Beyond the Conscious Mind: Unlocking the Secrets of the Self"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."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
The Emergence of Mind | 11 |
The Emergence of Self | 19 |
The Mind as a Computer | 26 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Beyond the Conscious Mind: Unlocking the Secrets of the Self Thomas R. Blakeslee Limited preview - 2013 |
Beyond the Conscious Mind: Unlocking the Secrets of the Self Thomas R Blakeslee Limited preview - 2004 |
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ability abuse actually basic become behavior belief system boundaries brain organization cause chaos theory child clearly cognitive cognitive revolution communications completely confabulation confirmed connections consciousness convincingly creative cultures demonstration develop distorted effect emotional evolution evolutionary evolve example experience eyes false belief feelings fight module fill flashed Gazzaniga hemisphere hidden observer human hypnosis hypnotic hypnotist images imagined individual interaction introspection kind logic meaning mental ments Michael Gazzaniga mind movement neurons nonverbal modules normal pain parents patterns Pendergrast perception person Philip Cushman placebo placebo effect positive feedback positron emission tomography primitive problem psychotherapy reality recovered memories reinforced remember result Roger Sperry self-concept self-control self-organization sense separate sexual side simply smell specialist speech Sperry split-brain split-brain patients spontaneous organization subjects survival synapses take control talk tend therapist therapy things thinking thought tion uncon unconscious unique verbal victim vision visual words