In 2000, a Virginia teacher started collecting sex magazines and visiting child pornography websites. When he began making subtle advances on his young stepdaughter, his wife called the police. He was arrested and later convicted of child molestation. Though put into a sexual addiction rehabilitation program, he still felt overwhelmed by his sexual urges. The day before being sentenced to prison, he went to his local emergency room complaining of a headache and thoughts of suicide. He was also upset about his uncontrollable impulses, which led him to proposition nurses.

A brain scan located the problem—in his mind’s biology. Behind his right temple was an egg-sized brain tumor. After surgeons removed the tumor, his lewd impulses faded and he returned home to his wife and stepdaughter. Alas, a year later the tumor partially grew back, and with it the sexual urges. A second tumor removal again lessened the urges (Burns & Swerdlow, 2003).

This case illustrates what you likely believe: that you reside in your head. If surgeons transplanted all your organs below your neck, and even your skin and limbs, you would (Yes?) still be you. Someone I know received a new heart from a woman who, in a rare operation, needed a matched heart-lung transplant. When the two chanced to meet in their hospital ward, she introduced herself: “I think you have my heart.” But only her heart. She, like most of us, was assuming that her mind—her very self—dwells inside her skull, a creation of her brain.