Nicholas Humphrey
Encyclopedia
Professor Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 1943) is an English psychologist, based in Cambridge, who is known for his work on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness. His interests are wide ranging. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey
in Rwanda, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of "blindsight
" after brain damage in monkeys, he proposed the celebrated theory of the “social function of intellect” and he is the only scientist ever to edit the literary journal Granta
.
Humphrey played a significant role in the anti-nuclear movement in the late 1970s and delivered the BBC Bronowski memorial lecture titled "Four Minutes to Midnight" in 1981.
His ten books include Consciousness Regained, The Inner Eye, A History of the Mind, Leaps of Faith, The Mind Made Flesh, Seeing Red, and Soul Dust. He has been the recipient of several honours, including the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, the Pufendorf medal and the British Psychological Society’s book award.
He has been Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford, Assistant Director of the Subdepartment of Animal Behaviour at Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow in Parapsychology at Cambridge, Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research, New York, and School Professor at the London School of Economics.
and his wife Janet Humphrey (née Hill), daughter of the Nobel Prize winning physiologist Archibald Hill
. His great uncle was the economist John Maynard Keynes
. He married Caroline Waddington
, daughter of C. H. Waddington in 1967 (divorced 1977). From 1977 to 1984 he was the partner of the English actress Susannah York
. He married Ayla Kohn in 1994.
(1956-61), and Trinity College
, Cambridge (1961-67).
His doctoral research at Cambridge, supervised by Lawrence Weiskrantz
, was on the neuropsychology of vision in primates. He made the first single cell recordings from the superior colliculus of monkeys, and discovered the existence of a previously unsuspected capacity for vision after total lesions of the striate cortex (a capacity which, when it was later confirmed in human beings, came to be called "blindsight
").
On moving to Oxford, he turned his attention to evolutionary aesthetics. He did research on monkey visual preferences (especially colour preferences) and wrote an essay “The Illusion of beauty”, which, as a radio broadcast, won the Glaxo Science Writers Prize in 1980.
, who invited him to spend three months at her gorilla study camp in Rwanda. His experience with the gorillas, and a subsequent visit to Richard Leakey
’s field-site on Lake Turkana, set Humphrey thinking about how cognitive skills – intelligence and consciousness – could have arisen as an adaption to social life. In 1975 he wrote an essay titled "The Social Function of Intellect", which is widely regarded as one of the foundational works of evolutionary psychology
and the basis for Machiavellian intelligence
theory. This paper formed the basis of his first book Consciousness Regained: Chapters in the Development of Mind (1983).
In 1984 Humphrey left his academic post at Cambridge to work on his Channel 4 television series "The Inner Eye" on the development of the human mind. This series was finished in 1986 with the release of a book of the same name.
In 1987, Daniel Dennett
invited Humphrey to work with him at his Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. They worked on developing an empirically based theory of consciousness, and undertook a study on Multiple Personality Disorder
.
Humphrey’s next book A History of the Mind(1992) put forward a theory on how consciousness as feeling rather than thinking may have evolved. This book won the inaugural British Psychological Society's annual Book of the Year Award in 1993.
His writings on consciousness continued in “The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Evolution and Psychology” (2002), Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness (2006), and most recently Soul Dust: the Magic of Consciousness (2011). In this last book he puts forward a radical new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage inside our own heads – a show that paves the way for spirituality, and allows us to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what he calls the “soul niche.”
In 1992, Humphrey was appointed to a Senior Research Fellowship at Darwin College, Cambridge funded by the Perrott-Warwick Fellowship in parapsychology. He undertook a skeptical study of parapsychological phenomena such as extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis, resulting in his book Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief (1995) (in America this book was published under the title Leaps of Faith).
Humphrey has worked on a number of TV and radio documentaries as well as "The Inner Eye". The topics range from the psychology of paranormal belief to the psycho-history of mediaeval animal trials.
