Beyond the Conscious Mind: Unlocking the Secrets of the Self - Softcover

Blakeslee, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0595338488 ISBN 13: 9780595338481

Publisher: iUniverse, 2004

Synopsis

A new understanding of consciousness that helps you to better understand your own and others behavior. Your mind is a self-organized team of specialized independent modules that each take control of your behavior depending upon context. One of these modules, the "self-module," is the verbal interpreter of all of your behavior. However this self-module only controls behavior when you are using self-control. Introspection is thus usually nothing more than self-serving rationalization. Using experimental evidence Blakeslee clearly demonstrates the many mental illusions created by this flawed understanding of self and helps you to develop a new, more accurate, self-concept.

About this title

From the Author

Why is the human mind so unpredictable?
In Beyond the conscious mind I have tried to present a new understanding of the mind as a team of specialized, self-organizing "modules". This new understanding makes many of the paradoxes of the mind seem logical. It has proven quite useful in my everyday life. A practical application can be found on my web site:
http://www.attitudefactor.com

From the Back Cover

The Nobel Prize-winning work of Roger Sperry revolutionized our understanding of human consciousness by proving that separate thinking and knowledge could exist in the left and right halves of the brain. Now, popular science writer Thomas Blakeslee - author of the highly acclaimed The Right Brain - takes us to a new level of understanding based on the theory of neural Darwinism by Gerald Edelman, another Nobel Prize winner. Blakeslee explains that our neurons spontaneously organize into hundreds of groups called modules that compete to respond to every situation in our lives - from reading this paragraph to falling in love. A vast preponderance of this activity operates outside of our conscious awareness. One of the most important, yet problematic of these modules is the one that rules our conscious thoughts - the self module. Planning, introspection, and interpreting behavior are among its chief specialties. However, just as a press secretary invents plausible explanations for a President's decision - without being privy to the real reasons - our self module often fabricates an explanation for our behavior when, in fact, it actually doesn't know our true motives. Since we accept its stories as true, it gives us a false sense of conscious control over all our actions and a distorted sense of reality. This distortion leads to many of the conflicts and misunderstandings that plague our relationships and work lives. Beyond the Conscious Mind helps each of us tap into and harness the natural creativity and talents of our whole mind. It is only by balancing our conscious mind with the wellspring of ideas in our unconscious that we can reach our full potential.|This book helps each of us tap into and harness the natural creativity and talents of our whole mind.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0595338488
• ISBN 13: 9780595338481
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326