Callahan, Gerald N. Faith Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion: What Immunology Can Teach Us about Self-Perception. New York: Berkley Books, 2003. >The immune system isn't part of the brain. The brain is part of the immune system. Mind is an arm raised against things too large to be destroyed by antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes, the microscopic weapons of the immune system. The immune system is for plague, tularemia, toxoplasmosis, measles, mumps, and chicken pox. Mind is for bears, coral snakes, sharks, snapping turtles, wife beaters, and Buicks </br> >The immune system was first, by a billion years or more. Viruses and bacteria and funguses threatened all of our ancestors long before sharks and Buicks. Long before. Minds, at least human minds, are just by-products of a much older event – an afterthought – added a billion years later when our microscopic actions were no longer enough to protect us from a macroscopic world. (p. 64) </br> >The finest defense system ever devised, but from the beginning that defense is porous. And it must be porous. It must be riddled with holes. Because when the holes close, there is disease – a most awful disease called autoimmunity. When there is no space inside of our immune systems for our selves, when we cannot tell the difference between us and not-us, we lash out at everything at once. Knees are crushed, eyes are blinded, nerves are shredded. </br> >So, if we are to live with ourselves we must open holes in our defense. Holes that make room for our selves. But holes, too, that make room for others. (p. 74) Other books: [[Lousy Sex]] Discovered he has written more recent books!