"We are all just a car crash or a slip away from being a different person."
--Paul Broks (author of Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology)
From time to time, I'll collect links to your blog entries when they seem to focus on similar themes and post them on my page. For this first one, I'm linking to entries where the writers seem a little freaked out by the implications with regard to selfhood of some of the ideas in cognitive science we're still just beginning to explore.
Arielle writes about her response to reading about Anton's delusion (when a blind person believes s/he can see) in Carter's Exploring Consciousness.
In response to the Radio Lab episode, "Who Am I?" Maryellen writes about the idea of a "provisional self" (and its parallel in Vedanta philosophy).
On a related note, Jessica responds to thinks, wondering how well we can ever know even our intimates (given the "provisional' quality of selfhood Lodge dramatizes).
On a brighter note, Arielle links to an article that suggests some practical applications (with regard to reading) for the ways our brains construct (rather than reflect) reality.
Comments (2)
I've had two experiences that scared me with the idea that I might lose my current identity.
The first occurred when I was in my teens and found myself unconscious undergoing
general anesthesia. After I recalled earlier episodes of anesthesia and the
recovery from each of them, I remembered that I was undergoing major tooth extractions.
I realized that the only sense I had of who I was was that of the person under
anesthesia and I was terribly afraid that when I woke up I would discover that
I was not the person I was then identifying as. So as I felt myself
waking I fought it as hard as I could. To no avail. It was a great
relief to discover that my waking self was the same person
I had felt myself to be under anesthesia.
The second instance was when I had brain surgery following a cerebral hemorrhage. I
wasn't concerned about the question of my ongoing personality but one
of my friends was. Again, I seemed to be the same person after as
I was before.
Posted by Lucy Schmeidler | September 11, 2007 3:04 PM
Posted on September 11, 2007 15:04
Have you seen any of the write-ups in TV guide about the new show with Christina Applegate? It is capitalizing (or hoping to) on this idea because something happens to the main character and she doesn't remember her former life, and as a result has to figure out what the real her is.. pre or post trauma.
Posted by Valerie | September 23, 2007 3:22 PM
Posted on September 23, 2007 15:22