The Hidden Spring : a journey to the source of consciousness / Mark Solms

Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of figures -- Introduction -- 1. The stuff of dreams -- 2. Before and after Freud -- 3. The cortical fallacy -- 4. What is experienced? -- 5. Feelings -- 6. The source -- 7. The free energy principle -- 8. A predictive hierarchy -- 9. Why and how how consciousness arises -- 10. Back to the cortex -- 11. The hard problem -- 12. Making a mind -- Postscript -- Appendix -- Acknowledgements -- Notes -- References -- Index

'Nobody bewitched by these mysteries can afford to ignore the solution proposed by Mark Solms' - Oliver Burkeman, Guardian

'Truly pioneering. This unification is clearly the direction for the future' - Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine

'A remarkable book. It changes everything' - Brian Eno

How does the mind connect to the body? Why does it feel like something to be us? For one of the boldest thinkers in neuroscience, solving this puzzle has been a lifetime's quest. Now at last, the man who discovered the brain mechanism for dreaming appears to have made a breakthrough.

The very idea that a solution is at hand may seem outrageous. Isn't consciousness intangible, beyond the reach of science? Yet Mark Solms shows how misguided fears and suppositions have concealed its true nature. Stick to the medical facts, pay close attention to the eerie testimony of hundreds of neurosurgery patients, and a way past our obstacles reveals itself.

Join Solms on a voyage into the extraordinary realms beyond. More than just a philosophical argument, The Hidden Spring will forever alter how you understand your own experience. There is a secret buried in the brain's ancient foundations: bring it into the light and we fathom all the depths of our being.