In 2005, he visited the Ulas family of human quadrupeds in southern Turkey and published a report on them with John Skoyles
and Roger Keynes. A documentary "The Family That Walks On All Fours" based on this visit was broadcast on BBC2 in March 2006, and on NOVA in November 2006.
Over the last ten years Humphrey has been investigating the placebo effect
, and has put forward a novel theory of what he calls the "health management system
" through which the brain has top-down control over the body’s healing resources.
He has recently become an Advisor to the BMW Guggenheim Lab
.
Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey was an American zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorilla groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey...
in Rwanda, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of "blindsight
Blindsight
Blindsight is a phenomenon in which people who are perceptually blind in a certain area of their visual field demonstrate some response to visual stimuli...
" after brain damage in monkeys, he proposed the celebrated theory of the “social function of intellect” and he is the only scientist ever to edit the literary journal Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
.
Humphrey played a significant role in the anti-nuclear movement in the late 1970s and delivered the BBC Bronowski memorial lecture titled "Four Minutes to Midnight" in 1981.
His ten books include Consciousness Regained, The Inner Eye, A History of the Mind, Leaps of Faith, The Mind Made Flesh, Seeing Red, and Soul Dust. He has been the recipient of several honours, including the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, the Pufendorf medal and the British Psychological Society’s book award.
He has been Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford, Assistant Director of the Subdepartment of Animal Behaviour at Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow in Parapsychology at Cambridge, Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research, New York, and School Professor at the London School of Economics.
Family
Humphrey is the son of the immunologist John H. HumphreyJohn H. Humphrey
John Herbert Humphrey CBE FRS FRCP was a British bacteriologist and immunologist.Educated at Winchester School, and Trinity College, Cambridge. There he met his wife Janet, the daughter of Nobel-prize winning physiologist Archibald Hill...
and his wife Janet Humphrey (née Hill), daughter of the Nobel Prize winning physiologist Archibald Hill
Archibald Hill
Archibald Vivian Hill CH OBE FRS was an English physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research...
. His great uncle was the economist John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
. He married Caroline Waddington
Caroline Humphrey
Professor Dame Caroline Humphrey, Lady Rees of Ludlow DBE, FBA is a British anthropologist. Together with Urgunge Onon she founded the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit in 1986...
, daughter of C. H. Waddington in 1967 (divorced 1977). From 1977 to 1984 he was the partner of the English actress Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
. He married Ayla Kohn in 1994.
Early Career
Nicholas Humphrey was educated at Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
(1956-61), and Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Cambridge (1961-67).
His doctoral research at Cambridge, supervised by Lawrence Weiskrantz
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Lawrence Weiskrantz is a British psychologist, who discovered the phenomenon of blindsight, which is the voluntary visually evoked response to a stimulus presented within a scotoma.-Career:* Part-time Lecturer, Tufts University, 1952...
, was on the neuropsychology of vision in primates. He made the first single cell recordings from the superior colliculus of monkeys, and discovered the existence of a previously unsuspected capacity for vision after total lesions of the striate cortex (a capacity which, when it was later confirmed in human beings, came to be called "blindsight
Blindsight
Blindsight is a phenomenon in which people who are perceptually blind in a certain area of their visual field demonstrate some response to visual stimuli...
").
On moving to Oxford, he turned his attention to evolutionary aesthetics. He did research on monkey visual preferences (especially colour preferences) and wrote an essay “The Illusion of beauty”, which, as a radio broadcast, won the Glaxo Science Writers Prize in 1980.
Work in evolutionary psychology and philosophy of mind
He returned to Cambridge, to the Sub Department of Animal Behaviour in 1970, and there met Dian FosseyDian Fossey
Dian Fossey was an American zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorilla groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey...
, who invited him to spend three months at her gorilla study camp in Rwanda. His experience with the gorillas, and a subsequent visit to Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey is a politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey...
