The Neurobiology of the Gods: How Brain Physiology Shapes the Recurrent Imagery of Myth and Dreams

In this book the author sets out to explore the neurobiological connection we have with the gods. It's an interesting book, but its fair to say that the author' focus is more psychological than neurobiological. He does touch on the brain and the physiological functions of the brain and shows how they can mapped to Jungian psychology, which is where most of the focus of this book ends up being. He makes some good connections with metaphors and archetypes, but it feels like he's trying too hard to fit neurobiology into his arguments, while relying on surprisingly outdated resources at the time of his writing for the majority of his research. There's some good ideas here and its worth a read, but it also falls short in some ways.

The Neurobiology of the Gods is a journey across the fields of Evolutionary Psychology, Anthropology, Jungian Studies, Neuroscience, Psychotherapy, and Psychiatry. Goodwyn explains the archetypal patterns of the human mind, our innate biological systems and how and why we pick similar images to represent various affects."Jung proposed that much of human life is directed by a group of universal instinctual processes he termed the "collective unconscious" and its archetypes..." (p. 8). This book does a detailed job of explaining these concepts.The first half of the book builds an empirical framework to explain the mind's innate structure and how this effects the way we construct recurrent symbols. The second half of the book explores individual symbols such as human, animal, anima/animus, mother, father, child, and shadow.I am a doctoral student at Saybrook University. I ran across this book in a class at the Jung Center Houston entitled Empirical Jung. The class highlighted sections in this book that served as empirical evidence to back up Jung's theories.The Neurobiology of the Gods has become one of my best resources for my thesis topic that involves how the brain expresses trauma in symbolic ways, specifically dream imagery of combat-related PTSD patients. I highly recommend this book to psychology grad students, psychologists, therapists, and to those with an interest in Jungian theory, Neuroscience, Mythology and Dream Studies. There is an extensive notes sections, a generous index and the bibliography is certainly one of the most thorough I have seen- a real goldmine of additional resources.

This book is well written and not overly technical. While there are many references to scientific studies, no special knowledge of neurology on the part of the reader is assumed. And while there is some emphasis on gods and mythic symbols, as the title would suggest, the main content of the book is a wealth of information about the workings of the human brain and mind. You don't need a particular interest in the religious theme(s) to find this highly readable book fascinating.Goodwyn makes sense of some Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious and archetypes. He defines these in non-mystical terms, and presents a clear case for why they are useful ideas in psychology. He explores the symbolism found in dreams, and makes a case for its complexity; there is no simplistic "a bird always means X" interpretation. A main theme of the book is how our mental workings, including the predisposition to use metaphor and imagery to make sense of our environment, have evolved along with our brains since before the human race existed as such.Quite apart from the excellent content, I do have some beefs with the Kindle edition, at least as it plays on the Kindle Touch. The notes are not hyperlinked; you have to manually go to the notes section and page through it to find each note. And the extensive index is rendered nearly useless since it cites pages numbers (which do not appear on the Kindle) and does not have hyperlinks.

Finally! A book that weaves the multiple views of science, philosophy, and religion and forms a cohesive thread. Dr. Goodwyn manages to complete this without belittling common understandings and shows that myths, dreams, and the unconscience are all essential parts of humanity. Understanding the knowledge presented in this book will provide a window to therapists to address problems that may arise from, as Jung would say, our 'collected unconscious.'

This is that rare book that combines deep and encyclopedic knowledge of the world of scientific research with an understanding that meaning is our "evolutionary birthright" as Dr. Goodwyn puts it. The book is rich with the latest findings from neuroscience--it's chock full of fascinating details about what we have recently learned about how the brain works. But there is much more. The sections on our innate emotional system, and how it generates symbols, are truly pioneering and exciting scientific work. Dr. Goodwyn is a fluid and imaginative writer. When exploring the meaning of "human and animal spirits," his clinical examples (don't miss the section on the "Bear" spirit) are very moving and illustrate his ideas forcefully and clearly. He also has a wicked sense of humor--I laughed out loud at "Meet Mr. Literal" in the section on metaphors and symbols.Essentially, Dr. Goodwyn is making a case for a new understanding of how the brain and the psyche interrelate. His ideas are on the cutting edge of a promising new synthesis of psychology and neuroscience, and the result is a thought-provoking work of major import.