The Self Illusion

The Self Illusion PDF Author: Bruce Hood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199969892
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.

The Self Illusion

The Self Illusion PDF Author: Bruce Hood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199969892
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book Here

Book Description
Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.

Making Sense of People

Making Sense of People PDF Author: Samuel Barondes
Publisher: FT Press
ISBN: 0132172879
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Every day, we evaluate the people around us: It's one of the most important things we ever do. Making Sense of People provides the scientific frameworks and tools we need to improve our intuition, and assess people more consciously, systematically, and effectively. Leading neuroscientist Samuel H. Barondes explains the research behind each standard personality category: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. He shows readers how to use these traits and assessments to do a better job of deciding who they'll enjoy spending time with, whom to trust, and whom to keep at a distance. Barondes explains: What neuroscience and psychological research can tell us about how personality types develop and cohere. The intertwined roles of genes, nurture, and education in personality development. How to recognize troublesome personality patterns such as narcissism, sociopathy, and paranoia. How much a child's behavior predicts their adult personality, and how personality stabilizes in young adulthood. How to assess integrity, fairness, wisdom, and other traits related to morality. What genetic testing may (or may not) teach us about personality in the future. General strategies for getting along with people, with specific tactics for special circumstances. Kirkus Reviews A succinct look at personality psychology. As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of California, Barondes (Molecules and Mental Illness, 2007, etc.) has spent years studying human behavior, and this book reflects his systematic, scientific approach for personality assessment. The average person isn't likely to have time to research a difficult boss or potential love interest, but the author supplements intuition with a useful cornerstone for gauging human behavior: a table of the "Big Five" personality traits, among them Extraversion vs. Introversion and Agreeableness vs. Antagonism. To learn how to apply the Big Five, Barondes supplies a link for a professional online personality test, in addition to a basic introduction of troubling personality patterns–e.g., narcissism and compulsiveness. While genetics may play a heavy hand in influencing personality, Barondes writes, it's awareness of a person's background, character and life story that is paramount in unearthing reasons for adult behavior. Readers might like to see the author weave more everyday examples into the text–his exercise in fostering compassion by imagining an adult as a 10-year-old child is a gem–but there is plenty here to ponder. Those looking for traditional "self-help" advice won't find it here, but this book clearly lays the groundwork for deeper human interaction and better life relationships.

Making Sense of Self

Making Sense of Self PDF Author: Anita Clair Fellman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512801828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Seeking the key to good living through physical well-being, the American public since at least the 1830s has devoured literature proffering medical advice. Making Sense of Self is an historical analysis of the ideological content of a broad sample of late nineteenth-century popular advice literature concerning the body and the mind. At a time when the middle class was threatened with tumultuous social and economic change, such publications offered blueprints for self-regulation, teaching survival and discipline, and bringing some sense of order and hope for self-improvement. Anita and Michael Fellman analyze this literature as a signpost to the general aspirations, anxieties, debates, and assumptions of late Victorian Americans, who were less optimistic than had been their antebellum forebears about personal and social progress. In particular, the authors interpret the ideas these various advisors offered regarding bodily health, the workings of brain and mind, sexuality, and the will. Although the advice literature as a whole was diverse and even contradictory, the ethic of moderation was often stressed as the method, however limited, to obtain some sense of discipline and control, and the will was frequently asserted as the means to a more dynamic self-expression. The sense of fragility, search for security, and dependence on individual self­-governance revealed in this literature remain as persistent elements in the middle-class American character. The significance of this popular ideology lies not in whether it led to specific behavior, but in how it enabled people to interpret themselves and their situation to themselves during a period in which many basic ideological issues appeared more confused than certain. Making Sense of Self offers a close examination of a period analogous to our own times.

Making Sense

Making Sense PDF Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062857800
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
A New York Times New and Noteworthy Book From the bestselling author of Waking Up and The End of Faith, an adaptation of his wildly popular, often controversial podcast “Sam Harris is the most intellectually courageous man I know, unafraid to speak truths out in the open where others keep those very same thoughts buried, fearful of the modish thought police. With his literate intelligence and fluency with words, he brings out the best in his guests, including those with whom he disagrees.” -- Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene “Civilization rests on a series of successful conversations.” —Sam Harris Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author—has been exploring some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events on his podcast, Making Sense. With over one million downloads per episode, these discussions have clearly hit a nerve, frequently walking a tightrope where either host or guest—and sometimes both—lose their footing, but always in search of a greater understanding of the world in which we live. For Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or controversial, represents the only path to moral and intellectual progress. This book includes a dozen of the best conversations from Making Sense, including talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glenn Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically. Together they shine a light on what it means to “make sense” in the modern world.

Social Cognition

Social Cognition PDF Author: Ziva Kunda
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262611435
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
In this survey of research and theory about social cognition, Ziva Kunda reviews basic processes in social cognition, including the representation of social concepts, rules of inference, memory, hot cognition and automatic processing.

Waking Up

Waking Up PDF Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451636024
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Spirituality.The search for happiness --Religion, East and West --Mindfulness --The truth of suffering --Enlightenment --The mystery of consciousness.The mind divided --Structure and function --Are our minds already split? --Conscious and unconscious processing in the brain --Consciousness is what matters --The riddle of the self.What are we calling "I"? --Consciousness without self --Lost in thought --The challenge of studying the self --Penetrating the illusion --Meditation.Gradual versus sudden realization --Dzogchen: taking the goal as the path --Having no head --The paradox of acceptance --Gurus, death, drugs, and other puzzles.Mind on the brink of death --The spiritual uses of pharmacology.

Free Will

Free Will PDF Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451683405
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, "brilliant and witty" (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will—and the implications that it is an illusion. A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion. In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

Making Sense of Self-harm

Making Sense of Self-harm PDF Author: Peter Steggals
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137470593
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Making Sense of Self-Harm provides an alternative approach to understanding nonsuicidal self-injury; using Cultural Sociology to analyse it more as a practice than an illness and exploring it as a powerful cultural idiom of personal distress and social estrangement that is peculiarly resonant with the symbolic life of late-modern society.

Making Sense of Self-Esteem

Making Sense of Self-Esteem PDF Author: Mary Jane Warr
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557549256
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description


The Social Psychology of Emotional and Behavioral Problems

The Social Psychology of Emotional and Behavioral Problems PDF Author: Robin M. Kowalski
Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN: 9781557985682
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
Many psychologists would agree that most emotional and behavioural problems are essentially social and interpersonal problems. Not only are psychological difficulties typically caused or maintained by interpersonal processes, but problems typically manifest themselves in the course of personal relationships. Many emotional and behavioural problems are rooted in normal interpersonal processes - precisely the processes that social psychology describes. This work documents the rich interplay between social and clinical psychology in theory and research.