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“Meeting Vincenzo Sanguineti was an event that shaped my next steps, a
bifurcation point, and the ensuing results were very fruitful, in that we
arranged together two courses at the national meetings of the American
Psychiatric Association that were a great success. On those occasions I
could appreciate his broad mind and deep knowledge of neuroanatomy,
neurophysiology and neurochemistry, and his expressed discomfort with the
current existence of only a few theories of the mind and the fact that
psychoanalysts and neuroscientists are often too dogmatic and closed in
their own convictions to be able to cooperate in a positive way.”(From
the foreword by Dr. Donatella Marazziti Professor, Department of Psychiatry,
Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnology, University of Pisa; Director,
Laboratory of Psychopharmacology, University of Pisa; Author of “ La Natura
dell’Amore” (“The Nature of Love”, 2002)
“Working at a level that transcends individual academic disciplines, Dr.
Sanguineti sees three main subcultures that need to be introduced to each
other. The first of these is mathematical science, with its ancient
traditions, curious logic, and symbolic jottings that seem meaningless
except to those who (strangely) find them exciting. Second
is the
subjective domain,
from
where we retrieve descriptions of that
inner space
that we call
our psyche
and that finds
its finest expression in the arts, which predate recorded
human history and continue to fascinate and confuse (not necessarily in that
order) those trained in the sciences. Yet art springs directly from spirit
and cries to be heard. Finally are observations of human mind and spirit by
those who deal directly with it without preconceived limits on what they are
allowed to see: the author's "objective observers".
(From
the foreword by Alwyn Scott, Emeritus Professor, Department of Mathematics,
University of Arizona; Professor, Department of Informatics and Mathematical
Modeling, Technical University of Denmark; Author of “Stairway to the Mind:
the Controversial New Science of Consciousness” (1995); “Nonlinear science:
Emergence and Dynamics of Coherent Structures” (1999); “Neuroscience: a
Mathematical Primer” (2002).
“What this ambitious project captures is the necessary, inalienable mystery
of the self, the fact that each of our languages for it remains provisional
and open. Yet far from being locked in the domain of the religious, the
obscure and the esoteric, this mystery is connected with the rigours of
scientific investigation and intellectual analysis. To me, this seems
appropriate to the task: only the full, unreserved powers of the human
intellect in all its variety can deal with the mystery of the human self,
without ever absolutely reducing the awe, curiosity and sense of open-ended
challenge it will always provoke.” (From the foreword by
Nick Mansfield, Associate Professor in Critical and Cultural Studies
Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy Macquarie University;
Author of: Subjectivity: Theories of the Self from Freud to Haraway (2000);
Cultural Studies and Critical Theory (with Patrick Fuery, 2000); Masochism:
The Art of Power (1997); Cultural Studies and the New Humanities: Concepts
and Controversies (with Patrick Fuery, 1997); To Die of Desire. (1993).
“As
Dr. Sanguineti concludes from his courageous exploratory plunge into the
historic phantasmagoria of the human psyche, the recognition of the
sovereignty of subjectivity is the great missing link and, therefore, the
crucial reality that has eluded conventional scientific explanation of such
a vast and seemingly undecipherable challenge as the human psyche. The
subjective experience of reading Dr. Sanguineti's Rosetta Stone was
quite interesting and relatively unique. At the conclusion of reading most
books, there is a feeling of conclusion, a sort of "well; that's that"
finalization that the subject matter has supplied information and now the
experience of its perusal is over and relatively "done with." This book
resulted in an altogether different response in that, at its conclusion,
there was the feeling of having really just started to understand its
content. I found myself rereading the book which, in itself, is quite
unusual.” (From the foreword by David R. Hawkins, M.D.,
Ph.D. Director, Institute for Advanced Spiritual Research, Sedona, AZ Author
of: Orthomolecular Psychiatry (with Linus Pauling, 1973); Power versus
Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior (1998); The Eye of the I:
From Which Nothing is Hidden (2001); I, Reality and Subjectivity (2003).
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