Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind

Makari (psychiatry & director, DeWitt Wallace Inst. for the History of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical Coll., Cornell Univ.; Revolution in Mind) explores and defends the concept of mind, an idea that evolved through millennia. Competing with the traditional soul, which "provided believers with universal dignity, repose before a bewildering, brutal world, and consolation in the face of death," the mind concept arose in 1660, then quieted somewhat in mid-19th century before a new and still active eruption of debate. "The mind was a radically destabilizing, heretical idea that grew out of intense, often violent, conflict." Among, and often against, scholars were prophets, doctors, "political spies, bitter refugees, witches, quacks, and pornographers." Makari is a fine writer who is fascinated by France, which is central to this tale of woe and wisdom. He begins with Thomas Hobbes in 1660 and ends before 1900 and Sigmund Freud. Major figures include Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, Franz Mesmer, Philippe Pinel, Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Madame de Stael.