Are you one mind or many? Dr Thomas Pollak
If your body is the image of your mind, where is the boundary? What does it mean when this breaks down? And how many minds are you anyway?
We know that an immune reaction can transform your thoughts, perceptions and entire sense of reality. For Dr Thomas Pollak, this is not simply a philosophical thought experiment but part of his clinical and scientific work.
He is Psychiatrist at King's College London, a collaborator with Michael Levin and a researcher who has already connected with Bernardo's work. He investigates the possibility that immunological disorders may be "self disorders" and the relationship between immune and psychological selves as areas worth exploring.
His wider interests explore nested selves, dissociation, Buddhist psychology, meditation, mystical experience internal agency and the idea that the boundaries between minds might be more porous than we first think.
Are you one or many?
Thomas has suggested that psychiatry might benefit from seeing people as “collections of selves within larger selves”. He sees functional neurological disorder as particularly suggestive: a limb, perceptual system or bodily process may appear to act against the intentions of the person as a whole. He has also wondered whether intrusive thoughts and hallucinated voices could indicate forms of local agency.
In this dialogue, Tom and Bernardo will explore what biological mechanisms do and do not explain about experience; whether the self is one thing or many; how we distinguish spiritual insight from psychosis; and what happens when the boundaries of mind and reality become less stable than they appear.
- How can psychiatry inform idealism and what are the clinical implications?
- How do the immunological self, psychological self & bodily self interact?
- Could the boundaries between minds be more porous than we think?
- Why AI seems to mediate ego inflation rather than ego dissolution
About Dr. Thomas Pollak
Dr Thomas Pollak is a psychiatrist and researcher at King’s College London who works at the meeting point of the immune system, the brain and mental health. He is Reader in Immunopsychiatry at King’s and an Honorary Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
His research focuses particularly on autoimmune encephalitis and on identifying cases of psychosis that may have an autoimmune cause. He co-runs a specialist clinic for people with suspected autoimmune disorders affecting the brain, and led an international group that developed criteria to help clinicians recognise and manage psychosis of suspected autoimmune origin.
Tom trained in psychology, medicine, psychiatry and neurology. His wider interests include functional neurological disorders, long COVID, patients’ lived experience, meditation and contemplative practices, and the effects of artificial intelligence on belief and mental health. A long-term student of Buddhist meditation, he also writes about the borderlands between medicine, science, philosophy and spirituality.
