The Abstract Mind with Chris Niebauer

Chris Niebauer earned his Ph.D in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Toledo, specializing in left- and right-brain differences. He is the author of The Abstract Mind: How Thinking Became the Source of Suffering—And How to Break Free, the bestselling No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism, and its companion workbook. He taught consciousness, mindfulness, brain lateralization, and artificial intelligence for 22 years as a professor at a Pennsylvania state university.

In this conversation, Chris explores the philosophical foundations of his new book, The Abstract Mind, drawing on William James's concept of vicious abstractionism and Alfred North Whitehead's fallacy of misplaced concreteness to examine how thinking itself can become a source of suffering. Building on the insights of No Self, No Problem, he considers the distinction between consciousness and thought, the role of affective neuroscience and embodied development, and why direct experience may offer a path beyond abstraction. Along the way, he reflects on artificial intelligence, contemplative practice, and what it might mean to come home to the immediacy of lived experience.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:03 Chris’s background

00:10:58 Consciousness vs thinking

00:21:42 Thought, memory, abstraction, and reality

00:29:10 Vicious abstraction and the illusion of ownership

00:39:24 The DSM, mental illness, and consciousness

00:48:38 Affective neuroscience and emotion

00:53:11 Trauma, the nervous system, and safety

01:12:19 The richness of direct experience

01:20:32 Redefining our role in the age of AI

01:24:22 Jung, the unconscious, and awareness

01:26:59 A simple practice for everyday life

Producer: Elena McNally

Editor: John Hartmann

(Recorded on July 11, 2026)

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