Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the SelfIn Altered Egos, Dr. Todd Feinberg presents a new theory of the self based on his first-hand experience as both a psychiatrist and neurologist. Feinberg introduces dozens of intriguing cases of patients whose disorders have resulted in what he calls "altered egos" a change in the brain that transforms the boundaries of the self. He describes patients who suffer from "alien hand syndrome" where one hand might attack the patient's own throat, patients with frontal lobe damage who invent fantastic stories about their lives, paralyzed patients who reject and disown one of their limbs. He then argues that the brain damage suffered by these people has done more than simply impair certain functions--it has fragmented their sense of self. From these fascinating cases, Feinberg proposes a new model of the self that links the workings of the brain with unique and personal features of the mind, such as meaning, purpose, and being. Drawing on his own and other evidence, he explains how the unified self, while not located in one or another brain region, arises out of the staggering complexity and number of the brain's component parts. Lucid, insightful, filled with fascinating case studies and provocative new ideas, Altered Egos promises to change the way we think about human consciousness and the creation and maintenance of human identity. |
Contents
II | 1 |
III | 2 |
IV | 4 |
V | 8 |
VI | 14 |
VII | 15 |
VIII | 18 |
IX | 21 |
XL | 78 |
XLI | 80 |
XLIII | 83 |
XLIV | 84 |
XLV | 88 |
XLVI | 90 |
XLVIII | 93 |
XLIX | 95 |
XI | 24 |
XII | 26 |
XIII | 27 |
XIV | 28 |
XV | 30 |
XVI | 32 |
XVII | 34 |
XVIII | 35 |
XIX | 37 |
XX | 38 |
XXII | 41 |
XXIII | 43 |
XXIV | 44 |
XXV | 47 |
XXVI | 49 |
XXVII | 51 |
XXVIII | 55 |
XXX | 56 |
XXXI | 58 |
XXXII | 59 |
XXXIII | 60 |
XXXIV | 65 |
XXXV | 67 |
XXXVI | 68 |
XXXVII | 72 |
XXXVIII | 73 |
XXXIX | 75 |
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Common terms and phrases
action alien hand alien hand syndrome aneurysm anosognosia appears areas autoscopic hallucination awareness behavior body brain creates brain regions Capgras delusion Capgras syndrome Cartesian Theater cells cerebral clinical complex confabulation consciousness corpus callosum cortex cortical Critchley damage delusional misidentification syndromes Descartes described disorders double emergence emotional experience face feel FEINBERG Figure frontal lobes function Gazzaniga hemi hemispatial neglect hospital identity imaginary companion integrated left arm left hand left hemisphere left side lesion Linda LIZZY look memory mental unity mind MIRNA mirror nervous system nested hierarchy neural neurological neurons object organism pain paralyzed parietal lobe patients with asomatognosia PATSY perception personal confabulation personal relatedness philosophical physical problem psychiatric qualia receptive fields reduplication reflex response right hemisphere ROSAMOND Searle sensory Sherrington SHIRLEY single Sperry spinal cord split-brain split-brain patients Stevie stimuli stroke Susan teleonomic things tion unified visual field visual system Weinstein Yeah