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The Self Delusion

The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities

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The Self Delusion

By: Gregory Berns
Narrated by: Byron Wagner
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A New York Times-bestselling author reveals how the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, are critical to our lives

We all know we tell stories about ourselves. But as psychiatrist and neuroscientist Gregory Berns argues in The Self Delusion, we don’t just tell stories; we are the stories. Our self-identities are fleeting phenomena, continually reborn as our conscious minds receive, filter, or act on incoming information from the world and our memories.

Drawing on new research in neuroscience, social science, and psychiatry, Berns shows how our stories and our self-identities are temporary and therefore ever changing. Berns shows how we can embrace the delusion of a singular self to make our lives better, offering a plan not centered on what we think will be best for us, but predicated on minimizing regrets. Enlightening, empowering, and surprising, The Self Delusion shows us how to be the protagonist of the stories we want to tell.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Gregory Berns (P)2022 Basic Books Biological Sciences Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Self Help Self Identity
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This is an informative, insightful, and encouraging book on the foundation and process of how we shape the sense of self. It's a delightful mix of neuroscience foundations, social science stories, and psychiatry insights.

The author investigates the past-self, the current-self, and the future-self through the five recurring themes in constructing who we think we are. They are epistemology (how we know what we know), compression (how the brain stores information), prediction (the forward-looking phase of identity), ]disassociation (how we separate the current self when thinking of the past or future self), and ]narrative (the glue that binds everything together).

One can apply much practical knowledge from this book directly in constructing a new self-image. I learned a lot and had tons of fun in the process.

If you are intrigued by the brain's prediction process, check out "A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins (2021). If you want more on aligning the actual-self with the ideal-self, check out "The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better" by Gretchen Rubin (2017).

Fun & fascinating facts on shaping oneself

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