Karl H. Pribram (/ˈpraɪbræm/; German: [ˈpʁiːbram]; February 25, 1919 – January 19, 2015) was a visionary neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and theoretical philosopher described by his peers as the “Einstein of Brain Science”[1] and the “Magellan of the Mind” for his groundbreaking research into the function and roles of the limbic system, frontal lobes, and temporal lobes as they relate to decision making, memory, and emotional processing.

[5][6] Pribram based his initial theory on insight's by Dennis Gabor, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of holography.

This quantum theory of consciousness was expanded upon by Pribram's interactions with theorectical physicist David Bohm who coined the concept of the implicate order.

[4] In a review of Languages, in Behavioral Science Journal, R.P McDermott and Laurence Mucciolo stated "The book's contribution to neuropsychology will be hailed, developed and disputed for years to come.

[4] Pribram's interest in research led him to work with Karl Lashley at the Yerkes Primate Center, known as the “most important institute for neuropsychological research on animals in the 1940s.” Shortly after the end of WWII, Pribram succeeded Lashley as director of Yerkes and “added neurosurgical sophistication” that allowed the field of animal neuropsychology to expand and flourish during his time as director.

[11] These early years would prove to be influential in his development of theories about the structure of the brain and related mental processes.

[4] While at Yale, Pribram established and directed the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Institute for Living in Hartford, which “became a mecca for students intensely interested in the relationship between brain and behavior.”[2] As Director of the Psychophysiology Laboratory, Pribram would conduct some of the earliest research on brain circuitry with Mortimer Mishkin.

[4] After his tenure at Yale, Pribram moved to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where he continued to teach neurophysiology and physiological psychology for the next 30 years.

During this time, Pribram pioneered the field of neuropsychology (a term that he coined), leading groundbreaking research into the interrelations of the brain, behavior, and the mind.

[2] While at Stanford, as Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Pribram was honored with a Lifetime Research Career Award from the National Institutes of Health .

Pribram was placed on temporary probation by Stanford, while Honegger received a parting out-of-court settlement from the school.

[14] Simultaneously, he was appointed Distinguished Professor in the Engineering and Computer Science Department at George Mason University.

During Pribram's tenure at Yale, while directing the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the Institute for Living, many young researchers where able to explore the importance of utilizing psychology combined with neurophysiology, including Lawrence Weiskrantz (Harvard) and Mortimer Mishkin (McGill).

[2] Pribram was presented the inaugural Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Award (The VIZE 97 Prize) in 1999 for uniting the sciences and the humanities.

[3] Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic and award namesake, declared, “[Pribram] is an example to people of different fields and orientations, such as neurologists, psychologists, mathematicians, scientists and philosophers.

[1] Marilyn Ferguson summarized and interpreted Karl Pribram's holonomic model of brain processing in her popular book, The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980).

Additionally, Ferguson produced the Brain/Mind Bulletin, a science newsletter dedicated to sharing cutting-edge research from prominent scientists and theorists including Pribram, Bohm, and Prigogine.

[17] Steve DeVore, the founder of SyberVision, worked as a research assistant to Pribram at Stanford, where he would investigate the function of mirror neurons.

Pribram would later visit Feldenkrais' training program in California where they engaged in a series of conversations focused on the holographic and dynamic qualities of brain functioning.

[19] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pribram's neurobehavioral experiments established the composition of the limbic system and the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex.

Pribram also describes his relationships and interactions with colleagues and luminaries including David Bohm, Francis Crick, John Eccles, Dennis Gabor, Aleksandr Romanovitch Luria, Ilya Prigogine, B. F. Skinner, Eugene Sokolov, and others.

Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960), co-written with George Armitage Miller and Eugene Galanter, is widely credited as a seminal work in the development of the field of cognitive psychology.

[20] In his lifetime, Karl Pribram published over 700 scientific publications including books and monographs, as well as data and theory papers.

(1995) Scale in Conscious Experience: Is the Brain Too Important to be Left to Specialists to Study?, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. MILLER, G. A., GALANTER, E. & PRIBRAM, K. H. (1960) Plans and the Structure of Behavior.