adult for disordered eating, substance use disorder, etc.? For children with a history of physical or sexual abuse, this treatment is unconscionable.
It was clever of you to try to pin autism spectrum disorder on the failure of mothers to adequately connect with their children. Shame on the NY Times for allowing him to publish this.
4
@JD Absolutely. This is a very outdated take on autism, I might add. It's a reversion to blame the condition on the quality/quantity of mother's touch.
2
When the brain is in fight/flight mode the medial prefrontal cortex—responsible for executive functioning, reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking—goes off line. Regulating the body, letting it know “it’s okay, there is no life threatening danger here,” is essential to effective functioning. Those who live in constant fight/flight (/freeze/feigned death/submit) mode, usually survivors of some kind of trauma, are much more susceptible to the likes of—oh, let’s say— the 45th president and his defenders who play on “base” fears of the other—Mexicans, Muslims, etc., for political gain. From this perspective the rise of the fascist right in this country makes perfect sense.
18
@JSD I can attest that there are many trauma survivors whose fight or flight response is only aggravated by Trump.
31
Just crossing the street here is flight/fight mode, since so many people are getting run over. But people keep having more kids and driving SUVs, and the local politicians keep building more apartments on parking lots. The whole thing is irrational and stupid.
This is fascinating: “You might think that in everyday life, the things you see and hear influence what you feel, but it’s mostly the other way around”
Through meditation I’ve understood something of the mind body connection and I’ve practiced dealing with difficult emotion by focusing on how the emotion feels in my body rather than the content of the emotion. This gives that new meaning.
23
I feel constant irritation because the overbreeding people around me are so loud, annoying and stupid, create traffic and havoc and high taxes, so, yes, unless you live in the country and a country without hunters and other idiots, then people are a constant annoyance.
Mr. Brooks - this piece really resonates with me. I think the brain body connection is easily taken for granted by many. But when the autonomic nervous system has been disturbed by trauma you very quickly learn how vital that connection is to living a balanced healthy life.
24
Known a long time in psychology, several mags and science mags.
6
It's cute when Brooks stumbles across something that others have known, embraced, and studied for ages.
377
@JBC
Why the condescension? Brookes is being honest and open. He is using his platform to share new-found wisdom.
My youngest daughter struggles with a constant state of anxiety, and it’s interesting and helpful to learn more about the connection with the vagus nerve, etc. I appreciate David Brooke’s foray into this topic.
36
@JBC
Everyone's journey moves at a different pace. David's recent interview with Oprah about his journey in recent years was pretty interesting.
7
@JBC ~
Yes, I agree since I read Candace Pert's "The Molecules of Emotion" way back in 1996.
13
Funny how this column is written in a cerebral tone.
11
Yes, the body remembers, including trauma. In my experience, talk therapy didn't work to process trauma. But EMDR therapy has. It has been life-changing. The trauma resided in the body and EMDR processed in a way that talking never did. If you find yourself suffering from unresolved, look into EMDR therapy.
36
@Galway Girl - you are so RIGHT! My daughter of my Heart experienced serious trauma prior to her moving in with me when she was 14 (think sexual abuse, abandonment, food insecurity, etc., etc.). EMDR has positively changed her life! I could not be happier for her. At age 31, she's strong, positive, productive and a terrific mom to her small son. I am so proud of her and the work she's done; and also credit EMDR with being the perfect therapy for addressing her embedded issues.
19
@Galway Girl An excellent book on this subject- "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk
19
@Allyn Glad to hear that!
3
Wonderful article, Mr. Brooks. Thanks. And what is also fascinating is that we are just touching the iceberg with regard to being able to measure in any meaningful way the relationship between the brain and the body to all its surroundings.
I can't wait until quantum mechanics observes these connections and interactions. I hope I'm still alive when that happens!
11
@Manuela Quantum physics has already made this connection. So has the Dalia Lama -- see his book The Universe in a Single Atom. :-)
1
@DC Can you cite a source in Quantum physics where the connection between brain waves and particle waves is clarified?
This all sounds very intriguing Mr. Brooks but the last I checked it was my brain that does calculus, not my gut. So while people may sometimes rely on their gut, at the end of the day when it comes to making real-world, life and death decisions the smart money is on the brain.
5
I'm not sure what the point of this column is. We all recognize that emotion plays a role in behavior alongside reason, whether or not the vagus nerve is involved.
9
"Human thinking is not primarily about individual calculation, but about social engagement and cooperation." For this sentence alone, hidden among others yet food for thinking, the author deserves a great thanks and bravo. This is intelligence which is basis for communication.
11
This is a nice affirmation of the wisdom of intuition, for those of us who have long understood how much value is in our gut feelings.
12
@NM
How very true.
Gut feelings are most closely connected to the food we have eaten and the state of our digestion.
