Conceptual Metaphor Theory: The ship for all seasons

There are some articles online by Lakoff, that pertain to the Conceptual Metaphor theory and are a must read for anyone intrigued by that figure of speech called Metaphor. For a layman, Metaphor is when a literal reading of a sentence/phrase has to be abandoned and the utterance understood 'figuratively'. This definition may be more appropriate to the Novel metaphors / image metaphors that rely more on conjuring up image-schemas to make sense. The 'figure of speech' or 'figurative speech' descriptions may themselves be part of the conventional metaphor "LANGUAGE IS DEPICTION" and are explained by mappings between language: an abstract target domain being mapped to a more concrete source domain of (cave art) symbolic depictions/illustrations. While some concepts would be represented by symbols in the source domain of art representation, others would be not be representational, but based on form of figure would be equivalent to actual physical objects (hieroglyphics). Thus, the very definition of (novel) metaphor is grounded in Conceptual metaphor theory.


Lets us start with an example of metaphorical mapping given by Lakoff: " LOVE IS A JOURNEY" with the metaphorical mapping deconstructed as (emphasis mine)

-The lovers correspond to travelers.

-The love relationship corresponds to the vehicle.

-The lovers' common goals correspond to their common destinations on the journey.

-Difficulties in the relationship correspond to impediments to travel.

Although I would have preferred to frame the "LOVE IS A JOURNEY" AS "LOVE IS A VOYAGE (OF DISCOVERY)" so as to remove the burden of having a well defined destination as a goal for the journey by a relatively carefree discovery (about each other) as the destination/goal of Love, yet, in keeping with the "LOVE IS JOURNEY" metaphor it is instructive to note that the VEHICLE (of source domain) is mapped to relationship (of target domain) and the word relationship contains "ship" a popular vehicle for traversing difficult terrains like the sea. More interestingly, many similar associated words like friendship, courtship, companionship too have the word 'ship' embedded in them.

To elaborate, while "relationship" to "vehicle" mapping is present in the "LOVE IS JOURNEY" metaphor, the mapping is of superordinates in the sense that the "VEHICLE" itself is abstract and can be a ship, a car, a boat; also while Lakoff doesn't mention this, the relationship can be substituted by companionship/ friendship in case of some other related metaphors like "FRIENDSHIP IS A JOURNEY". What Lakoff does discuss is some sort of inheritance hierarchy whereby the structure of a base metaphorical mapping like "PURPOSIVE LIFE IS A JOURNEY" is inherited by a derived metaphors like "LOVE (LIFE OF TWO) IS A JOURNEY" or "CAREER (upward purposive) IS A JOURNEY".

To have more clarity on the 'conceptual' part of the conceptual metaphor theory consider metaphors that we normally use for some concepts like time (already discussed earlier in one of the posts), quantity, quality, category etc.

The first of these semantic concepts is "CLASSICAL CATEGORIES ARE CONTAINERS" metaphor. Here, an item (object) can be either 'in' a category (container) or outside of that category( container). Of course a third possibility exists that the item "is and is not" in that category(is on the surface of the container), but this is not discussed by Lakoff.

The other mappings like "QUANTITY" of an object is spatial direction "UP" is based on the 3-D internal representation of Cartesian space and relies on our commonsense concrete observations like a pile grows in upward direction when more quantity is added, or that a fluid in a container rises up when more liquid is poured in. Thus we have statements like 'the crime graph soared up while the economy dwindled.'

The "QUALITY" of an object (or linear scales measuring it) is a "PATH" metaphor, again uses the underlying structure of path whereby the movement is in front direction (possibly radial direction) direction and is based on the fact that distance in the radial direction is equivalent to more or less of a quality. Thus, statements like 'in terms of Intelligence he is way ahead of you'. It is interesting to note that PATH metaphors rely on angular geometry concept (with the travelers or subjective origin) always present implicitly in the metaphor.

Another interesting metaphor is the underlying structure mapping time. Hereby, "TIME IS MOTION" (OF AN OBJECT/ OF A SUBJECT THOROUGH A LANDSCAPE).

