Author: Fadiman Ph.D., James
Brand: Park Street Press
Binding: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 448
Release Date: 04-08-2020
Details: Product Description
Why you are a different you at different times and how that’s both normal and healthy
• Reveals that each of us is made up of multiple selves, any of which can come to the forefront in different situations
• Offers examples of healthy multiple selves from psychology, neuroscience, pop culture, literature, and ancient cultures and traditions
• Explores how to harmonize our selves and learn to access whichever one is best for a given situation
Offering groundbreaking insight into the dynamic nature of personality, James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber show that each of us is comprised of distinct, autonomous, and inherently valuable “selves.” They also show that honoring each of these selves is a key to improved ways of living, loving, and working.
Explaining that it is normal to have multiple selves, the authors offer insights into why we all are inconsistent at times, allowing us to become more accepting of the different parts of who we and other people are. They explore, through extensive reviews, how the concept of healthy multiple selves has been supported in science, popular culture, spirituality, philosophy, art, literature, and ancient traditions and cite well-known people, including David Bowie and Beyoncé, who describe accessing another self at a pivotal point in their lives to resolve a pressing challenge.
Instead of seeing the existence of many selves as a flaw or pathology, the authors reveal that the healthiest people, mentally and emotionally, are those that have naturally learned to appreciate and work in harmony with their own symphony of selves. They identify “the Single Self Assumption” as the prime reason why the benefits of having multiple selves has been ignored. This assumption holds that we each are or ought to be a single consistent self, yet we all recognize, in reality, that we are different in different situations.
Offering a pragmatic approach, the authors show how you can prepare for situations by shifting to the appropriate self, rather than being “switched” or “triggered” into a sub-optimal part of who you are. They also show how recognizing your selves provides increased access to skills, talent, and creativity; enhanced energy; and improved healing and pain management. Appreciating your diverse selves will give you more empathy toward yourself and others. By harmonizing your symphony of selves, you can learn to be “in the right mind at the right time” more often.
Review
May 28, 2020
Cynthia Larson rated it
it was amazing
Mastering Multiplicity for Optimal Living--A Fresh take on an Old IdeaYour Symphony of Selves illuminates one of the biggest unspoken and unquestioned assumptions implicit in western human society: each and every one of us consists of a steady, unified, single self. We might occasionally notice with irritation that a friend or family member is"not acting like themselves," yet seldom do we acknowledge the dynamics of the multiplicity of identities each of us actually possess.Your Symphony of Selves makes the brilliant point that the single self assumption limits optimal human functioning. To presume that 'each of us is a single unified self' is to miss opportunities for greater health,happiness and general well-being. Multiplicity has been disparaged for over a century, such that there now exists a working assumption than having multiple identities must mean a person has a disorder.Intriguingly, talking to oneself has been recognized as a way to fast-track one's resilience, creativity, and ability to respond with far greater resourcefulness--yet few adherents to the 'single mind' assumption stop to wonder who we might be talking to when employing such an effective device.The authors are quick to acknowledge that while there do exist genuinely pathological cases of individuals suffering from dissociative identity disorder (which used to be known as multiple personality disorder), such cases do not model of normal multiplicity. We have received g
EAN: 9781644110263
Package Dimensions: 9.0 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
Languages: English
