Exploring the mind-brain relationship to advance mental health research and practice
Nandini Karunamuni, Tim Wood, Julieta Galante
Current Psychology December 1, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/s12144-025-08345-2 via Springer Nature
Summary
The mind-brain relationship remains a central philosophical puzzle with implications for mental health. This article explores the issue by examining subjective first-person experiences, which help define the mind, alongside third-person scientific understandings of the brain. These two perspectives offer distinct but equally valid ways of knowing: first-person insights foster self-knowledge and wisdom, while third-person analysis explains the world. The mind is described as a dynamic system of changing sensory and mental processes, considered a distinct variable. The article advocates for a broader approach to mental health research and treatment that integrates both perspectives.
Study at a glance
| Design | review |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The first-person and third-person perspectives represent two distinct yet equally valid epistemological frameworks for understanding the mind-brain relationship, and the mind should be regarded as a distinct dynamic variable. |
Abstract
The mind-brain relationship (MBR) problem is an important philosophical pursuit with far-reaching implications for research and practice in the realm of mental health. Although there is a multitude of proposed resolutions to this quandary, the fundamental questions associated with MBR still persist unexplained. This article is an invitation to the reader to embark on an exploration of this issue by first delving into the nature of our subjective first-person experiences (that contributes to conceptualizing and defining the mind, as explained in the article), and then examining how third-person scientific understandings including understandings relating to the organ brain are arrived at. We explain that the first-person and third-person perspectives represent two distinct yet equally valid approaches to comprehend the world and our experiences within it, involving contrasting epistemological frameworks. We also describe that insights derived from the first-person perspective cultivate self-knowledge and wisdom, while those arising from third-person analysis illuminate the workings of the world. We additionally highlight that the mind constitutes a dynamic system—comprised of constantly changing sensory encounters and mental processes involving the present moment, the past, and the future—to be regarded as a distinct variable. Without denying the neurobiological correlates of mental states, this article serves as a catalyst for a broader, more inclusive approach to mental health research and treatment that can empower service providers, patients, as well as caregivers, and also help scientists to formulate more refined research inquiries pertaining to the mind and the brain.