The Nature Of The Self

A facsimile reprint of a seminal work on the relevance of the prenatal experiences on later post-natal psychological, moral, and spiritual development by a 20th-century ORenaissance Man, O whose search led him into realms of understanding that were far ahead of his times. Written in 1960, and long out of print, this text offers deep insight and wisdom about the developmental processes of human life.

In the contemporary (practical) philosophy, recognition is one of the central concepts. Humans are thematized as individuals who recognize one another as moral and legal persons. The central problem of the globalized, multicultural societies is how to harmonize the legal persons (who are free and equal) with moral persons (who may have their unique identity). In The Nature of the Self the thesis is elaborated that, in the contemporary discussion, a central dimension of recognition is lacking. All forms of moral and legal recognition presuppose the recognition at a more fundamental level: the recognition of the body by the mind. The systematic development of this relation can be performed with the help of a critical reconstruction of Hegel ’s project in the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right. This reconstruction results in a differentiated concept of the self: in three forms of the self (corresponding with three forms of recognition) and their institutional embodiment. This concept of the self not only competes with the position of Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth (as it is explicitly elaborated), but also with the one of John Rawls.

This integrative volume brings together leading social scientists to present diverse perspectives on the emergence, development, and practical role of self-awareness. Shedding light on the fundamental question of how human beings come to understand who we are--in relation to ourselves, to others, and to the broader world--the book does justice to the complexity of its subject while remaining accessible to readers in a wide range of disciplines. Chapters cover such topics as developmental and evolutionary aspects of self-awareness; the self, consciousness, and theory of mind; and connections between self-awareness and social, affective, academic, and neuropsychological functioning.

There are two realities. The reality of living our soul's calling, and the reality of being human.??Being human is hard, filled with ego, trivial problems, and plagued by emotional and cultural ideas that lead us astray from our eternal selves.??Living our soul's calling makes us feel alive, fully ourselves, and gives us the ability to heal, to grow, and to be who we were meant to be.??The Nature of Series is written from the Akashic Records-an energetic space that holds our soul's histories-and is designed to help us navigate the realities of being human, all while getting us back to what our soul is meant to be doing in this life.??Each book in this series sheds light on a topic that-when we get in right relation to it-changes the trajectory of our lives. Before, it was hard to understand. But now, with the Records, we can.??This book is about self-love.

Using the lens of ecopsychology, Returning the Self to Nature shows that the pervasive and extreme forms of narcissism we find in many modern societies are fundamentally the result of alienation from the natural world. But it doesn't have to be that way. Returning the Self to Nature is written for the person who no longer wishes to function in a world that revolves around selfish, disconnected identity models and yearns to step into healthy relationships with one’s self, one’s community, and our planet. Seeing the suffering of the planet and that of humans as inseparably linked—the ecological crisis as psychological crisis, and vice versa—opens the door to a mutuality of healing between people and nature. At the heart of both chronic and acute forms of narcissism is a socially constructed false self—an isolated, damaged ego in a delusional cycle of selfishness. Through unflinching analysis and meditation practices that encourage visualizing and embodying the wild naturalness of being human, the reader will gain skills to begin experiencing a courageous, pluralistic, and ecological self. This book is an invitation to wake up from the dream of the false self and join the movement toward social and planetary healing.

Self-organized criticality, the spontaneous development of systems to a critical state, is the first general theory of complex systems with a firm mathematical basis. This theory describes how many seemingly desperate aspects of the world, from stock market crashes to mass extinctions, avalanches to solar flares, all share a set of simple, easily described properties. "...a'must read'...Bak writes with such ease and lucidity, and his ideas are so intriguing...essential reading for those interested in complex systems...it will reward a sufficiently skeptical reader." -NATURE "...presents the theory (self-organized criticality) in a form easily absorbed by the non-mathematically inclined reader." -BOSTON BOOK REVIEW "I picture Bak as a kind of scientific musketeer; flamboyant, touchy, full of swagger and ready to join every fray... His book is written with panache. The style is brisk, the content stimulating. I recommend it as a bracing experience." -NEW SCIENTIST

Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.

Jonardon Ganeri presents a ground-breaking study of selfhood, drawing on Indian theories of consciousness and mind. He explores the notion of embodiment and the centrality of the emotions to the self, and shows how to harmonize the idea of the first-person perspective with a naturalist worldview which encompasses the normative.

A leading neuroscientist offers an intriguing scientific journey to understanding the neurobiology of the self. What can dementia, delusions, and other neurological disorders teach us about how the brain creates personal identity and a unified sense of self? Here, a leading neurobiologist offers an intriguing scientific approach to understanding the neurobiology of the self. Drawing on both the latest neuroscientific research, as well as the author's decades of experience with neurological patients, From Axons to Identity examines the link between brain and identity in fascinating new ways. Dr. Feinberg presents case studies of individuals with brain pathologies and unusual psychiatric syndromes that cause them to deny parts of their bodies or believe in the presence of mysterious imposters or imaginary friends, and then presents a groundbreaking new theory of these conditions that relates them to the normal course of psychological development. By examining what goes wrong in individuals with these conditions, Dr. Feinberg presents an engaging new theory with far-reaching implications for the link between brain and identity. From Axons to Identity proposes a new view of the processes of the brain and the self that is unique and revelatory.