The Mind is Flat, Nick Chater (2018), Penguin (251 pages) Reviewer: Joel Marks
If you are interested in Solution Focused approaches, then the title of this book immediately catches the attention. In “The Solutions Focus, Paul Z. Jackson, Mark McKergow (2024 3rd ed.), p98” the authors make the statement “Stay on the surface -work with what you find. There is plenty to work with.” Teri Picho in converstaion with Mochi Landry [YouTube] states that Solutions Focus does not have a theory of pathology or change, it is a meta-model. So both the practice and theory of SFBT is ‘surface.’ In the book “The Mind is Flat”, a theory of mind is put forward that is entirely consistent with this approach. As such, it is one of the few theories of psychology that speaks to the fundamental pre-conceptions of Solution Focused approaches.
The book is written in an accessible style for the lay-person, however it sometimes struggles to relate clear concepts. However, it will effectively take you on a journey through the author’s theory. This new theory challenges us to reassess our default model of consciousness based on experimental data.
A new model of cognition#
When you engage with the principles behind Solution Focus, you will be left with a lingering thought… that the entire psychiatric model, especially its notions of subconscious and unconscious, is built on poor foundations. This book tells us why. It outlines a model of cognition and information processing grounded in scientific discovery, rather than metaphorical speculation. It frees us from the tyranny of ‘systems of belief’ and behavioural drivers over which we have no control.
Skip to P123 for a good synopsis by the author:
“Pre-formed beliefs, desires, motives, attitudes (to risk) lurking in our hidden depths are a fiction: we improvise our behaviour to deal with the challenges of the moment rather than to express our inner self.”
The book observes that the brain is an improviser. It strives to improvise behaviour that is consistent with past behaviour and consistent with past interpretations of events. This implies we have much more flexibility in our options for behaviour than we sometimes think, given that we actually don’t have a subterranean system of beliefs or drivers.
Black box#
“In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings.” [wikipedia].
There is a fundamental mystery around our use of LLM AI (Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence), such as ChatGPT. Because of the way the neural net operates and is trained, we can assess the output of a query in terms of its usefulness given the input, but we have little understanding of how the answer was arrived at. It is also the case that we cannot ask the AI how it arrived at the answer without recursively hitting the same problem. The AI does not know how it works either. It might resort to telling us about the functioning of neural nets, weighted pathways between nodes, but this gets us no closer to the ‘how’ of the answer. Additionally, the AI does not know anything about the hardware it is running on. AIs have been made in the lab which operate using lab-grown neurons with computer interfaces, while commercially available AIs run on silicon hardware. There is no possibility for the AI to investigate the hardware it runs on, as its operation is abstracted from its physical being.
Similarly, we humans are black boxes. A deep personal philosophical investigation of the root cause of any of our actions or behaviours is fraught with difficulty. Indeed, experimental data suggests that the mind as a whole comes to a decision before the reporting function, our language based sense of self, gets to know about it. In Buddhism, deep meditation has lead practitioners to the conclusion that there is, in fact, no ‘self’ - a concept called “anatta.”
While the book does not talk about AI, black boxes or Buddhism, examples are given of how easily we are deceived in our beliefs and decision-making processes, and the thesis goes some why towards implying a truth in the concept of anatta.
Given human consciousness is a black box, it is a matter of faith that we have such fundamental beliefs in ideas like ’the unconscious,’ and much of the theory of psychology built over the last century relies on assumptions that are not backed up by evidence.
The Mind is Flat will take you on a journey of discovery through the science that we do know about, and lead you to its fascinating conclusion - that we improvise everything. When asked what we think, we, just like an AI, invent a best fit response based on what we think we know and what we think the situation calls for.
Thinking beyond the experimental base for the book#
But what about depth and selfhood? Are there any experiences we can have as humans that point to something beyond the improvised mind? Given that the book stays within the remit it sets itself (experimental data on cognition and behaviour) we have to look further afield.
Transcendental revelation, sometimes (and often frightening) entirely spontaneous, but more frequently related to deep meditation, body practice or shamanic practice, can lead us to see and experience things we have no map for. Reports of meeting people who have passed, being in places we have never seen (Terrence McKenna reported that South American shamans claimed they had seen the Golden Gate bridge before having contact with westerners), and experiences apparently outside of time. Another common experience in shamanic practice is to observe higher order mathematical forms and prototypical language glyphs, regardless of having any training in mathematics or linguistics.
Another common but little discussed experience is that of past lives, for which we use the metaphor of reincarnation, and of NDEs and OBEs. I suspect that the author would seek to explain many of or all of these phenomena as simply spontaneous activity in the brain and our interpretation of it. The anecdotal evidence, such as it is, would point to a need for further research before drawing any such conclusions.
Final thoughts#
My feelings after reading this book have been overwhelmingly positive. The thesis of the book holds its weight and encourages us to let go of some old ideas that may no longer be useful to us. The concept is usefully parsimonious, and takes a new approach to understanding the psychology of mind, one that seems in line with both Solution Focused practice and Buddhist philosophy.
The challenge will be to integrate this new model into a broader understanding of what it means to be human, one that includes our deep connectedness to each other, the universe, the nature of love and transcendent experience.