Mental Darwinism, a new approach to the study of mental phenomena,applies selectionist ideas to problems of mind and behavior. McNamara challenges the instructivist view that memories occur when information from the environment is transferred into the mind. Current experimental evidence confirms the insights of two turn-of-the-century philosophers, William James and Henri Bergson, who originally proposed applying Darwinian principles to mental processes. The view of the mind that emerges from this approach helps us understand why memory evolves as it does and is not always accurate or veridical, how memory is related to personal identity, and how a large number of neuropsychological disorders develop.

Mind and Variability: Mental Darwinism, Memory, and Self (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence)

Politics & Social Sciences

Ph.D., Patrick McNamara

Philosophy

Praeger

Challenging existing claims concerning the functions of Rapid Eye Movement sleep and the purported meaninglessness of dreams, this text offers a complete and up-to-date survey on the anatomy, physiology, ontogeny, and phylogeny of REM sleep as well as the cognitive neuroscience of dream phenomonolgy and dream content. The text underlines the importance of looking at how REM interacts physiologically with NREM sleep, in order to understand the potential functions of REM. The findings support and extend clams that the functions of REM involve memory consolidation and regulation of emotional conflicts and expression.
Analyses of evolutionary relationships include sleep in reptiles, birds, marsupials, and mammals. Chapters explore interactions of REM and NREM and effects of these interactions on anabolic hormone release as well as the effects on dream content, the effects of genes and genomic imprinting on sleep, and theories of dream formation and content.

An Evolutionary Psychology of Sleep and Dreams

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

We've nearly all been there at least once - awakened with a pounding heart and the memory of frightening scenes that seemed so real, but were conjured up and existed only in the sleeping mind. Nightmares affect people across countries and cultures, with some 10 percent of the world's population reporting recurrent nightmares. Parents have reported, and science has recorded, nightmares in children as young as 18 months old. Up to 40 percent of children aged 2 to 12 experience nightmares, as do some 35 percent of veterans and 50 percent of adults with chronic illness. With this book, a psychologist widely known in his field shows how nightmares evolved and were useful to ancestral populations, and why nightmares may carry beneficial functional effects even today for people who suffer from the pulse-pumping dreams. McNamara brings us up to date on the biology of nightmares and what, specifically, happens in the brain during the event. He also explains the history and development of nightmares and likely causes, including traumatic events, psychological and physical disorders, and commonly consumed medications.

Nightmares: The Science and Solution of Those Frightening Visions during Sleep (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

This two-volume text reviews spirit possession throughout history, analyzes case studies from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, and examines rites for exorcism.
From the beginning of civilization to the present day, and across all major religions and cultures, there have been documented cases of people seemingly overtaken by an unseen entity. The invading force―whether good or bad―appears to replace the possessor's soul with the spirit's own persona, resulting in mystifying symptoms such as levitation or other supernatural feats, speaking in tongues, and even horrific and inexplicably accelerated physical distortion and deterioration.
This is a two-volume chronological history and examination of spirit possession that addresses its phenomenological, psychological, and neurobiological aspects, and its effects on societies. Volume one reviews spirit possession from the upper Paleolithic era to modern times, while Volume two focuses on case studies and rites of exorcism.
 • Provides a comprehensive bibliography of materials that gathers historical, anthropological, and archaeological sources, as well as comparative religionist and neurologic literature
• Contains indexes that reference key religious events, rituals, and personalities, and cross-reference key characteristics of case studies

Spirit Possession and Exorcism [2 volumes]: History, Psychology, and Neurobiology [2 volumes] (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

A standout resource on the emerging field of applying neuropsychology and the latest findings in sleep and dream research to religious experience, this book investigates the proven biological links between REM dreams and religious ideas, covering past and current schools of thought in both the science of dreams and the science of religion.
 • Provides detailed, mechanistic, and science-based explanations of how god beliefs emerge in dreams 
• Shows how the dynamics of REM sleep neurochemical processes produce cognitive states that promote beliefs in supernatural beings
• Presents numerous examples of how the birth of new religious movements was due to dreams of the founders
• Reviews the extensive literature on the anthropology of dreams, demonstrating their centrality to primal tribal cultures and religion

Dreams and Visions: How Religious Ideas Emerge in Sleep and Dreams (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

Diseases & Physical Ailments

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ph.D., Patrick McNamara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ph.D., Patrick McNamara

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ph.D., Patrick McNamara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mind and Variability: Mental Darwinism, Memory, and Self (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence)

An Evolutionary Psychology of Sleep and Dreams

Nightmares: The Science and Solution of Those Frightening Visions during Sleep (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

Spirit Possession and Exorcism [2 volumes]: History, Psychology, and Neurobiology [2 volumes] (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

Nightmares: The Science and Solution of Those Frightening Visions during Sleep (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)

Dreams and Visions: How Religious Ideas Emerge in Sleep and Dreams (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution)