The Two of Me: The Rational Outer Me and the Emotional Inner Me

by Birtchnell,John

• ISBN13: 9781841693231
• ISBN10: 1841693235
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-08
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

This book attempts to answer the question: How much of what we do is the result of conscious and deliberate decisions and how much originates in unconscious, unthought out, automatic directives? The answer is that far more than what we might imagine falls into the second category. We tend to assume responsibility for our unconsciously determined thoughts and actions, and even though we do not know why we think and act the way we do, we make up reasons for it, which we truly believe. Each one of us is really two people in the same body, who in many respects, function quite independently of each other, and yet somehow manage to get along with things, while the other, the outer brain, serves as the spokesperson for both of them. The inner brain is the source of our objectives and generates the emotions that keep us on track in our attainment of them. This book explores the strange relationship between these two parts of us across a spectrum of mental processes including, memory, language,problem-solving, dreams, delusions and hallucinations, and more complex pursuits sucs as the arts, humor and religion.

Author Biography

John Birtchnell is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Paul Gilbert
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
PART I The outer me/inner me dichotomy	1	(40)
The birth of an idea	3	(12)
The outer me	15	(13)
The inner me	28	(13)
PART II Other conscious/unconscious distinctions	41	(30)
Psychodynamic distinctions	43	(14)
Cognitive distinctions	57	(14)
PART III The human objectives	71	(42)
Survival	73	(13)
Reproduction	86	(13)
Relating	99	(14)
PART IV The receptive and responsive me	113	(42)
Sensory input	115	(13)
Emotion	128	(13)
Memory	141	(14)
PART V The active me	155	(40)
Motor action	157	(12)
Communication and language	169	(13)
Mental activity	182	(13)
PART VI The complex me	195	(42)
Deception and self-deception	197	(14)
Delusions and hallucinations	211	(13)
Dreams	224	(13)
PART VII The social me	237	(40)
The arts	239	(12)
Humour	251	(13)
Religion	264	(13)
Bibliography	277	(16)
Author index	293	(6)
Subject index	299