Can You Mind Your Brain?

Catalog description

How does the mind, and our subjective experiences, relate to the brain? This philosophical ? and, with technological advances (e.g., Neuralink, brain-machine interface), increasingly social ? question is most clearly raised in cases of brain injury. Individuals? lives, indeed their personalities, may be substantively altered following brain damage. These experiences are richly captured in narratives of people with brain injury. Such stories reveal the intimate relationship between lived experiences, interpersonal relationships, psychological struggles, and neurobiology. Moreover, these narratives are compelling, capturing in detail the intricate changes people experience. This Essential Questions course will use narratives of people with brain injuries to provoke the question: how does mind relate to brain? By engaging critically and reflectively through close reading (with special attention to description and imagination of non-neurotypical experience), students will develop a rich sense for the complexities involved in relating brain to subjective experience. In addition to developing critical reading skills, students will grow in their oral and written expression skills through seminar-style discussions and discussion boards. In-class oral discussions (in small and large groups) will focus on formulating questions (through critical analysis of the issues described through the text), comprehension (including imaginative description of the experiences of those with brain injury), and communication of ideas with peers. Online discussion boards will refine students? written skills in textual analysis and independent thinking.