The Great Connections

Neuroessentiaism is the theory that our conscious experience is nothing more than our brain activity. In this view, the definitive way of explaining psychological experience is by reference to the brain. Marsha interviews doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, William Schulz, about his research paper on the topic, “Neuroessentialism: Theoretical and Clinical Considerations” published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. He and Marsha discuss the theory and related issues, such as the existence of free will and how that fits into a scientific way of thinking about human experience. William argues in his article that a brain-centered model of mental disorders can have negative psychological effects on individuals receiving mental health treatment showing that ideas are extremely powerful.

Jake Ilson is a tech advocate and ambitious 22 year old. He was a young 16 year-old when he first attended The Great Connections Seminar. Hear him describe how it changed his life in a far more profound way than his deep experience at Outward Bound, and why he has returned to the experience four times and brought back its powerful lessons to use over and over again in his daily life.

How much of who you are is really under your control? What are your limits? How much of you is determined by biology, by the world around you? What makes you you? These questions have been debated for millennia.

You’ve seen the violence on campuses: the shouting down of speakers, the physical attack on people of opposing ideologies. You’ve also probably heard that words are considered violence. Where did all of this come from?

Another aspect of taking control of your own mind is learning to think in principle. Co-hosts Marsha Familaro Enright and Liz Parker examine the ways in which this practice enables you to efficiently and effectively analyze and identify ideas, situations, and courses of action by thinking in principle. The human mind works, with concepts, abstractions; you have no choice but to make generalizations from concrete experiences. A principle is a fundamental or general truth on which other truths depend. If you know a truth that’s true of a wide range of things, you have a lot of power, ability to deal with many situations. Thinking in principle is the habit of searching for and applying general principles to understand any aspect of life. It’s a very powerful habit of mind, because true principles apply to broad areas, so your mind is able to discern which principles and domains of knowledge bear on the issue, problem, puzzle, question you’re trying to think about.

Each person constructs his or her own mind -- whether they know it or not! If you want to live independently as a free person, you need to be aware of what ideas you hold. Every human mind works by using ideas,