http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1595306

Organism

This book notes that an understanding of the relations of mind and body is difficult due to many seemingly paradoxical facts. The controversies over localization of functions, reflex and organismal theories, mechanism and vitalism express the inconsistency of the results of investigations. This author considers the problem of neural and behavioral organization from a broadly biological point of view. Goldstein's investigations of visual disorders and of aphasia revealed fundamental disturbances of thought and personality of which the recognized symptoms are only a superficial expression. From these studies has grown the conception of behavior as a result of a unified activity of the organism, which is the theme of this book. The data presented go far toward a solution of the apparent contradictions between the facts of elementary nervous activity and those derived from the study of cerebral function by showing that functions of parts are dependent in large measure upon the total setting in which they occur. The author's interpretation avoids many of the difficulties of both reflexology and vitalism and provides an alternative view for those whose scientific aims are satisfied neither by extreme oversimplification of facts nor by postulation of forces which cannot be investigated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).

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