1
I have GUT feelings... I listen to them! It's where introverts excel!
133
Scientists are trained to always reference previous works. So it’s dismaying when articles are unreferenced and leave the reader with the impression that this is all newly born ideas. The subject matter here reinforces with modern data the theories of psychologists like William James and Carl Lange, 1880s. These were wonderful thinkers and writers and a continual wellspring of inspiration.
61
Lisa Feldman Barrett may have written that what you feel influences what you see and hear but as you alluded to she also notes (in a 2017 TED talk for instance) that scientific research establishes that your brain actually creates your emotions based on past experiences and that with training you can use your brain to modify your emotions. So if your brain creates your emotions and your emotions influence what you see and hear it is your brain which ultimately determines what you see and hear. So we are right back where we started.
10
@Jay Orchard Yes and with training one could run a two hour marathon. Given that the overwhelming bulk of cognition is in the subconscious mind, those processes mebtioned occur outside conscious awareness and control. That's why it takes a lifetime to become an effectively enlightened Buddhist, as an example.
4
@uga muga
Buddha,Dhamma,Sangha..
When will we ever learn?
@uga muga - Lifetime(S)?
This is the foundation of Vipassana meditation. Discovered by the Buddha 2,500 years ago.
193
I had an esophagectomy 25 years ago, during which the vagus nerve was cut as part of the surgery. This changed the way I digest food, but had absolutely no effect on my emotions. Is this article correct in what it says about the vagus nerve?
8
As others have said, this wonderful new science highlights and details perceptions many eons older. As many moms with relate! I will never forget the awareness for my infant I felt as a new mother. Even late at night when she was not physically touching me, but in a nearby cot or the next room, I would wake about 10 minutes before her, knowing her state was about to change and need for a feed was coming (the rhythms of lactation and breastfeeding can synchronize two maternal and infant bodies in remarkable ways in mammals with their demand-produce-supply bio-feedback loop.) For what felt like years, I had a set of unconscious, unsought “meters” ticking somewhere deep in my cognition that tracked her - sleep meter, food meter, waste meter. ( This was long before phone apps, I didn’t keep a notepad, even with other caregivers, and I was NOT a helicopter mom, back to work part time starting at 10 weeks). It was like a mammal mom-benefit - I didn’t expect it, but, combined with an “easy” baby, and time and space and support to bond well, it made some of the unpredictable rhythms of being a young mom feel more natural and fun than I expected!
14
@Nell - That connection to all Beings is constantly available to us if we find a way to move beyond our soul-limiting, pre-conceived prejudices. The "lesser animals" already grok it.
Chatted the other day w/ a young man who is subject to frequent, severe epileptic seizures. His "seizure dog", which was always by his side, not only alerted him to an imminent seizure, but warned of the intensity of the seizure by the way he delivered the warning - whining, prodding, frantic barking…
4
@Nell The breasts fill with milk and thereby anticipate the coming feed.
Mr. Brooks, my hats off to you.
While there’s so much we are yet to learn about how our brains work, the idea you state here has been know to ancient traditions and cultures. We are more than any one organ or part of our anatomy and even more than the sum of all our parts.
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If we should be paying more attention to our body's wisdom I must say that I've felt more threatened since Donald Trump was elected than I've felt since I was an abused child. I grew up in a house with two parents who were well educated. They had college degrees and knew how to use words to hurt. Unfortunately they knew how to use their hands to hurt as well. My father told me that he could kill me and no one would know. I spent my childhood afraid of being killed and believing that I would be killed as an adult. It took me years to realize that adults who were not my parents were not as irrational or threatening as my parents.
Then came Donald Trump and his supporters. He foments hate. He encourages violence. He likes violent people. He lies constantly. I feel as though I'm living through my childhood again in terms of what I'm hearing and seeing. I comfort myself with the hope that he will be voted out of office next year. This country doesn't need a Donald Trump. We need another Obama or Lincoln. We need someone who is an adult.
11/28/2019 5:48pm first submit
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Amen. I’ve never actually been afraid, before Trump. Now, I’m more comfortable just staying at Home, because you never know when a MAGA Fan will “ just go off “. There’s no rhyme or reason, it’s like a sudden thunderstorm or tornado. The best you can hope for is to NOT be in its path.
Cheers to You.
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@hen3ry
A lot of emotion was conveyed in your comment.
There are, in personal relationships and in the political arena, those who want to intimidate or even hurt others. And the rest of us live with feeling vulnerable. We know how easily we could be targeted.
And with Trump, both ends of the spectrum are being amplified. Bullying is encouraged, which leaves everyone else on guard all the time.
What a shame that so many people wield the power they have to make others feel small - deep down, that abuse of position comes from their own sense of weakness. And the cycle continues...
Thanks for what you wrote. Take care.