Of the first of these dual Time metaphors exhibiting duality of object/landscape, time is motion of object assumes that Future Time is (someone/thing personified) coming towards us and past time is receding from us. This leads to expressions like The time will come when... The time has long since gone when ... The time for action has arrived. That time is here. In the weeks following next Tuesday.... On the preceding day, ... I'm looking ahead to Christmas. Thanksgiving is coming up on us. Let's put all that behind us. I can't face the future. Time is flying by. The time has passed when etc

It is instructive to note that Aymara have a reverse metaphor , whereby their backs are towards future. Logically this makes more sense as FUTURE is not visible to us (unless we have good predictive powers ) and so should come from behind us and surprise us, while past is there for us to see till eternity and should be in front of us. Anyway, this metaphor representation too represents the TIME as linear motion. What is more interesting concept is that of time as circular (and thus periodic/ rhythmic) Motion. The interesting metaphor here would be standing close to a merry go round and watching events flow past oneself. Here too differences can arise based on whether one is watching things in counter-clockwise motion or clockwise motion. Interesting to note that many concepts related t time are circular(spherical/ rhythmic) in nature and even concepts of clockwise rely on concept of clock/time.

The other metaphor for time is TIME AS MOTION OVER A LANDSCAPE. This I believe is no different from first one,except in the sense that it relies more heavily on "NO MOTION" . Thus when the passage of time does not lead to any noticeable changes (CHANGE IS MOTION), then one may be apt to treat the time as a location. The examples given corroborate this.

• He stayed there for ten years.
• He stayed there a long time.
• His stay in Russia extended over many years.
• He passed the time happily.
• I'll be there in a minute.

Even the last example illustrates that not much will happen in the 'minute' and thus minute is exemplified as a location/container.

A very important metaphorical mapping discussed is of EVENT structure.
The EVENT domain is mapped to basic concrete domains of space, motion and forces.
Here,

1. States are locations (bounded regions in space).
2. Changes are movements (into or out of bounded regions).
3. Causes are forces.
4. Actions are self-propelled movements.
5. Purposes are destinations.
6. Means are paths (to destinations).
7. Difficulties are impediments to motion.
8. Expected progress is a travel schedule; a schedule is a virtual traveler, who reaches pre-arranged destinations at pre-arranged times.
9. External events are large, moving objects.
10. Long term, purposeful activities are journeys

I would like to distribute this in my 8-fold path with the first five of these describe the event in terms of the entities involved. The next 3 in terms of the context or environment in which the event happens.

1. States are confinements of space.
2. Changes are movements
3. Causes attributed are underlying forces amongst the objects/ force field.
4. Outward Observable Actions are equivalent to self-propelled motion with no observable external cause
5. Purpose or reason for the event is mapped to there being destinations or goals.
6. Means used to achieve the event-happening is mapped to there being paths (multiple) for the purported destination and choosing of one path over others.
7. There are 3 factors affecting outcome when one means(path) is chosen- difficulties mapped to impediments to motion in the path; subjective assessment of progress mapped to scheduled milestones in the path; and unpredictable and outside control other (synchronous) events mapped to external large moving bodies ( that may curve the time space). It also interesting to note that large , moving objects are conceptualized in terms of Things, Fluids and Horses ( in the last of which balance is required to control the motion).
   
8. Finally, The events that are meaningful (have purpose and right means etc) and are extended are equated to Journeys or voyages though time-space.

Lakoff also maps this event structure to duality of object-location whereby events may be attributes possessed or happening in a location (space time). Thus, one can either be 'in trouble' or 'have trouble'. In the former case one is conceptualizing the event (trouble) as being confinement in some space-time that is associated with trouble. In the latter, one is conceptualizing trouble as a possession or attribute that one has.
In my view the right framing is one that uses location metaphors as that is more related to paths, journeys etc. rather than object metaphors which necessarily signify events (even related to other persons) as objects of gratification.

While time is sometimes personified while doing CMT, another interesting case is that of DEATH usually personified as a drivers etc. This bodes well with other metaphors like BODY being a VEHICLE/CONTAINER for traversing this sea of life and transcending to other other end. The death personified serves as a driver taking one from life domain to the other transcendental domain. No surprise in MATRIX revolutions, Sati meets NEO while the DEATH driver for the train is coming to take NEO to the underworld (of death).

Before closing would like to add a few notes on poetical metaphor or Novel metaphor (which will deserve their own posting). I believe they involve conjuring of actual images in the mind to work and are slightly different from conventional metaphor. They may in time become entrenched and lead to conventional metaphor.

