Epilogue

This chapter returns to the various alternative views about human consciousness first mentioned at the start of this book, and assesses how this book’s account compares to, and hopefully builds on, these other viewpoints. The view of human consciousness developed in this book can explain the uniqueness of our species’ conscious awareness, but in an entirely materialistic fashion. This approach views language—the system of abstract symbols linked in a grammatical structure but also one that connects the individual to the world outside via word meaning—and other forms of human culture like music, art, and literature, as a material force that has reshaped human brain functions at every level. This has led to a qualitative shift in such functions, compared to that of every other species, including our closest animal cousins, the great apes. Unlike a purely ‘bottom up’ approach to human brain function, this view sees language, as well as other mediators of human culture, as imposing both structural and dynamic changes in our brains. Structurally, it sees the different brain regions, as well as their interconnections, as altered in humans. The chapter then reflects on what impact, if any, might this approach to understanding human consciousness have on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.