Publishers Weekly
08/08/2022
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.)
From the Publisher
[An] intelligent and provocative book”—Wall Street Journal
" An apt and timely new book.” —Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon
“A fresh look at the relationship between our brains and self identity… Berns…delivers an expert and thoroughly satisfying exploration of this specific area of neuroscience…. 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.” —Kirkus
“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... This book offers much to ponder for readers interested in the relationship between epistemology, personality, and neurology.”
—Library Journal
“Although the nature of the ‘self’ has been a gnarly philosophical puzzle for eons, recent developments in the brain sciences have begun to reveal what is actually happening. Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist as well as a psychiatrist and master storyteller, connects our lived experiences to brain facts with an uncanny knack for clarity, accuracy, and joyfulness. Me, myself, and I—we all consumed this book like it was peaches and cream.”
—Patricia Churchland, University of California, San Diego
“A beautifully written account of insights from many fields, including storytelling and what Berns has gleaned from brain imaging as a neuroscientist. The Self Delusion confirms what John Donne said: ‘No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.’ We can only understand ourselves as part of something much greater than we realize.”
—Julian Barbour, author of The End of Time
“A wonderfully creative book. Drawing on both cutting-edge cognitive psychology and the science of storytelling, Berns makes a compelling case that ‘we’ are constructed from fleeting perceptions and narratives—and shows us how we can harness this machinery to reinvent who we are.”
—Stephen Fleming, University College, London
Library Journal
09/01/2022
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
Kirkus Reviews
2022-08-12
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.