Before closing I would like to point to one previous post on this blog, whereby just like " NATION is A SHIP" metaphor , I compare a COMPANY to a RIVER-RAFT.
Also , In my earlier poems I have been heavily using metaphors like COURTSHIP is LIKE FISHING and GROUP OF FRIENDS IS like a SHIP.

Finally, here is a list of some common metaphors outlined by Lakoff.

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Metaphors, Framing, Lakoff/Chomsky

There is a wealth of interesting posts related to Metaphors on Mixing memory retrospective section. I have discussed conceptual metaphor theory and how that relates to time-space perception earlier.

In the Metaphor related posts, Mixing Memory discusses the 2 main theories for explaining metaphors, the structural mapping and the attributive categorization theories and leaves the third theory related to cognitive linguistic approaches because of Mixing Memories long-time disagreements with the proponent of that George Lakoff:-)

Lakoff/Chomsky stand out as they believe in things like linguistic framing and how that relates to propaganda and have taken political activism related to the same.

While I will be addressing framing and the cognitive linguistic view of conceptual metaphors in a subsequent post, there is a recent Science Daily article reporting on another type of framing- Framing of economic statements in terms of either gains or losses and thereby by invoking the risk-averse cognitive structures leading to different behavioral outcomes, when game theory and mathematical probabilistic behavior would have predicted a same response. In a nutshell, if questions are framed such that out of 50$ I have, I would either have the option of keeping 20 $ for sure or 40% probability of keeping the whole amount (and 60 % probability of losing the whole amount), then my responses of whether I take the gamble or stay with assured amount would be different if the question was framed as I would lose 30 $ for sure or have a 40% probability of keeping the whole amount. In the latter situation, the mere use of word like 'lose' is sufficiently powerful to make one averse to that situation and thus wager for the second option viz. of 40% chance of retaining the whole amount.

This is just one example, but many game theoretic experiments are accumulating evidence that framing is important and has real economic consequences.

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Synapse Vol 1, issue 4 now online

Synapse Vol 1, issue 4 is now online and is hosted at the Neurotopia 2.0.

An excellent article, that made it to this edition of synapse, is a post from A Blog Around the Clock, titled Compared to your pet iguana, you are practically blind , It focuses on the photo pigments present in different mammals and vertebrates. Those who found one of my previous posts (and outgoing links from it) titled 4 cone vision related to different pigments in humans and birds, would definitely find this post useful.

Another excellent article, from Pure Pedantry, discusses the new theory of how AKT signalling (and Parkin ubiquitin) mediated prognosis may explain the typical neuronal loss in Substantia Nigra area found in Parkinsonian patients.

The Neurocritic joins hands with me in criticizing the anti-psychiatry psuedosceince of PLoS. Regular readers would recall that I have crirtcised the same study cited earlier on this blog.

Apart from two of the posts from this blog, other interesting posts featured in the carnival include an update on the latest brain-machine interfaces in the form of MEAs from the Neurophilosopher; and reports on how Iraqi combat situation affected the soldiers posted there from the Mind Hacks.

Have a happy reading.

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The power assumption : Do we really want to be the alpha males?

BPS research digest has just published some articles and one of the article that seemed to catch attention was related to pursuit of power. As per this, game theoretical experiments have demonstrated that, if given a choice, we would like to have more power over ourselves and our behaviors, than over others behaviors. This seems to be a groundbreaking study, that posits that in the dimension of power we are more motivated by being masters of ourselves than being an alpha male and dictating terms for others.

In other words, they believe we're driven to increase our 'personal power' over
ourselves, but not necessarily our 'social power' over others.

In another post on BPS related to the brain centers engaged during eyes closed and eyes open situation in a dark room, it is posited that in the dark room condition, eyes open leads to an 'exteroceptive' state characterized by attention and oculomotor activity while eyes closed corresponds to an an 'interoceptive' state characterized by imagination and multi sensory activity. Here it is claimed that in eyes closed scenario, imagination and corresponding sensory activation are utilized. This seems to be counterintuitive, as in a dark room, with eyes open, we should be paying more attention to any threatening stimuli- why this does not lead to greater sensory acuity in visual/auditory senses needs explanation. In the eyes open, one could hopefully relax and indulge in night-dreaming.

What would be the brain activations in the closed eye and open eye conditions in a brightly lit room? Would that mean that different systems kick in, not only during eyes open and closed conditions, but also in night/day conditions?

