Psychoneurology without esoterica: how the nervous system works and how the "I" is born
The "Psychiatry of One Life" series · Andris Saulitis, M.D.
About the source of this material. All of the source, original material in this book is exclusively my own authorship. This is easy to verify: for years it has been laid out publicly in my streams and videos on social media, above all on YouTube — more than 1,000 streams and over 3,000 videos. This book is not a retelling of someone else's work and not a compilation from the internet: it is that same authorial material, brought — for the reader's convenience — into a digestible, readable form. That is the more honest way, and that way you can check it.
Introduction. How an "I" is born out of a kilo and a half of tissue
Inside your skull there is about a kilogram and a half of moist tissue — the most complex thing science knows of in the entire observable Universe. And that tissue is, right now, reading about itself. Pause for a second and take in the audacity of the moment: matter that has become aware of its own existence. That is where this book begins — and that is why the first book, out of which it grew, carried a deliberately provocative theme: how to become a god. Not in a mystical sense. In the most literal, neurophysiological one: the human being has an organ that gave him a power no one else on the planet has — the power to be aware, to choose, and to rebuild himself.
Let me say it straight away and without false modesty, because science is science. I am a psychiatrist, M.D., with 40 years of practice, more than 20,000 clinical examinations, and thousands of completed courses of therapy. My whole life I have worked with this organ in its most extreme states — from disintegration to the highest clarity. And I wrote this book because I am convinced: you cannot master yourself without understanding what you are made of.
Why you need to know how the brain is built
In the first book of the series — The Reader — I gave you an instrument, the Method of Three Pencils. But an instrument works better in the hands of someone who understands the mechanism. This book is about the mechanism. About how a neuron gives birth to a thought, how an emotion grows out of a reflex, where fear comes from, why anxiety is felt in the body, and — most importantly — why the brain can be rebuilt. This is not abstract theory. It is a map of the terrain you live in every second.
Write to me personally. Through the vitamodo.store system you can write to me directly — with a question about how the brain works, with your own condition, with disagreement. I am a physician, and I answer. I keep this door open through the whole book, and I will remind you of it wherever I explain something.
Whom it is addressed to — and why precisely them
As with this entire series, I am writing it also for those who create artificial intelligence, and for those who want to devote their lives to education. And here that address is even more direct than in the other books: you are building systems in the image and likeness of the brain — neural networks, learning, memory. So get to know the original. Forty years of clinical observation of a living nervous system — that is data found in no dataset. I am speaking also to those who create systems like Claude: we are studying one and the same miracle from two sides — you from the outside, from the code, I from the inside, from the consulting room. I extend my hand. Take this clinical material as a foundation for more precise decisions.
Write to me personally. Are you building AI or education and want a clinical view of how a real nervous system works? Write through vitamodo.store, directly to the author.
An honest bargain: where it is science, and where it is the frontier
I promise you psychoneurology without esoterica — but honesty requires a bargain. Part of what we will discuss is firmly established science: the neuron, the reflex, neuroplasticity, epigenetics. And part is the frontier — bold hypotheses about the nature of consciousness, where science still argues: quantum effects in neurons, holographic models, the role of psychedelics. I will not pass one off as the other. Where the ground is solid, I will say "this is established." Where it is a hypothesis, I will say "this is the frontier, and here is what we do not yet know." Boldness of thought and honesty about its status are not enemies. That is the only way real science is done.
How to read this book
The book moves from the simple to the limit: Part I — how the brain is built (the neuron, emotion, plasticity); Part II — how fear, anxiety, and disorders are born (mechanisms according to Anokhin, Ukhtomsky, Bleuler); Part III — the border of science: consciousness, "god," and transformation. If you want only the practical basis, read Parts I and II. If you are drawn to the limit, Part III is yours.
Write to me personally. Any question about the introduction — through vitamodo.store, directly. I am a psychiatrist, 40 years of practice, and I mean this seriously.