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@hen3ry This is a "me too" response. With my own difficult mental/physical abuse experience during childhood and throughout a 33-year marriage, there followed many years recovering emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Too much of the current Oval Office emanations and the growing obtuse, twisted thinking supporting it can easily lead to a midnight PTSD episode. This can happen even though I've found my way to a goodly measure of serenity in these late years of my life. Well thought out humane, honest, compassionate, decent, intelligent, listening, and good humored discourse would be so very welcome. An Obama or a Lincoln would be salve on this wounded world.
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David, this is how most Women feel on a daily basis. Imagine needing to be on your guard against potential attackers and abusers, whenever you’re out in Public. Now, imagine only a lessening of that anxiety, in your very own Home. Sure, you ARE safer, but just how much ? Can someone break-in, even in a “ safe “ neighborhood ? Just who’s that knocking ? Do you really know your neighbors? And Imagine having these dire thoughts and possibilities about your own Daughter, and Granddaughters.
I’d rather be attacked myself, I’m a large and strong person. In short, there is a perfectly sane and logical reason that many more Women, than Men, experience anxiety and depression. We are PREY, at the whim and mercy of any rage filled, mentally ill or just mean Male. And yes, it’s been getting worse the last few years. There’s little shame, or controls on acting out.
Maybe ONLY Women should be allowed to own Guns. Right ???
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
Yep, we are prey. In my 64 years, I've never met a man who has a visceral understanding of the way women have to be on guard every day.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
Phyliss Dalmatian, it's even worse than your rational fears.
As discussed by many women, confident girls ofttimes become tormented by feelings of inadequacy when they venture into their childbearing years. They are no less competent than men; it’s just natures’ cruel trick to increase births.
As Gloria Steinem left her childbearing years she announced her triumph over these subversive feelings. Tell your daughter to recognize the irrational source of her feelings - and laugh at them.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
I've seriously considered that, too: Only women should be allowed to carry guns.
Most men don't need guns; they can fight or run. They are bigger, usually, and often more athletic from playing football, wrestling, boxing, karate, etc. (Of course, a small percentage of women are getting active in those sports.)
Guns For Women Only would be a fair equalizer, and reduce the number of gun-murders. I rarely read or hear of a woman being a mass-murderer; in fact, never.
But we've left wisdom and common sense long ago, at least in our public dialogues. We now live in Trumpland, where the dirtiest, nastiest bully wins, and good manners, respect, and restraint are for losers.
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The mind and body - David Brooks has just discovered that they are connected!
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@Citizen, NYC - Better late to the dance than not showing up at all. Maybe Our Mr. Brooks will soon admit that his beloved Conservatives are now, and have always been, mean-spirited and soulless?
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This is really interesting. I especially liked the discussion of few emotional concepts versus more emotional granularity. Following your article I read the one about Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, and how Fred Rogers encouraged children to name and acknowledge their darker emotions (what can be mentioned can be managed). Glad these two articles appeared on the same day, plus the one about difficult people at the Thanksgiving table. It makes for a smorgasbord of insights somehow appropriate for a thanksgiving day.
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"People with high emotional granularity respond flexibly to life, have better mental health outcomes..."
Which is why, with Donald Trump as president, we're on our way to becoming a permanently shattered nation--in his image. There is apparently no room in his emotional and psychological makeup (I exclude spiritually for I don't think that he has the capacity for humbling himself ) for "granularity," which I take to mean, nuance: the particles that vary according to circumstances both internal and external.
The president reacts daily and viscerally to everything; he cannot focus on any one thing and allows his impulsiveness to dictate his responses to stimuli. I am no psychologist or psychiatrist, but life's experiences tell me that when one's reactions to anything are almost always driven by resentment and anger (or hate), the body goes into some kind of overdrive that frees up the destructive machine in all of us. Such people, I think, then justify their emotions and forget entirely about what their brains are telling them.
I once read where Bill Fitch, a former NBA coach, tell his Boston Celtics never to be angry in stressful situations. "The wind of anger blows out the lamp of intelligence" he said. We should, of course, acknowledge that fight-or-flight situations make it difficult to calmly heed what our brains tell us. I suppose its the lizard part of our brain, the "primitive," as is described here.
But when you run on empty, as this president does, it's empty.
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Dear Red Sox man,
Thanks for the quote from the Irishman, Coach Bill Fitch.
This is also the guy who when his teenage daughter went on a date would sit in the rocking chair of his Medina, Ohio home with a baseball bat.
I wish somebody had done a book of Coach Fitch aphorisms, e.g., "Stay out of the popcorn popper," i.e., don't bite on ball fakes.
And "Sure, I'll talk it over the Red. I don't mind eating Chinese food and having cigar smoke blown in my face."
Just a little levity - because I agree with everything you say about Trump.
