The Interbrain: Connected Brains, Standoffish Minds, Conflicted Selves

Explaining his concept of 'the interbrain', a theory that our brains are emotionally connected and can share attention with each other, Tantam presents a new way of understanding empathy and the role it plays in explaining many of the mysteries of humanity. Considering non-verbal communication, such as social smiles, the ability for one brain's 'eyes' to redirect the gaze and attention of another brain's 'eyes', and the way emotions can spread from one person to another, Tantam discusses the idea of wirelessly connected brains, and argues that the 'interbrain' is the basis of our empathy. Exploring the implications of this, he discusses how: - our connectedness can provide answers to difficult problems in developmental psychology - the brains of people on the autism spectrum are not as well connected with other brains - our connectedness can come into conflict with our cognitive empathy, leading to the inner conflict described by philosophers since ancient times - a failure to connect with other brains can lead to the owner of the brain being bullied - over-empathy and over-connectedness can be dangerous and plays a part in youth gangs - our connectedness influences our ethics - imagination can help us to reach out to others, but can also create artificial categories in which others are not people, leading to antisocial and criminal behaviour - connectedness may be the basis of our religious feelings and experience of transcendence. Informed by extensive research and the author's forensic and psychotherapeutic experience, this ground-breaking book has implications for forensic and clinical psychiatrists, psychologists and professionals working with people on the autism spectrum, and will be fascinating to anyone interested in philosophy and neuroscience.