’s field-site on Lake Turkana, set Humphrey thinking about how cognitive skills – intelligence and consciousness – could have arisen as an adaption to social life. In 1975 he wrote an essay titled "The Social Function of Intellect", which is widely regarded as one of the foundational works of evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...
and the basis for Machiavellian intelligence
Machiavellian intelligence
In cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, Machiavellian intelligence is the capacity of an entity to be in a successful political engagement with social groups...
theory. This paper formed the basis of his first book Consciousness Regained: Chapters in the Development of Mind (1983).
In 1984 Humphrey left his academic post at Cambridge to work on his Channel 4 television series "The Inner Eye" on the development of the human mind. This series was finished in 1986 with the release of a book of the same name.
In 1987, Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
invited Humphrey to work with him at his Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. They worked on developing an empirically based theory of consciousness, and undertook a study on Multiple Personality Disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
.
Humphrey’s next book A History of the Mind(1992) put forward a theory on how consciousness as feeling rather than thinking may have evolved. This book won the inaugural British Psychological Society's annual Book of the Year Award in 1993.
His writings on consciousness continued in “The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Evolution and Psychology” (2002), Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness (2006), and most recently Soul Dust: the Magic of Consciousness (2011). In this last book he puts forward a radical new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage inside our own heads – a show that paves the way for spirituality, and allows us to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what he calls the “soul niche.”
Other work
Humphrey became active in the anti-nuclear movement in the late 1970s. This led to an invitation to deliver the Bronowski lecture on the BBC in 1981. He titled his lecture, on the dangers of the arms race, "Four Minutes to Midnight". With Robert Lifton he edited an anthology of writings on war and peace titled In a Dark Time, which was released in 1984 and resulted in him winning the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize.In 1992, Humphrey was appointed to a Senior Research Fellowship at Darwin College, Cambridge funded by the Perrott-Warwick Fellowship in parapsychology. He undertook a skeptical study of parapsychological phenomena such as extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis, resulting in his book Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief (1995) (in America this book was published under the title Leaps of Faith).
Humphrey has worked on a number of TV and radio documentaries as well as "The Inner Eye". The topics range from the psychology of paranormal belief to the psycho-history of mediaeval animal trials.
In 2005, he visited the Ulas family of human quadrupeds in southern Turkey and published a report on them with John Skoyles
John Skoyles
John Skoyles is an American poet and writer.Skoyles has taught at Southern Methodist University, Sarah Lawrence College, Warren Wilson College and Emerson College. He directed the MFA Program at Warren Wilson from 1984 to 1992, and served as Chair of the Emerson College Writing, Literature and...
and Roger Keynes. A documentary "The Family That Walks On All Fours" based on this visit was broadcast on BBC2 in March 2006, and on NOVA in November 2006.
Over the last ten years Humphrey has been investigating the placebo effect
Placebo effect
Placebo effect may refer to:* Placebo effect, the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work...
, and has put forward a novel theory of what he calls the "health management system
Health management system
The health management system is an evolutionary medicine regulative process proposed by Nicholas Humphrey in which actuarial assessment of fitness and economic-type cost-benefit analysis determines the body’s regulation of its physiology and health...
" through which the brain has top-down control over the body’s healing resources.
He has recently become an Advisor to the BMW Guggenheim Lab
BMW Guggenheim Lab
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is an interdisciplinary mobile laboratory that will travel to nine cities over the course of six years. A collaboration between the BMW Group and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Lab is part urban think tank, part community center, and part gathering space, and...
.
Video links
- "Four Minutes to Midnight: the 1981 BBC Bronowski Lecture".
- "Natural Psychologists", Part 2 of The Inner Eye.
- "The Ghost in the Machine", Part 3 of The Inner Eye.
- "Sentimental Education", Part 4 of The Inner Eye.
- "Other People's Dreams", Part 5 of The Inner Eye.
- "Is There Anybody There?".
- "The Pufendorf Lectures 2011".
