Jem Lu (7 results)

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Why do intelligent people repeatedly make choices they know are hurting them?Why does anxiety persist after danger has passed?Why does trauma continue shaping the present decades after the event is over?Why do compulsions survive logic?Why does addiction overpower intention?Why does depression convince the mind that the future has already been written?Perhaps the greatest mystery of psychological suffering that these conditions often continue long after the circumstances that created them have disappeared.For generations, mental disorders have been treated as separate illnesses with separate explanations. Anxiety, trauma, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, emotional dysregulation, and maladaptive personality patterns are usually studied independently, each with its own language, theories, and treatments.This book proposes a different way of seeing.Beneath these seemingly different conditions lies a common biological structure.The Reflexive Self.The Reflexive Self is the brain's automatic adaptive system. It predicts before you become aware. It evaluates before you consciously decide. It prepares emotions before you understand why you feel them. It learns from repeated experience until its predictions become so familiar that they no longer feel learned; they simply feel like reality.Most of the time, this remarkable system allows you to navigate the world effortlessly.But when its predictions become rigid, when outdated models continue guiding present behavior, when automatic adaptations stop updating. The same mechanisms that once protected you can become the source of persistent psychological suffering.This is the hidden process explored throughout these pages.Drawing on contemporary neuroscience, predictive processing, neuroplasticity, reinforcement learning, memory research, cognitive psychology, and affective neuroscience, The Pathology of the Reflexive Self presents an integrated scientific framework for understanding why automatic adaptation sometimes becomes pathology. Rather than examining disorders in isolation, the book reveals the shared mechanisms beneath them.You will discover: - Why the brain predicts before it perceives.- How adaptive learning becomes maladaptive learning.- Why anxiety is a prediction problem rather than simply a fear problem.- How trauma reorganizes automatic threat detection.- Why obsessive-compulsive disorder traps the brain inside unresolved prediction loops.- How addiction hijacks the same learning systems that normally promote survival.- Why depression alters future prediction rather than simply lowering mood.- How anger and aggression emerge from automatic defensive processing.- Why personality often reflects deeply learned predictive patterns rather than fixed character.More importantly, this book explains why recovery is possible.The nervous system that learned pathological reflexes remains capable of learning healthier ones.Recovery is the restoration of adaptive prediction.Written in clear, accessible language without sacrificing scientific rigor, this book bridges neuroscience, psychology, and everyday human experience. Complex research is translated into practical understanding while remaining grounded in contemporary evidence.Whether you are a clinician, student, educator, researcher, or simply someone trying to understand your own mind, this book offers a new perspective on psychological disorders as different expressions of the same adaptive learning system.By the time you finish these pages, you may never look at anxiety, trauma, addiction, depression, or even yourself in quite the same way again. T Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Why do intelligent people repeatedly make choices they know are hurting them?Why does anxiety persist after danger has passed?Why does trauma continue shaping the present decades after the event is over?Why do compulsions survive logic?Why does addiction overpower intention?Why does depression convince the mind that the future has already been written?Perhaps the greatest mystery of psychological suffering that these conditions often continue long after the circumstances that created them have disappeared.For generations, mental disorders have been treated as separate illnesses with separate explanations. Anxiety, trauma, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, emotional dysregulation, and maladaptive personality patterns are usually studied independently, each with its own language, theories, and treatments.This book proposes a different way of seeing.Beneath these seemingly different conditions lies a common biological structure.The Reflexive Self.The Reflexive Self is the brain's automatic adaptive system. It predicts before you become aware. It evaluates before you consciously decide. It prepares emotions before you understand why you feel them. It learns from repeated experience until its predictions become so familiar that they no longer feel learned; they simply feel like reality.Most of the time, this remarkable system allows you to navigate the world effortlessly.But when its predictions become rigid, when outdated models continue guiding present behavior, when automatic adaptations stop updating. The same mechanisms that once protected you can become the source of persistent psychological suffering.This is the hidden process explored throughout these pages.Drawing on contemporary neuroscience, predictive processing, neuroplasticity, reinforcement learning, memory research, cognitive psychology, and affective neuroscience, The Pathology of the Reflexive Self presents an integrated scientific framework for understanding why automatic adaptation sometimes becomes pathology. Rather than examining disorders in isolation, the book reveals the shared mechanisms beneath them.You will discover: - Why the brain predicts before it perceives.- How adaptive learning becomes maladaptive learning.- Why anxiety is a prediction problem rather than simply a fear problem.- How trauma reorganizes automatic threat detection.- Why obsessive-compulsive disorder traps the brain inside unresolved prediction loops.- How addiction hijacks the same learning systems that normally promote survival.- Why depression alters future prediction rather than simply lowering mood.- How anger and aggression emerge from automatic defensive processing.- Why personality often reflects deeply learned predictive patterns rather than fixed character.More importantly, this book explains why recovery is possible.The nervous system that learned pathological reflexes remains capable of learning healthier ones.Recovery is the restoration of adaptive prediction.Written in clear, accessible language without sacrificing scientific rigor, this book bridges neuroscience, psychology, and everyday human experience. Complex research is translated into practical understanding while remaining grounded in contemporary evidence.Whether you are a clinician, student, educator, researcher, or simply someone trying to understand your own mind, this book offers a new perspective on psychological disorders as different expressions of the same adaptive learning system.By the time you finish these pages, you may never look at anxiety, trauma, addiction, depression, or even yourself in quite the same way again. