The Neuroscience of Well-being

The concept of well-being defies a precise definition due to its conceptual relativity. It has attracted attention of the neuroscientists studying the cognitive and health-sustaining processes as much as the philosophers investgating the nature of conciousness. Clinical observations drawn from mutiple sources have added new dimensions to our understanding of self and well being. Here, ah attempt has been made to examine the concept through three neurobehavioural dimensions namely: (1) somatosensory experience, (2) neural representation of self and (3) neuropsychological correlates of the healing process. Well-being is explained in the light of three fundamental temporal elements of the cognitive map: the past largely governed by the memory functions of the temporal lobe, the present, by the somatosensory (‘here-and-now’) functions of the parietal and occipital lobes and the fixture, governed by the integrative and planning functions predominantly monitored by the frontal lobe. The concepts of attachment, self and healing process (resilience) in psychotherapy are examined in the light of their concomitant neural events. In spite of the inherent limitations posed by the reductionism, the neuroscience view of well-being is considered as an useful construct to understand the self, well being and health sutaining processes.