Damasio points us to the bridge that leads us to thought. The bridge is composed of feelings (Damasio, 2021, p. 122):
Feelings let the mind know, automatically, without any questions being asked, that mind and body are together, each belonging to the other. The classic void that has separated physical bodies from mental phenomena is naturally bridged `thanks to feelings.
Thus, the ancient argument about mind and body as either composed of either one or two domains is answered for Damasio. Mind and body come together as one entity via the bridge built between them by feelings. Unfortunately, the bridge is poorly designed for authoritarians. There rarely is safe crossing into the real world—thus increasing the chances that the authoritarian will view their own life as being unsuccessful (and that they will blame others for their failure).
Integration via Neuro-mapping: At this point Damasio begins to frame a remarkable portrait of integration in the human psyche. Being, feelings and thoughts come together as integrated images through a process of neurobiological mapping (Damasio (2021, p.. 56):
. . . [N]eurobiological “mapped patterns’ turn into the “Mental events” we call images. And when these events are part of a context that includes feeling and self-perspective, then, and only then, they become mental experiences, which is to say that they become conscious.
These mapped patterns show up as neuro images that bear some resemblance to actual entities out in the world. Furthermore, according to Damasio, these neuro Images serve as our basic sense of reality.
Here is where specific frameworks and categorization systems come to play a prominent role in the life of the authoritarian. These men and women have created an integrated, rigidly-held map of the “threatening world in which they live and work. It is a world that is filled with people who intend to do them harm – or at the very least intend to exclude and despise them. Each part of their map conveniently reinforces every other part. Thus, the map is invulnerable to change. Any dissonance to be found regarding one element of the map can be eliminated (or at least isolated) through the protective and justifying intervention of other map elements.
Covert and Overt Intelligences: We can take a step backward in conveying something about what Damasio is offering us. He distinguishes between what he calls covert and overt “intelligences”. Covert intelligences are hidden and concealed processes. They are based on chemical/bioelectrical processes in organelles and cell membranes. These covert processes are not explicit, yet they have a powerful impact on how we feel, think and action. Damasio often addresses these intelligences in his writing. For instance, in Descartes’s Error, Damasio (2005) writes about the somatic templates that inform our moment-to-moment assessment of mood and help to influence decisions we make at any one point intime.
By contrast, Damasio’s overt intelligences are manifest, explicit, and based on spatially mapped neural patterns which “represent and resemble” objects and actions. They are “imagetic” and easily confounded with the “real thing.” We are reminded of Michael Polanyi’s (2009) description of what he calls “tacit knowledge.” This form of “knowing” shows up in our biases and hunches, as well as your vague awareness of having met someone before or getting an “intuitive” sense that something isn’t right—such as the intuitive processes described by Jonah Lehrer (2009) in How We Decide.
