I have provided a strong proposal for the way in which the vertebrate brain, including that of humans, is organised as a building with numerous levels, based on internal neural loops superimposed on each other and interconnected at all levels.
A major question then arises as to the relation between levels of this neural building with different mental states, including consciousness.
In 1977, George Engel suggested a more suitable model of human biology from a medical perspective1. The model dealt with the multiple aspects of human experience and was called the biopsychosocial model. However, this model did not constitute a scientific or philosophical model and left unanswered how to bridge the gaps between biology, psychology and sociology, let alone how a ‘whole person’ comes to be a conscious social being.
- GL Engel (1977): The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science 196, 129-136. ↩︎