Journal articles
- ‘’Vision in monkeys after removal of the striate cortex’‘. Nature,215, 515-597, 1967.
- ‘‘Contrast illusions in perspective. Nature, 232, 91- 93, 1971.
- ‘’Interest and pleasure: two determinants of a monkey’s visual preferences’‘ Perception, 1, 395-416, 1972.
- ‘’Status and the left cheek’‘. New Scientist, 59, 437-49, 1973.
- ‘’The illusion of beauty’‘. Perceptio, 2, 429-39, 1973.
- ‘‘Status and the left cheek’‘. New Scientist, 59, 437-439. 1973.
- ‘‘The apparent heaviness of colours’‘. Nature, 250, 164-165, 1974. (With E.Pinkerton).
- ’‘The reaction of monkeys to fearsom pictures’‘. Nature, 251, 500-2, 1974.
- ‘’Vision in a monkey without striate cortex: a case study’‘. Perecption, 3,241-55, 1974.
- ‘’Species and individuals in the perceptual world of monkeys’‘. Perception, 3, 105-14, 1974.
- ‘‘Interactive effects of unpleasant light and unpleasant sound’‘. Nature, 253, 346-347, 1975. (With G.R.Keeble).
- ‘’The colour currency of nature’‘. In Colour for Architecture, ed. T.Porter and B.Mikellides, pp. 95-98, Studio-Vista, London, 1976.
- ‘’How monkeys acquire a new way of seeing’‘. Perception, 5, 51-56, 1976.
- ‘’The social function of intellect’‘. In Growing Points in Ethology, ed. P. P. G. Bateson and R. A. Hinde, pp. 303- 317, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976.
- ‘‘Unfoldings of mental life’’, Science, 196 , 755-756, 1977.
- ‘’Do monkeys subjective clocks run faster in red light than in blue’‘. Perception, 6, 7-14.
- ‘‘Effects of red light and loud noise on the rate at which monkeys sample the sensory environment’’. Perception 7:343-348 1978.
- ‘‘The biological basis of collecting’’. Human Nature 44-47 1979.
- ‘’Natural aesthetics’‘. In Architecture for People, ed. B.Mikellides, pp. 59-73, Studio-Vista, London, 1980.
- ‘‘Nature's Psychologists’’. ; In Josephson, B. DBrian David JosephsonBrian David Josephson, FRS is a Welsh physicist. He became a Nobel Prize laureate in 1973 for the prediction of the eponymous Josephson effect....
. and Ramachandran, V. SVilayanur S. RamachandranVilayanur Subramanian "Rama" Ramachandran, born 1951, is a neuroscientist known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics...
., Eds. Consciousness and the Physical World , chapter 4, 57-80. Oxford: Pergamon Press 1980. - ‘‘Four Minutes to Midnight’’. The BBC Bronowski Lecture, 1981.
- ‘‘Consciousness: a Just-So story’’, New Scientist , 95 473-477, 1982.
- ‘‘The Uses of Consciousness’’. Fifteenth James Arthur Memorial Lecture, 1-25, American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, New York 1987. - ‘’Speaking for our selves: an assessment of multiple personality disorder’‘. Raritan, 9, 68-98.
- ‘‘Varieties of altruism - and the common ground between them’’. Social Research 64:199-209, 1997.
- ‘‘What shall we tell the children?’’ In Williams, Wes, Ed. The Values of Science (The 1997 Oxford Amnesty Lectures)’’ , 58-79. Westview Press, 1998.
- ‘‘Cave art, autism and the evolution of the human mind’‘’’. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8, 165-191, 1998.
- ‘‘Why Grandmothers May Need Large Brains’’. PsycoloquyPsycoloquyPsycoloquy was a refereed international, interdisciplinary open access journal sponsored from 1990-2002 by the American Psychological Association and indexed by APA's PsycINFO and the Institute for Scientific Information....