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Down in the dumps: time to pop the sleeping pill?

A recent article on depression, in the latest issue of open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine, seems to suggest that the current disease-based model of depression should be replaced by a drug-based model and to treat particular symptoms like sleep deprivation it may be better to administer sedatives like benzodiazepine.

Taking a drug-centred approach to the treatment of depression, we would conclude that no presently known effects of any drugs, including antidepressants, are likely to do more good than harm in the long term. In the short term, sedative effects of drugs may help people who are acutely anxious, highly aroused, or have difficulty sleeping. The common practice of prescribing short-term, low-dose sedative TCAs, for which general practitioners have frequently been criticised, may therefore be a rational one. Similarly, short-term benzodiazepine prescribing may occasionally be justified, bearing in mind the problem of dependency.

To me this seems to be an overkill and a case of throwing the baby with the bath-tub.

While the premise that SSRI's are not the panacea-for-depression-and-are-not-god-sent-for-the-specific-purpose-of-treating-depression is attractive, the alternative pitted against this that Depression is not a 'disease' and is not 'biological' in nature is hardly tenable.

There have been studies linking the hereditary aspects of depression (and more so of psychotic diseases like Schizophrenia), both based on twin studies and clustering amongst relatives (or running in families). Genetic studies are on-going to identify the underlying genes or 'diathesis' and just like Diathesis-stress model of Schizophrenia, a similar model is proposed for Depression.

Moreover, research is now focused on identifying endophenotypes of depression like sleep-disturbance and linking it to genes/ environmental stressors.

In the PLoS medicine article, many of the arguments are specious and I will try to address them.

1. Monoamine hypothesis.

Independent evidence has not confirmed that there is a monoamine abnormality in depression. For example, the findings of brain imaging studies of serotonin abnormality are contradictory. Some found reduced serotonin 1A receptor binding in drug-free patients who were depressed, consistent with the hypothesis that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) improve depression by correcting a deficiency of serotonin activity [4,5]. Other studies, however, have found no difference between patients who are drug-free and controls [6,7] or increased binding potential in depressed patients [7,8]. Postmortem findings of receptor changes in the brains of people who committed suicide have also been inconsistent [9–11]. In some studies, with patients who had recovered from depression, a tryptophan depletion challenge led to a transient increase in depressive symptoms. However, these results have not been confirmed in volunteer studies [12], and the effect appears to be dependent on previous SSRI use [13].

Granted that studies are still inconclusive about how exactly the SSRIs work and whether other neurotransmitters/neuromodulators apart from sertonin are also involved, but it is instructive to note that neurotransmitters/modulators may work differently in different brain regions and may have paradoxical activation profiles in different regions. While Schizophrenia is generally thought to be due to over-activity of Dopamine and Prakinsonism due to under-activity, more informed experts know that in both there is not global excess / deficiency but it is localized in one region (say increase in the reward circuit, while decreasee in some other region) . Thus, the global deficiency-of-sertoninn hypothesis may be, and in my opinion is, wrong; yet the depressive symptoms and the 'disease' depression is a fairly clustered set of symptoms that have a biological origin and are either due to chemical imbalances or defective processing/ networking of brain channels.

There are many compelling theories of depression including an evolutionary one based on 'social-negotiation-hypothesis' or a cognitive one based on 'learned helplessness' and may include diverse mechanisms like invocation of an evolutionary-no-more-relevant-module-and-corresponding-mechanisms/adaptations-that-were-once-suitable, to changing-cognitive-schema-based-on-some-past-failures-and-now-no-more-exploring-to-find-if-the-schema-is-still-relevant mechanisms.

But all explanations will ultimately rely on biology for manifesting into stable symptom clusters. And this may be mediated by changes in the opponent-process mechanism of some emotions or motivational activities like exploration/hunger or rest and relaxation set-points mediated in turn by gated inputs, where the gates may be in the form of neurotransmitter levels and activities. Refer to my earlier postings on opponent-process mecahnisms in relation to color vision.

2. Depression rating scales

These scales contain items that are not specific to depression, including sleeping difficulties, anxiety, agitation, and somatic complaints. These symptoms are likely to respond to the nonspecific sedative effects that occur with most tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and some other antidepressants. Hence, changes in rating scale scores may merely reflect drug-induced effects

Sleep difficulties/ somatic complains may not be specific to depression in the sense that they may manifest in situations that are not necessarily due to clinical depression; but that does not prove that they are not relevant as salient depression symptoms. If a drug reduces scores on these dimensions it is definitely helping to relive the symptoms of depression.

