Looking into a mirror as a young child, Steven Johnson wondered, "How is that me?" We try to find that part of the brain that recognizes ones self with Montclair State University Professor Julian Keenan. Turns out: only half of your brain really knows who you are. Also, Independent radio producer Hannah Palin tells about her mother, who, after suffering an aneurism, woke up with a completely different personality. She looks the same, and has the same memories, but where did her old mother go? One possible answer: Vietnam. Later, Paul Broks continues the discussion on the fragility of the self.
I was just telling coworkers today about my four degrees of separation from Lincoln. Grampa Parsons fought in the Civil ...
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Brilliant Work!
Comments [3]
As a disability rights advocate, I was mortified by the story about the mother "losing" her "self" through the event she experienced. A daughter, a husband, any other outsider doesn't get to define "self" for anyone else. Her mother gets to define "self" for herself. If the mother's take on it is that she used to be a lot more worried about things that she now has discovered don't matter, that should be good enough for those who love her.
I am married to a man who experienced a massive stroke at age 22, years before I knew him. What I always found interesting (and what he has always found frustrating) is that his family who knew him before his stroke lament the loss of who they thought he was before the stroke-- he was so outgoing, had lots of friends, talkative, smart, etc. Since he knew what was going on in his heart at that time, he can clearly see now (and continually tells me about) that he is a better person, and has let go of a lot of the social expectations that drove him to be frequently unkind, superficial, and self-absorbed.
Ultimately, if you love someone, you accept their growth and development as a person, and eventually have to give up mourning the loss of someone they may not even miss themselves. This whole story just made me want to cry on behalf of others, like my husband and Hannah's mother, whose loved ones can't accept who they become when faced with a life-altering experience.
It's a very fascinating podcast!
So, if the "self" is just a collection of stories about me that I put together to form this identity called me, then who is this "me" that puts together the stories to make up the "me" in the first place?
Is "me" the author one and the same as "me" the product or are they different?
Is "me" the author always constant while "me" the product always changing?
Does "me" the author merged into one with the "me" the product once it's formed and becomes a new "me" the author and from there builds the next new "me" the product?
I don't think that the whole thing with the monkey was completely correct because he's talking about how monkeys see themselves in a mirror and tying to say that he has a soul, I think it is more of instinct than actually recognizing them selfs thus giving them a soul.
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