Interpersonal Neurobiology

An interdisciplinary definition:

“The human mind is a relational and embodied process that regulates the flow of energy and information”.

Defining the mind makes it possible for us, both in our daily life and in our many professional pursuits to share a common language about the internal nature of our lives.

Energy is the capacity to carry out an action — whether it is moving our limbs or thinking a thought.

Information is anything that symbolizes something other than itself.

Flow is endless change over time.

Regulation creates new patterns of energy and information flow, which we then continue to monitor and modify. This process is the essence of our subjective experience of life.

Embodied means that the regulation of energy and information flow happens, in part, in the body. It occurs in the circuits and synapses of the brain, inside the skull, but also throughout the body, in the distributed nervous system, which monitors and influences energy and information flowing through our heart and our intestines, and even shapes the activity of our immune system.

Relational means energy and information flow between pieces of information within and between people, and they are monitored and modified in this shared exchange.

The mind is broader than the brain, revels in relationships, and is pregnant with possibilities.

Mindsight, Daniel Siegel, 2010.