The Self Delusion, Gregory Berns
The Self Delusion, Gregory Berns
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The Self Delusion
The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities

Author: Gregory Berns

Narrator: Byron Wagner

Unabridged: 8 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 10/18/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

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. 

About Gregory Berns

Gregory Berns, M.D., Ph.D. is the Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics in the Psychology Department at Emory University, where he directs the Center for Neuropolicy and Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience. He pioneered the use of brain imaging technologies to understand human motivation and decision-making. Now, he uses MRI techniques to study the brains and minds of both humans and a wide range of other animals.
Dr. Berns is the author of What It’s Like to Be a Dog, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, How Dogs Love Us, Iconoclast, Satisfaction, and The Self Delusion. Dr. Berns and his wife live on a farm outside of Atlanta with several dogs, chickens, and some very special cows.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brother Brandon on March 24, 2023

Gregory Berns asserts (in a similar vein to the Scottish philosopher David Hume that the Self is a 'delusion'. It is a fiction that we create as we try to bring coherence to experiences of the past, present and future Selves. We design this fiction based on stories, usually in the form of the 'monom......more

Goodreads review by Danielle on February 17, 2023

This book is a mix of neuroscience, philosophy and self-help that I really was not expecting. I was assuming there was lot more neurology in it, which there was hefty doses of, but side bars into mythology and classic storytelling structure were a surprise. Despite this, though, I really enjoyed the......more

Goodreads review by Page on September 25, 2023

My favorite book thus far, really opened my mind to crafting new narratives. These narratives have the ability to change both who you think you are and who you can become.......more

Goodreads review by Laine on November 26, 2022

3.5. So much thought-provoking material, but I felt the middle portion dragged and wasn't really pertinent to the main point about self.......more

Goodreads review by Henry on August 13, 2024

A fascinating book on the current understanding of how the human brain works. On the illusion part: as the author masterfully noted, our brain is so good at what it is doing, we almost never understand what is really indeed happening. Our brain has a problem: it has limited capacity, so it ought to op......more

Quotes

“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, 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, 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, Stephen Fleming, University College, London

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