MIND, BRAIN AND BIOCHEMISTRY 385 



questions are acute issues today.- In particular, the question 

 of the relation of biochemistry to behavior has special relevance 

 to the basic issue. If the mind is a reality distinct from the 

 brain, how does a chemical compound interact with it? And 

 if mental illness is nothing but a malfunctioning of the brain 

 (whose function is ultimately dependent upon molecular ac- 

 tivity) , how can psychotherapy, that is, a non-chemical treat- 

 ment, be effective in reversing an abnormal brain biochemistry? 



The Mind-Body Problem 



Since man first began to philosophize, the precise relation 

 between his thinking mind and his tangible body has been 

 considered an important problem. Sage, savant and poet, have 

 offered explanations, sometimes fundamentally opposed, some- 

 times only differently expressed. Plato has left us the metaphor 

 of the soul as a charioteer to the body's chariot; Descartes' 

 dichotomy of matter and spirit leads to an angelism and a 

 division even wider than Plato's. The biologically based solu- 

 tion of the Aristotelian tradition has been poetically expressed 

 in Gerard Manley Hopkins' " man's spirit is flesh-bound when 

 found at best." The materialist solution of dialectical material- 

 ism eliminates the problem by calling mind a manifestation of 

 matter in motion. We will examine in a subsequent section 

 some of the contemporary data and hypotheses concerning 

 the relation of biochemical disturbances to abnormal mental 

 behavior. Reflection on the data to be presented may help to 

 shed some light on the important problem of the mind-body 

 relationship. Physiological principles can be introduced as 

 needed. 



Descartes' attempt to establish a philosophy on his Cogito 

 ergo sum has made the mind-body problem an insoluble one. 



^S. Kety, "A Biologist Examines the Mind and Behavior," Science, CXXXII 

 (1960) , 1861-70; H. W. Magoun, " Early Development of Ideas Relating the Mind 

 and the Brain," in CIBA Foundation Symposium, Neurological Basis of Behavior 

 (London: Churchill, 1958), pp. 4-27; W. G. Walter, "Adolf Meyer Research Lecture: 

 Where Vital Things Happen," American Journal of Psychiatry, CXVI (1960), 673- 

 694. 



