The Analysis of Mind
[ BOOK REVIEW ]

Why do we behave the way we do? Many psychologists have attempted to answer that, yet the fundamental mechanism is far from being referred as fully understood. An absolute definition for 'mind' is still as firmly disagreed upon as it always had been, by behaviourists and physiologists as well.

Though the title suggests it may be very much entirely about psycho-analysis, the essays in no way question - neither did Russell pretend they do - the theories of Freud, Jung, etc. They are not in competition with theirs, but only complementary.

That mind is essentially matter and all its actions could successfully be explained by laws akin to the causal laws in physics resulted in many theories. It needed Russell to not give in to subjectivity and thus establish an altogether new conception of mind, for only he was capable of that. Be the topic simple or recondite, he never sacrificed scepticism for his quest for absolute knowledge.

The Analysis of Mind was written during one of the most turbulent periods of his life. Based on a series of lectures, it was first composed in 1918 while he was in prison for his opposition to the First World War, and completed in Peking in 1921. During this time, amid many activities and emotional involvements, he continued to write at an extraordinary rate. It came at a time when the brilliant mathematician was evolving into a passionate philosopher.

Like in all other works, he demands no other resource from the reader than the ability for simple objective observation. From the earliest metaphysical perceptions of consciousness to the modern views on the causation of emotions, Russell explains everything with a clarity very few could present in their works.

The essays on Instinct and Habit, Desire and Feelings, Memory, and Belief are exceptionally interesting, for he approaches each one of them in a way hardly anyone has attempted to do before. Although not fairly acknowledged, yet these influenced, not any surprisingly, the thinking of many later day psychologists.

It is in The Analysis of Mind that Russell first introduces the sceptical hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, in order to fill out his discussion on memory with an account of scepticism about the past, which he holds to be 'logically tenable, but uninteresting.'

The book is a non-pareil work, dealing with the foremost topic in psychology, written with clarity expected of a mathematician and insight expected of a philosopher.

From the blurb : One of Russell's most important and interesting books which reconciles the materialistic tendency of psychology with the anti-materialistic tendency of physics.

- Vj

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