3. Animal models of depression

These models, which usually involve biochemical orbehaviorall processes thought to mimic aspects of depression in humans, do not select antidepressants reliably but produce numerous “false positives” with other drugs, including stimulants, opiates, and neuroleptics. They also produce some “false negatives” with supposed antidepressant drugs [15].

Animal models of any human psychological condition is still an oxymoron as animals cannot exhibit the complex psychological mechanisms and symptoms that humans can. "Depressed" mouse may just be some mouse with Sertonin related genes knocked out. These mya be good to study the particular endophenotype like effect of sertonin-on-sleep-cycle, but not to totality of depressive symptoms.

4. Antidepressants versus other drugs

Many drugs not normally considered to be antidepressants show comparable effects to antidepressants when given to patients who are depressed in some randomised controlled trials (RCTs) [1,16]. These include benzodiazepines [17], opiates [18], buspirone [19], stimulants [20], reserpine, and other antipsychotics [21].

This may question the crowning of SSRIs as depressants but have nothing to say about depression being disease-based or drug based.

5. Healthy volunteer studies

The fact that antidepressants do not appear to elevate mood in healthy volunteers [22–26] might suggest that they have a disease-specific action. However, because of the nature of depression rating scales (as explained above), it is unclear that antidepressants specifically affect mood in patients who are depressed. Any effect they have over and above placebo may also be attributable to an “amplified” placebo response (see below). Although there are some reports of improved sleep in patients with depression who are given SSRIs versus volunteers' reports of decreased sleep when given SSRIs [27], in general, side effects in patient studies are consistent with effects on volunteers. For example, TCAs show sedation and cognitive impairment [28,29], while SSRIs show gastrointestinal upset and drowsiness, both in patients and in healthy volunteers [22].

It is clear from above that SSRI's do have very specific effect on mood when depressed and the drug action on volunteers (lets leave the side-effects aside for a moment) is not the same -viz elevating mood or restoring sleep-cycles - as in the diseased persons. This fits well with opponent process and set-point hypothesis whereby if the underlying chemical is increased beyond normal levels it does not necessarily lead to increase in primary affect.

6. Outcome of depression

There is little evidence outside RCTs that the long- or short-term outcome of depression is changing as a consequence of antidepressant use. Recent sharp increases in antidepressant use have been accompanied by increased prevalence and duration of depressive episodes [30] and rising levels of sickness absence [31]. Naturalistic studies have also shown that depressive episodes are more frequent and last longer among antidepressant users than among nonusers [30] and that sickness absence is more prolonged [32], although severity is likely to explain some of this effect (i.e., it is likely that patients are on antidepressant drugs because they have more severe disease). Follow-up studies of people treated for depression indicate high levels of nonrecovery or relapse [33–35].

The argument is like that if you once recover from viral fever using an antibiotic and on same later day relapse to viral fever again, then the viral fever is not a biological disease. Granted that better methods like CBT/psychotherapy alongwith medication and changes to socio-environments (to reduce stressors) is required to prevent relapse, but relapse is hardly an argument against a 'disease' model.

Overall, the ideological rooting of the author in not treating depression/ mental illness as physical phenomenon has resulted in a research that is highly provocative and ignores many other accumulated literature. I too do not side with the Drug companies and am aware of their wrong tactics, but that should not be a reason to take extreme positions that are not viable.

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The importance of being Earnest

While many may concur with Shakespeare that 'what is called Rose would smell as sweet by any other name', yet some Cornell researchers have just published a finding whereby if Rose's substitute was not a 'typical' noun, then though it may smell the same, but would take longer to pronounce.

As per this study claiming association between the figure of speech and phonological composition of a word, verbs and nouns have different phonological properties and for atypical nouns and verbs, it takes longer to pronounce them or read them.


As this is a seed magazine article, I'm sure that this would be picked up by many other fellow Science bloggers. What the article does not mention is whether the results have been obtained for one language only (English) or are generalized. Also how does this relate to observations that one is able to find word boundaries in a speech which is from a foreign language?

