We could almost say that “a living being is a memory that acts.” A third brain is added to the first two: the cerebral cortex. In humans it has developed considerably and is called the association cortex. What does this mean? It means that this third brain associates

the underlying neural pathways, which bear the trace of past experiences, and combines them differently from the way they were imprinted by the environment at the time of the experience itself. Humans, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that is, are able to create, to generate imaginary processes. [...] So, these are our three brains. The first two PD173074 in vivo operate unconsciously – we do not know what they have us do. These are the instinctive urges, cultural reflexes. The third brain gives us an explanatory language, which always provides an excuse, an alibi, for the unconscious functioning of the first two brains. [...] One can distinguish four main types of behaviors. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The first is the behavior

of consumption, that satisfies basic needs. The second is a behavior of gratification—when we experience an action that yields Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pleasure, we try to repeat it. The third is a behavior in response to punishment, either by flight to avoid it or by fight to destroy the source of aggression. The last is a behavior of inhibition: no movement, tense waiting, rising anxiety. Anxiety marks the impossibility of mastering a situation. [...] When two individuals have different plans or the same plan and compete to carry it out, there is a winner and a loser. One of the individuals becomes dominant over the other. Seeking dominance, in a space one can call the territory, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is the fundamental basis of all human behaviors, the motivation of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this being wholly unconscious. So there is no property instinct; nor is there a dominance instinct. There is simply the process whereby, through the nervous system, the individual learns to keep for himself an object or a being that is also wanted, coveted by another being. And the

individual knows, through this learning process, that in this competitive situation if he wants to hold onto the object or being, he must dominate. [...] Through language humans have been able to transmit from generation to generation Histone demethylase all the experience they have acquired over millennia [...] In other words, our instinctive urges and our cultural reflexes will be masked by language, by a logical argument. Language therefore helps hide the cause of dominance, the underlying mechanisms, and the establishment of dominance. It makes the individual believe that by working for the common good he will experience his own pleasure. Whereas, in general, all he does is to maintain hierarchical situations that are obscured by linguistic alibis, which in a way serve him as an excuse. [...] Among humans, social laws generally proscribe defensive violence.