Persons and Their Minds ― Towards an Integrative Theory of the Mediated Mind

Today’s approaches to the study of the human mind are divided into seemingly opposed camps. On one side we find the neurosciences, with their more or less reductionist research programs, and on the other side we find the cultural and discursive approaches, with a frequent neglect of the material sides of human life. Persons and their Minds seeks to develop an integrative theory of the mind with room for both brain and culture and is one of the first books to integrate brain research with phenomenology, social practice studies and Actor-network theory – all held together by the concept of the person.

Although the book centres on cultural psychology, it has a wide scope in the way it articulates a new approach to the person, the mind and also mental disorder. Brinkmann uses Rom Harré’s hybrid psychology as a meta-theoretical starting point and expands this significantly by including four sources of mediators: the brain, the body, social practices and technological artefacts. The author argues that the mind is normative in the sense that mental processes do not simply happen, but can be done more or less well, and thus are subject to normative appraisal.

In addition to theoretical discussions, the book will include a number of case studies that will be used to articulate its perspectives, including a study of ADHD from the integrated perspective. As such, the book should be of interest to academics and researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy, sociology and psychiatry.

Svend Brinkmann?is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Communication and Psychology at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. His primary research areas are general psychology and qualitative methods, and he is currently co-director of the Center for Qualitative Studies at the University of Aalborg and member of the Center for Cultural Psychology.