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Eve's Lasting Legacy: The Serpent and The Apple

As per a recent scholarly article it seems that mammalian evolution may have been driven by the predatory presence of snakes. While some mammals adapted by becoming better snake sniffers, others developed immunities to serpent venom; while in the case of humans, the primates developed a good visual system to detect the snakes.

The other factor that drove human evolution (and hastened descent from the garden of eden after falling prey to serpent's designs :-) ) was the fact that anthropoid ate fruits (substitute apples :-) ) and this frugivorus eating habit endowed them with enough-glucose-availability-in-the-brain to act as a pre-adaptation necessary to the evolution of brain matter required for visual acuity needed to detect snakes and take appropriate action.

Fox news has an excellent article on the same which is a needed reading before one can try to appreciate the excellent coverage of the same done by John Hawks.

I'll try to summarize the arguments.

1. It is common knowledge that runaway arms-race between predators and preys lead to selective development of traits in a particular direction. For eg, the great cats and the antelopes, both developed systems for high speed chase and run-away and thus some of the fastest runners are either predators; like leopards or preys like the antelopes. What food (and energy one gets from it) also ensures who outnumbers whom in the arms race (the tiger wins!). The responses may not be symmetric, while Great Cats may develop claws and teethes, the antelope may develop antler ( though antler evolved more as species specific displays to attract opposite sex).

2. Snakes are one of the predatory species for mammals. Earlier snakes relied on Boa constriction method to kill the preys, but evolved venom about 60 mn years ago as their second weapon. Mammals reacted by either detecting them (in close range) by sniffing, or developing venom resistance etc.

3. Primates leading to Humans reacted by detecting motion (via MT and other motion detecting brain areas), color and other relevant visual stimuli to predict and detect the snake's presence at close ranges and take appropriate areas.

4. The increased encephalisation (dependent on processing of more visual stimulus and reacting to it) was dependent on a previous adaptation related to fruit eating and abundant availability of glucose in brain.

5. The features of human vision like orbital convergence (leading to depth perception and 3D vision) are tuned for such snake -detection mechanisms.

6. The koniocellular pathway is crucially involved (among other tasks) in pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli, including snakes and the evolution of this system points to snake-primate arms race pressures and how the primates adapted.

7. The Parvocellular pathway is also implicated in the study (as details and color are important for snake detection). Although the magnocellular is not , but I believe movement is also very crucial as snakes have a typical motion.

Lastly, while the analogy of the snake and the apple is quite relevant in the Christian mythology context, the snake is a revered creature in many mythologies (dragon in Chinese for example) and we in India celebrated Naag Panchami - a day when snakes are fed milk- a couple of days back.

Some parting notes:

1. In experiments with monkeys and humans it has become apparent that we have specialized fear associations for snakes. For example a young monkey, which sees another monkey as reacting in a frightened manner to say a plastic snake, would by even a singular exposure to such a display of fear, clear to have fearful associations with say the plastic snake. This association can be even when the observed behavior is seen on TV (and is recorded and not happening in real-time) Like the disgust reactions and avoidance-of-just-before-taken-food in response to a single vomit, it seems the avoidance learning for snakes is also built-in and can be triggered even by one exposure and by observational learning. Thus, there is strong evidence that we have specialized circuits for responding to snakes. It makes merit to assume that we should have for detecting too.

2. In Indian philosophy, one perennial question, focused on differentiating reality from illusion is differentiating snake for the rope. the rope in dark gives illusion of a snake, but we need to enhance our perceptions and awareness to realize that the fear of the snake is illusory and that the feared object is only a rope. This example, which is in ancient texts, is evidence of the importance of snake detection from prehistoric times.

Endgame: Can one identify from which book this drawing of boa constrictor and elephant is inspired?

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The Cognitive Neuroscience Arena

I recently came across the Cognitive Neuroscience Arena . The Cognitive Neuroscience Arena provides researchers, instructors and students in Cognitive Neuroscience with information on the range of journals and books produced by Psychology Press and Routledge.

I am sure this would prove to be of great service to the CogSci enthusiasts. I, myself, have been avid readers of Routledge classics (Psychology section) like Man for Himself, A sketch for a theory of emotions, Totem and Taboo etc. and in the new titles listed there I could find some to add to my wish list ( like Environment Perception and Cognitive Maps ).

The site also has introductory lectures on Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, so should be a good guide for the newbies to the field.

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