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. How the Brain Invents Who You AreWhat if the person you have always believed yourself to be is not a fixed entity but an ongoing construction?Every moment, your brain is doing far more than receiving information from the world. Long before you become consciously aware of a sight, a sound, a memory, or a decision, your nervous system has already begun predicting, filtering, organizing, and interpreting reality.The result is something extraordinary: The experience you call "me."In The Simulated Self, Etzem Anoshi takes readers on a fascinating exploration of one of the most influential ideas in modern neuroscience: the brain does not passively observe reality; it actively constructs it.Your identity is not a finished object hidden somewhere inside your brain.It is a living simulation continuously generated from prediction, memory, attention, emotion, language, and experience.This book explains how that simulation is built, why it feels so convincing, and how it quietly shapes nearly every aspect of your life.You'll discover: - Why your brain predicts reality before you consciously experience it.- How memories are reconstructed rather than replayed.- Why your internal story feels like absolute truth, even when it is incomplete.- How language quietly organizes the way you perceive yourself and the world.- Why emotions influence perception before reasoning begins.- How attention determines the reality you experience.- Why anxiety, addiction, rumination, trauma, and many persistent patterns can become self-reinforcing simulations.- How reflection allows the brain to revise its own predictions instead of remaining trapped inside them.Drawing from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, predictive processing, and the science of consciousness, The Simulated Self translates complex research into clear, engaging explanations without sacrificing scientific rigor.Rather than presenting abstract theories, the book offers a coherent framework for understanding why people become who they become and why change is possible.As you progress through its chapters, you will begin to recognize that many thoughts you assumed were permanent are actually predictions.Many limitations you accepted as facts are often interpretations. Many identities you defended were constructions continually updated by the brain. This realization is not an invitation to deny reality. It is an invitation to understand how reality is experienced. That distinction changes everything.Whether you are fascinated by neuroscience, psychology, philosophy of mind, consciousness, or human behavior, this book will challenge assumptions that most people never realize they are making.You will begin to see why two people can experience the same event differently.Why beliefs become so resistant to evidence.Why habits persist even when they cause suffering.Why your sense of self feels stable despite constant neural change.And why understanding the brain's constructive processes may be one of the most empowering forms of knowledge available.The Simulated Self does not ask you to abandon your identity. It asks you to understand how your identity is built. Because once you understand the mechanisms that construct the self, you gain something rare: The ability to examine the simulation instead of being unconsciously governed by it. You may never experience your mind in quite the same way again.The greatest illusion may not be the world around you. It may be believing that the self experiencing it was ever finished. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. How the Brain Invents Who You AreWhat if the person you have always believed yourself to be is not a fixed entity but an ongoing construction?Every moment, your brain is doing far more than receiving information from the world. Long before you become consciously aware of a sight, a sound, a memory, or a decision, your nervous system has already begun predicting, filtering, organizing, and interpreting reality.The result is something extraordinary: The experience you call "me."In The Simulated Self, Etzem Anoshi takes readers on a fascinating exploration of one of the most influential ideas in modern neuroscience: the brain does not passively observe reality; it actively constructs it.Your identity is not a finished object hidden somewhere inside your brain.It is a living simulation continuously generated from prediction, memory, attention, emotion, language, and experience.This book explains how that simulation is built, why it feels so convincing, and how it quietly shapes nearly every aspect of your life.You'll discover: - Why your brain predicts reality before you consciously experience it.- How memories are reconstructed rather than replayed.- Why your internal story feels like absolute truth, even when it is incomplete.- How language quietly organizes the way you perceive yourself and the world.- Why emotions influence perception before reasoning begins.- How attention determines the reality you experience.- Why anxiety, addiction, rumination, trauma, and many persistent patterns can become self-reinforcing simulations.- How reflection allows the brain to revise its own predictions instead of remaining trapped inside them.Drawing from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, predictive processing, and the science of consciousness, The Simulated Self translates complex research into clear, engaging explanations without sacrificing scientific rigor.Rather than presenting abstract theories, the book offers a coherent framework for understanding why people become who they become and why change is possible.As you progress through its chapters, you will begin to recognize that many thoughts you assumed were permanent are actually predictions.Many limitations you accepted as facts are often interpretations. Many identities you defended were constructions continually updated by the brain. This realization is not an invitation to deny reality. It is an invitation to understand how reality is experienced. That distinction changes everything.Whether you are fascinated by neuroscience, psychology, philosophy of mind, consciousness, or human behavior, this book will challenge assumptions that most people never realize they are making.You will begin to see why two people can experience the same event differently.Why beliefs become so resistant to evidence.Why habits persist even when they cause suffering.Why your sense of self feels stable despite constant neural change.And why understanding the brain's constructive processes may be one of the most empowering forms of knowledge available.The Simulated Self does not ask you to abandon your identity. It asks you to understand how your identity is built. Because once you understand the mechanisms that construct the self, you gain something rare: The ability to examine the simulation instead of being unconsciously governed by it. You may never experience your mind in quite the same way again.The greatest illusion may not be the world around you. It may be believing that the self experiencing it was ever finished. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…