Mark quoted The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté
By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into …
“More than that, the heart also has its own nervous system.[] The verbal-thinking cerebrum has arrogated to itself the honor of being the only brain, falsely so. Actually, it shares the distinction with the gut and the heart. In other words, the heart knows things, just as surely as a gut feeling is also a kind of knowing. In fact, the gut’s neural plexus has been appropriately called a “second brain,” as has the heart. Thus we may speak of three brains, meant to function in concert, with the autonomic nervous system connecting them all. Without that heart- and gut-knowledge, we often function as “genius-level reptiles,” in someone’s apt phrase.[]”
— The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté (Page 315)
I have to question the substance of some of the author’s assertions and citations. This is disappointing because overall this is a very good book by a respected author. Here is a random example. The statements about “three brains” and the heart having “its own nervous system” are perhaps well intended but completely mistaken. It is regulated by the autonomic nerve system, but does have an independent neuronal center in the same way as enteric nervous system regulating the gut.