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@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
On criminal psychologist Robert Hare’s famous Psychopath Test you get zero for No; 1 for Partial; and 2 for Yes. So after checking out books and articles about Trumps life, I rated Trump on Hare’s list:
Glibness and Superficial Charm - 2, Grandiose Sense of Self-worth - 2, Pathological Lying - 2, Cunning/manipulative - 2, Lack of Remorse - 2, Emotional Shallowness - 2, Callousness and Lack of Empathy - 2, Unwillingness to Accept Responsibility for Actions - 2, a Tendency to Boredom - 2, a Parasitic Lifestyle - 2, a Lack of Realistic Long-term Goals - 2, Impulsivity - 2, Irresponsibility - 2, Lack of Behavioural Control - 2, Behavioural Problems in Early Life - 2, Juvenile Delinquency - 1, Criminal Versatility - 0, a History of “Revocation of Conditional Release” (ie Broken Parole) - 0, Multiple Marriages - 2, and Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour - 2.
So Trump scores 35, and of course if your father is one of New York’s richest landlords you can punch your second grade music teacher in the eye, but you don’t need to rob old ladies (though Trump University comes close). Hare says: “A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, once said: ‘Bob, when I meet someone who scores 35 or 36, I know these people really are different.’ The ones we consider to be alien are the ones at the upper end.”
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I have been playing guitar for 40 years now. I always wonder when - all of a sudden - that difficult sequence I had been trying for a long time becomes easy. My body had to learn before I was really able to perform it. And these body learnings keep happening after all these years.
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@Ademario
Well, it feels like “muscle memory,” but it’s just a different part of your brain. While you sleep, your conscious learning gets transferred to the automatic parts of your brain. The conscious brain is a bad athlete or musician, but the automatic brain is effortlessly responsive.
Many STEM students find that concepts which are difficult mid-semester seem trivial by the end.
While it's always great to see old ideas regurgitated, this is nothing new. See the collection of essays The Mind's I by Dennett and Hofstadter which is a more recent telling of the ideas outlined here and then some. (Our "mind" is more than just the brain but includes the entire sensory system, and no mind is independent of each other, etc.) Douglas Hofstadter's Strange Loops is all about these tangled recursive hierarchies.
More importantly, these are the kinds of questions that have been wrestled by philosophers since the dawn of science. The only offense I take at this article is David writes as though he's coming up with some new insights but these are very very old debates.
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Research the "enteric nervous system". It's been here for a long time. And so has knowledge of it.
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David: My gut feeling tells me you're on to something here.
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As Gregory Bateson writes, Samuel Butler believed most of our skills are unconscious, and indeed something like 90 percent of our thinking goes on outside of consciousness. "That which we know best is that of which we are least conscious, i.e., that the process of habit formation is a sinking of knowledge down to less conscious and more archaic levels."
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@David
Couple this with the idea that reason only enters into thinking after a decision has already been made, as literally an afterthought. As J.P. Morgan said "A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.". The "real reason" usually remains hidden in the unconscious, while the "good" reason exists to justify our actions to ourselves and others. We are essentially robots, and would be paralyzed if we had to deliberate on every move we made.
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@David
Citation please.
Thank you for posting this, Mr. Brooks. I will take all of your sage advice into account, as I attempt to survive in Trump's America.
I'm a native American citizen, in my 60's. But I'm also a person of color. I never once felt afraid in my country - MY country - until after Trump was elected. Before then, I blithely went out in public, in a very comfortable, unguarded state. Decades passed. And then something happened in November 2016.
I have Middle Eastern ancestry. Before the 2016 election, I could count on one hand the ethnic slurs I received in this country. Since then? Well, I've lost count.
It is now not uncommon in Trump's America for total strangers (always white) to yell at me that "I should get out of their country" or "I should go back to where I came from", even though my ancestry is Christian and I was born in Chicago. I have experienced the "fight or flight" mechanism Mr. Brooks describes, more in the past three years in this country, than I had in my 63 previous years.
The fact is, for many of us, Americans of color, we must accept, in a literally visceral level, that Trump voters are an existential threat to us. Not because of our "views", but because of simply who we are - Americans who are darker skinned than they are.
Now, perhaps for Mr. Brooks, this topic provides just another intellectual exercise. But for many of us, it now describes our daily existence in Trump's America.
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Thank you for this comment. Please know that these very vocal and temporarily empowered people are in the minority. We shall overcome.
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Why this astute and moving and troubling comment isn’t a NY Times Pick totally escapes me.
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@Orion Clemens The America of which you speak is the elephant in the room that it seems Mr. Brooks, an astute social observer, is at pains to distance himself from.
I keep waiting for Mr. Brooks to have his Bret Stephens moment and to cease acting like the GOP pols.
Still waiting.
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