The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity - Hardcover

Hood, Professor Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019989759X ISBN 13: 9780199897599

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 2012

Synopsis

Most of us believe that we are an independent, coherent self--an individual inside our head who thinks, watches, wonders, dreams, and makes plans for the future. This sense of our self may seem incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that it is not what it seems--it is all an illusion. In The Self Illusion, 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. Humans spend proportionally the greatest amount of time in childhood compared to any other animal. It's not only to learn from others, Hood notes, but also to learn to become like others. We learn to become our self. Even as adults we are continually developing and elaborating this story, learning to become different selves in different situations--the work self, the home self, the parent self. Moreover, Hood shows that this already fluid process--the construction of self--has dramatically changed in recent years. Social networking activities--such as blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter--are fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships are outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. Things will never be the same again in the online social world. Hood offers our first glimpse into this unchartered territory. Who we are is, in short, a story of our self--a narrative that our brain creates. Like the science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. But Hood concludes that though the self is an illusion, it is an illusion we must continue to embrace to live happily in human society.

About this title

Review:

"Bruce Hood's The Self Illusion is an eye-opener of vivid proportion. I've been dreaming of the day when some brilliant scientist will explore the brain in the manner that Hood has. He takes on the illusion concept, coupled with visual effects, and incorporates an inside look at such amazing constructs as free will and "Why You Can't See Yourself in Reflection." His is a divine province where the self illusion is brought to life, dramatically detailed so that we can get a glimpse, through the author's eye, at how perception really works... Read the book and get a reward greater than what you can imagine. 5 Stars." -- San Francisco Book Review

"The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity is an engaging, thought-provoking book... The author, Bruce Hood, not only provides a nontechnical, integrated overview of research and theory in the neuropsychology of cognitive development and on such key topics in social psychology as identity, social influence, social interaction, and individual and group decision making in the age of the Internet. He also considers clinical problems such as Tourette's syndrome, obsessivecompulsive disorder, autism, and drug addiction... Read the book. I might even use The Self Illusion to replace the textbook I currently use for my undergraduate course in social psychology." -- PsycCRITIQUES

"After exploring various definitions of self--a soul, an agent with free will, some essential and unique set of qualities--he concludes that what we experience as a self is actually a narrative spun by our brain." -Daisy Yuhas, Scientific American

"Bruce Hood, professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Bristol, marshals an expanse of research to convincingly argue that the self - while very much real in our experience - is in fact a useful illusion, one necessitated by the brain that gives it life." -David DiSalvo, The PopScience Review

"Bruce Hood's The Self Illusion is a thoroughly researched and skillfully organised account of the developments in psychology and neuroscience that are helping to substantiate this unsettling vision of selfhoodELHood is well placed to tackle all this: he is an experimental psychologist and expert on child development." -Michael Bond, CultureLab

Book Description:

A fascinating examination of how the latest science shows that our individual concept of a self is in fact an illusion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 019989759X
• ISBN 13: 9780199897599
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368