The self delusion : the new neuroscience of how we invent--and reinvent--our identities

The self delusion The new neuroscience of how we invent--and reinvent--our identities

Gregory Berns

Book - 2022

"It's a commonplace to say that we each tell stories about ourselves, trying to shape how others perceive us, and how we perceive ourselves. And the commonplace is true, as far as it goes-which isn't very far at all. As neuroscientist Gregory Berns shows in The Self Delusion, you, I, we don't just tell stories about ourselves. We are the stories-there's no stable personality to tell stories about. What's more, the stories are, for the most part, false. How could this be so? As for the "you" reading this, it's nothing more than a fleeting phenomenon, continually reborn as our conscious mind receives, filters, or acts on incoming information, from the world and our memories. The you that read the p...revious sentence is dead-and the one that read that! What we really have are the stories our minds tell about past selves, and about the possibilities of future ones. And the biggest question is whether we - "I", "you", whoever-can control any of the stories we tell about ourselves at all. Take your earliest memory: as Berns shows, it's very likely you don't actually have a memory of the event, but of a story implanted there, most likely by a parent, who was telling you something about what they remembered and thought about you. Layer on that the fact that our brain stores very little about events that we do remember, and that each memory is stitched together and rewritten, whenever it is called upon, by a brain built to make assumptions and predictions about how things are likely to have gone and are likely to mean-not to keep a high-resolution video of how they went or what they meant at the time. Or consider your most deeply held beliefs: surely you'd never violate them? As Berns shows, what other people think, do, and say influences us so greatly that people will abandon almost any belief. Indeed-as he shows with an ingenious research program based on auctions-most beliefs are literally up for sale in the currency of social approval. And that's hardly all: ranging over a huge range of neuroscience, social science, and psychiatry, covering everything from the evolution of the brain to the origins of feelings, from the birth of epic storytelling to what it's like to drive a car, Berns shows that our stories and so ourselves are almost infinitely pliable. But this book reaches no depressing conclusion: instead, as Berns argues, we can indeed take control of our visions of our future selves: the stories, ourselves, are pliable enough that if there's self we want to invent, we probably can. Indeed, he provides us with the tools to choose and be true to bedrock principles, and to aim to make this life not one where we are victims of faulty memories or social suasion, but drivers of our own destinies; from simple tips such as changing how we think about our emotions (e.g., saying "I feel angry" instead of "I am angry") to an amazing argument about how thinking (a little) like a computer can help us lead our best lives, not by making the best choices, but by avoiding the ones that will cause the most regret. Ultimately, The Self Delusion shows how we can break away from inherited, constructed, even corrupted narratives in order to tell a new story of ourselves: the story we want to tell"--

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Subjects
Identity (Psychology)
Self-perception.
Self-deception.
Memory.
Published
New York, NY : Basic Books [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Gregory Berns (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
x, 291 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781541602298
  • Introduction The Self Delusion
  • Part I. The Self across Time
  • Chapter 1. You Are a Simulation
  • Chapter 2. Early Memories
  • Chapter 3. Compression
  • Chapter 4. The Bayesian Brain
  • Chapter 5. The Bayesian Self
  • Chapter 6. All the Yous
  • Chapter 7. The Evolution of Narrative
  • Chapter 8. Narrative Forms
  • Part II. The Self and Others
  • Chapter 9. Flavors of You
  • Chapter 10. The Evolution of Groupthink
  • Chapter 11. Moral Backbone
  • Chapter 12. The Banality of a Brain
  • Chapter 13. The Man with Half a Brain
  • Part III. The Future of You
  • Chapter 14. Novels on the Brain
  • Chapter 15. Hijacked Narratives
  • Chapter 16. No Regrets
  • Chapter 17. The Good Life
  • Chapter 18. The Future of You
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Berns (What It's Like to Be a Dog), a psychology professor at Emory University, takes a crack at explaining human identity in this informative if not always persuasive treatise. Citing studies on how the brain stores and retrieves memories, perceives optical and tactile illusions, and experiences emotions, Berns describes identity as "lo-fi" simulation that the brain constructs, leading one to believe they are physically contiguous. Humans can never perceive their own brains, he writes, but one's mind has the potential of creating "multiple potential yous" based on one's mood. His ideas are intriguing, but his explanations are somewhat scattered--he cites out-of-body experiences, multiple-personality disorder, and belief in superstitions are proof of the brain's ability to "trick us in many ways," but doesn't quite connect them to his thesis. As well, his discussion of how various narratives (including Lascaux cave drawings, fairy tales, and superhero stories) serve as templates for self-identifying narratives, since "we cannot help but graft our own experiences onto these ubiquitous narratives," is a bit of a stretch. For the most part, readers willing to follow this winding exploration will be piqued, though perhaps not entirely convinced. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Neuroscience researcher Berns (psychology, Emory Univ.; How Dogs Love Us) explores the overlap between neurology, neuroimaging, and personality. The book is divided into three sections. The first part describes ways people make meaning from narratives in their lives. To do that, he looks at different aspects of the mind and its influence. He also explains why stories are temporary, forever changing. The second section examines the ways in which personal narratives can be shaped (or not) by others. The last part suggests ways of using personal stories and experiences to set or shape one's future. The author has a clear, frank style that is especially helpful when he describes neuroimaging studies he has conducted and relating them to the greater topic at hand. VERDICT This book offers much to ponder for readers interested in the relationship between epistemology, personality, and neurology.--A. Gray

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A fresh look at the relationship between our brains and self-identity. Scientists call consciousness the "hard problem" because other brain functions are easy by comparison. Berns, a professor of psychology at Emory University and author of How Dogs Love Us and What It's Like To Be a Dog, delivers an expert and thoroughly satisfying exploration of this specific area of neuroscience. As the author points out, everyone identifies themselves via memories strung together with the stories we absorb to link the memories together. "The development of memory has received the lion's share of attention from researchers," writes Berns, "but a few psychologists have dedicated their careers to the equally interesting study of how children tell stories." The brain enters the world in a rudimentary state. No one remembers their birth, and the infant brain stores no memories for its first two years, after which high-arousal events like deaths can make an impression. By age 4, the memory region of the brain, the hippocampus, is almost fully functional. Berns reminds readers that the brain evolved for survival, not accuracy. Despite resources vastly superior to those of a computer, it is incapable of taking in every perception, let alone recording them all. It takes shortcuts, inventing stories about the world based on past experience ("schemas"). Encountering something that doesn't fit an existing schema, we may change the memory to make it fit or perhaps not remember it at all. "Who you think you are--your notion of 'self'--is a mere cartoon, just as your notions of other people are cartoon versions of them," writes the author. Berns ably blends scientific literature with his accounts of his interviews with experts in a variety of fields to make a compelling case that our identities, as well as our perceptions of the world, are ever changing narratives based on highly selective evidence. Not a solution to the "hard problem," but an ingenious account of how the brain creates ourselves and our world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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