Neuroscience's Attempts to Find the Material Substratum of The Psyche Have Reached a Dead End

In this paper, a number of outdated but still prevailing medical doctrines are critically reviewed, in particular, Hippocrates's hypothesis of the brain as a repository of all mental processes; I.M.Sechenov's hypothesis of the psyche as a derivate of the brain reflexes; I.P. Pavlov's hypothesis of the higher nervous activity as an equivalent of the psyche.In his research, the author refers to studies of feral children, studies of memory and subliminal perception, discovery of mirror neurons and contemporary views of the academic science on information.The author proves the non-materiality of the psyche and the role of the brain as a biological interface between the ideal and the real.The new approach would require changing the traditional paradigm as well as all our approaches to studying the psyche and treating mental disorders.We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein Part I Introduction. Ideas live their own lifeThe geocentric system by Claudius Ptolemy, according to which the Earth is the centre of the Universe, and all other stars and planets are revolving around it, was born in II A.D. and persisted for 15 centuries.In 1530, Nicolas Copernic developed the heliocentric system, in which the centre of the solar system is the Sun.This idea, however, had been suggested much earlier, in IV-III BC, by Aristarchus of Samos.In result, he was accused of impiety and exiled from Athens.The revolutionary discovery made by Copernicus stirred the same reaction, as his system was perceived as undermining the authority of the Church, which controlled the science in that epoch.His premature death saved Copernicus from a severe punishment.However, adepts of his theory were persecuted for a long time afterwards.In 1600, the inquisition sentenced Giordano Bruno, a monk and a scholar, to death by burning for disseminating Copernicus's ideas.