Hello, and welcome to my new set! I'm on a chaise lounge!   I'm on a chair! Chaise lounge! Wingback! Chaise! Chair! Both at the same time!   I also got a new jacket; it was formerly owned by Roger - he had it embroidered with his name - but one thing here is not new: my brain. Because unlike the vast majority of cells in my body, the neurons I had when I was an infant are the neurons that I have right now. They will be the same neurons I have when I die.   Our brains are us. They do not replace. It's all part of the magical mystery that is our minds.   Now, some - okay, me, occasionally - argue that psychology is a softer science than chemistry or biology or physics. Well, frankly, that's true: there's more discussion of tendencies, of maybes, the allowances for statistical significance are wider, and you want to know why? Because it's more complicated.   Your brain is more complicated than anything taught in theoretical physics classes. There are no equations that can define it. Though it operates within the same laws as the rest of the cosmos, its complexity rivals that of the entire rest of the universe combined! Excluding all the other brains, of course.   You'd think that we'd be really good at understanding brains, though, since, you know, we all have one and use one all the time. We experience the world as a brain connected to sensing systems, and yet, as we will see, our insights about how brains work are often very wrong! So just throw out everything you think you know!   And that is why we have this wonderful science of psychology. Though you cannot, as early psychologists wished, break the human psyche into "atoms of consciousness", through careful study of your mind, you can, at least in part, understand your mind!   And the minds of others! We can heal the sick, deepen understanding, and improve functions. That's really the heart of it. Minds trying to understand minds. The reason we do things, why we think and feel the way we do.   The schools of thought, the techniques, the history, the characters, from Freud to advanced neuroscience - from healthy to broken, from everyday behaviors to the deepest depths of your subconscious.   And also, did I mention? Chaise lounge! Why don't I have a cigar? I should have a cigar. I honestly do not have any idea how to acquire a cigar; Freud would be so disappointed in me!   Actually, did you know that Freud was, in addition to cigars, also addicted to cocaine? One of the many things you will learn here in Crash Course Psychology!