Presence of Mind in Neurophysiological Processes

161 Pages·2013·0.375 MB·English

by  Lawrence Goldie, Jane Desmarais

PRESENCE OF MIND
IN NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES

PRESENCE OF MIND IN
NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL
PROCESSES
Lawrence Goldie and
Jane Desmarais
First published in 2013 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2013 by Lawrence Goldie and Jane Desmarais
The right of Lawrence Goldie and Jane Desmarais to be identified as the authors
of this work has been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright
Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-85575-885-8
Typeset by V Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
EDITOR’S PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION xiii
PART I: THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPLEMENTARITY
CHAPTER ONE
Attention and inattention 5
CHAPTER TWO
Epilepsy and the unconscious 19
PART II: HYPNOSIS
CHAPTER THREE
Hypnosis and trauma 41
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR
Hypnosis and dynamic psychology 55
PART III: COMPLEMENTARITY IN PRACTICE
CHAPTER FIVE
Complementary approaches in the general hospital 77
CHAPTER SIX
Complementary cancer care 91
CONCLUSION 119
POSTSCRIPT 123
REFERENCES 127
INDEX 131
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank Lucy Shirley and Rod Tweedy at Karnac Books for
their patience and assistance in bringing this book to publication.
A huge debt of gratitude goes to Lawrence’s son and daughter, Boyd
Goldie and Helena Goldie for supporting this project in its final phases.
This book is dedicated to them, and to Lawrence’s wife, Silvia.
Some of the material included in this book has been published else-
where and we would like to thank the BMJ Publishing Group, Taylor
Francis, Karnac, and Cambridge University Press.
Chapter Two includes material from L. Goldie and J. M. Green (1961),
“Observations on Episodes of Bewilderment Seen during a Study of
Petit Mal”, Epilepsia, 2(4): 306–312, and L. Goldie and J. M. Green (1959),
“A Study of the Psychological Factors in a Case of Sensory Reflex Epi-
lepsy”, Brain, 82(4): 505–524.
Chapters Three and Four include material from L. Goldie (1956),
“Hypnosis in the Casualty Department”, British Medical Journal, 2: 1340;
Goldie (1958), “Hypnosis in the General Hospital”, Proceedings of the
Dental and Medical Society for the Study of Hypnosis; and Goldie (1959),
“Spontaneous Traumatic Reactions to Hypnosis”, British Journal of
Medical Psychology, 32(2): 124–132, with permission of the BMJ Publish-
ing Group.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapters Five and Six are based on material in L. Goldie with
J. Desmarais (2005), Psychotherapy and the Treatment of Cancer Patients:
Bearing Cancer in Mind, London: Routledge, with permission from
Taylor & Francis. The epigraph in Chapter One is from Albert Einstein
and Leopold Infeld (1938), The Evolution of Physics, and appears cour-
tesy of Cambridge University Press.
EDITOR’S PREFACE
The basis of creativity is freeing the mind so that it can voyage
within and create new ideas and views.
I am trying to formulate a description of thinking which is
complementary. It is a serious matter because it may be that there
is an inability to think if the oscillation of complementary thinking
is not possible. I urge doctors to be oscillating between a medical
description and the creative examination of an individual.
The extreme irritation associated with the lymphoma makes it
difficult to write. The book, will it ever be written?
—Lawrence Goldie, Notes to JD, October 2011
To come upon the personal notes of a friend who has just died is a breath-
taking experience. It is a powerful reminder that we will never again
be able to answer his questions or pursue conversations. The question
Lawrence posed above about finishing the book, almost seven months
before he passed away—“Will it ever be written?”—was semi-rhetorical
at the time, but it reminds me of the two principal concerns he had in
putting this book together. One was whether he would be well enough
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