10(024), 1999. - ‘‘The power of prayer’‘. Skeptical InquirerSkeptical InquirerThe Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly American magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
, 24 (3), 61, 2000. - ‘‘The Privatization of Sensation’’, In Heyes, Celia and Huber, Ludwig, Eds. The Evolution of Cognition , 241-252. MIT, Cambridge, Ma, 2000.
- ‘‘How to solve the mind-body problem’’. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7(4):5-20 2000.
- ‘‘In Reply (Reply to Commentaries on ;How to Solve the Mind-Body Problem)’’. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7(4):98-112, 2000.
- ‘‘One Self: a Meditation on the Unity of Consciousness’’. Social Research 67(4):32-39 2000.
- ‘’Dreaming as play’‘. Behavioral and Brain Science, 23, 953, 2000.
- ‘‘Follow My Leader In Humphrey, Nicholas The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Evolution and Psychology , chapter24, 330-339. Oxford University Press, 2002.
- ‘‘The Deformed Transformed’’, In Humphrey, Nicholas The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution ,chapter 14, 165-199. Oxford University Press 2002.
- ‘‘Great Expectations: The Evolutionary Psychology of Faith-Healing and the Placebo Effect, The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution ,chapter 19, 255-85, Oxford University Press, 2002.
- ‘‘Bugs and Beasts before the Law’’ The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution ,chapter 18, 235-254, Oxford University Press 2002.
- ‘‘Behold the Man’’, In Humphrey, Nicholas The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution ,chapter 16, 206-231, Oxford University Press, 2002.
- ‘‘Shamanism and cognitive evolution (Commentary on Michael Winkelman)’’. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 12, 91-3, 2002
- ‘‘A Family Affair’’, In Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist , ed. John BrockmanJohn Brockman (literary agent)John Brockman is a literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He founded the Edge Foundation, an organization aimed to bring together people working at the edge of a broad range of scientific and technical fields. Referencing C.P...
, p.3-12, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004. - ‘‘The Placebo Effect’’, In Gregory, Richard LRichard GregoryRichard Langton Gregory, CBE, MA, D.Sc., FRSE, FRS was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.-Life and career:...
., Ed. Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition . Oxford University Press, 2004. - ‘‘Thinking about Feeling’’, In Gregory, Richard LRichard GregoryRichard Langton Gregory, CBE, MA, D.Sc., FRSE, FRS was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.-Life and career:...
., Ed. Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition . Oxford University Press, 2004. - ‘‘Do babies know what they look like? Doppelgängers and the phenomenology of infancy’‘. In Susan Hurley and Nick Chater (Eds.), Perspectives on Imitation: From Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science. Cambridge: MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
. (2005) - ‘’Human handwalkers: five siblings who never stood up’‘. CPNSS Discussion Paper, DP 77/05, 2005
- ‘‘Killer Instinct: a Review of Niall Ferguson's ;World of War: History's Century of Hatred’’, Prospect, September 2006
- ‘‘Consciousness: the Achilles heel of Darwinism? Thank God, not quite’’,In Intelligent Thought: Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement, ed. John Brockman, pp. 50-64, New York: Vintage, 2006.
- ‘‘The society of selves’’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 362, 745-754, 2007.
- ‘‘Getting the measure of consciousness’’, Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement , 2008.
- ‘‘Questioning consciousness’’, Seed Magazine , January/February,30-32, 2008.
- ‘’Beauty’s child: sexual selection, nature worship and the love of God’‘.
External links
- Professor Humphrey's home page
- The human factor by Andrew Brown. July 29, 2006, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Newspaper interview. - EDGE talk, A Self worth having A Talk with Nicholas Humphrey Interview on EDGEEdge Foundation, Inc.The Edge Foundation, Inc. is an organization of science and technology intellectuals created in 1988 as an outgrowth of The Reality Club. Its motto is 'To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have them ask...
6.30.03 - Richard Dawkins interviews Nicholas Humphrey on Placebos
- Pufendorf Lectures 2011