390 ALBERT S. MORACZEWSKI 



Now, how does this relate to the mind-body problem? Simply 

 that the human life-principle is the source of both cerebral 

 activity and mental activity, inasmuch as none of these activ- 

 ities is manifest in a corpse. Granting the essential difference 

 between cerebral activity and mental activity, it would be a 

 serious misconception to conceive their interaction after the 

 manner of two physical beings, e. g., as two chemical com- 

 pounds, or as an electromagnetic wave reacts with an appro- 

 priate detector. The reciprocal influence of mind and brain is 

 altogether unique and any attempt to understand its nature 

 must take cognizance of this fact. 



Limiting these reflections further, we may ask, how then does 

 this bear on the problem of mental health and disease? There 

 is no doubt that the living body has an important role in these 

 matters, since injury to the physical organ, the brain, results 

 in some aberrations of mental and emotional activity of the 

 living person. Obviously the brain does not and cannot func- 

 tion in the absence of the life-principle. It is true that chemical 

 reactions, electrical currents and enzyme activity, precisely as 

 such are not living, for they can be produced outside a living 

 body. However, in a living body they are concurrent, con- 

 comitant with the activity of the life principle and are directed 

 to the functional integrity of the whole organism. The mind 

 in its operation needs the brain. Every thought not only has 

 some echo in the brain tissue, but in the present condition the 

 mind is dependent on the brain as on an instrument. Clearly 

 if something is awry in the physical apparatus, the instrument, 

 the mind is to that degree impeded in its normal function. 



The brain is not simple in its structure or function. Although 

 the brain is spoken of as a single organ, and sometimes even 

 thought of as having a single function in much the same way 

 as the heart is said to pump blood, in actuality it is extremely 

 complex.^ This complexity is due not simply to the ten thou- 

 sand million or more neurons which are part of its composition, 



^ J. Papez, " Neuroanatomy," in American Handbook of Psychiatry, ed. Silvano 

 Arieti (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 1585-1619. 



