Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain

by Shankar Vedantam

Long before modern medicine was invented, long before humans arrived on the planet, animals suffered injuries and fell sick. Swordfish and tortoises didn’t have CT scans and X-ray machines. So the brains of animals did what brains everywhere are designed to do—they used what they had around them to make do. For many species, especially social species like elephants, wolves and chimpanzees, algorithms in the brain learned, through trial and error over millions of years, to prompt creatures to turn to the loving care of others when confronted by illness or injury. Doing this did not constitute a cure, at least in the way we define cures. But it probably increased the odds of survival. A baby elephant that turned to her mother in distress was more likely to survive than a baby elephant that chose to go off by herself, or was ignored by her kin. Over time, aspects of the brain that caused animals to turn to others for help, to trust others in times of need—and that prompted caregivers to deliver comfort and protection to loved ones—were conserved. This is why every person knows today, when they or their children are sick, that illness and injury can draw families and communities together. The ancient algorithms in the brain that tell us to turn to others for help, that draw others to our aid, these do not go away simply because we now have high-tech hospitals and powerful drugs. This is why, all over the world, people crave from their doctors what we always crave in the face o...