The brain is a social brain.
We begin to be shaped as our immensely receptive brains/minds interact with our very early environment and within relationships. Vygotsky is partially responsible for noting the connection between social interaction and knowledge. Throughout our lives, our brains/minds change in response to their engagement with others -- so much so that individuals must always be seen to be integral parts of larger social systems.
The search for meaning occurs through patterning.
Patterning includes innate and acquired schematic maps and categories. The brain/mind needs and automatically registers the familiar while searching for and responding to novel stimuli. Therefore, the brain/mind is both scientist and artist, discerning and understanding patterns as they occur and giving expression to unique and creative patterns of its own.
