The Self Illusion by Bruce Hood

The Self Illusion by Bruce Hood

Most of us believe that we possess a self - an internal individual who resides inside our bodies, making decisions, authoring actions and possessing free will. The feeling that a single, unified, enduring self inhabits the body - the 'me' inside me - is compelling and inescapable. This is how we interact as a social animal and judge each other's actions and deeds. But that sovereignty of the self is increasingly under threat from science as our understanding of the brain advances. Rather than a single entity, the self is really a constellation of mechanisms and experiences that create the illusion of the internal you. We only emerge as a product of those around us as part of the different storylines we inhabit from the cot to the grave. It is an every changing character, created by the brain to provide a coherent interface between the multitude of internal processes and the external world demands that require different selves.

Bruce Hood is currently the Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol. He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard. He is an internationally recognised authority on child development and supernatural thinking, a regular speaker at international science festivals and is on the editorial board of The Skeptic magazine, alongside others including Brian Cox, Derren Brown and Stephen Fry. He has appeared regularly on TV and radio including 'The One Show', 'Start the Week' and 'Newsnight'.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781780330075
ISBN 10	1780330073
Title	The Self Illusion
Author	Bruce Hood
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Little, Brown Book Group
Year published	2012-04-19
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.