nari
31-01-2005, 12:27 PM
Here is an excerpt from The Meme Machine (S Blackmore) 1999.
pp227-228.
Quote:
..."we seem to have an enormous desire to describe ourselves (falsely) as a self in control of 'our' lives. The British psychologist Guy Claxton suggest that what we take for self control is just a more or less successful attempt at prediction. Much of the time our predictions are about what we will do next are reasonably accurate and we can get away with saying: 'I did this' or 'I intended to do that'. When they go wrong we just bluff. And we use some outrageous tricks to maintain the illusion.
..'I meant to keep my cool but I just couldn't. I'm supposed not to eat pork but I forgot. I'd decided on an early night but somehow here we are in Piccadilly Circus at four a.m. with silly hats and a bottle of wine.....if all else fails - and this is truly an audacious sleight of hand - we can reinterpret our failure of control as an actual success!! I changed my mind, we say..'
(Claxton, G, (ed) Beyond Therapy: The Impact of Eastern Religions on Psychological Theory and Practice. London, Wisdom. (1986)
Claxton concludes that consciousness is a 'mechanism for constructing dubious stories whose purpose is to defend a superfluous and inaccurate sense of self'. Our error is to think of the self as separate, persistent and autonomous. Like Dennett, Claxton thinks that the self is really only a story about a self. The inner self who does things is an illusion."
This is a theme throughout her book on memes; and it is pretty convincing, though for some rather awesome, particularly for those who think they are in control of and generate their own 'thoughts' by conscious planning. We live by stories, true and untrue, told by the memes for their own benefit...not ours.
How does this theory of 'no self' impact on what we do and say with patients and what of their responses??
More later....
nari
pp227-228.
Quote:
..."we seem to have an enormous desire to describe ourselves (falsely) as a self in control of 'our' lives. The British psychologist Guy Claxton suggest that what we take for self control is just a more or less successful attempt at prediction. Much of the time our predictions are about what we will do next are reasonably accurate and we can get away with saying: 'I did this' or 'I intended to do that'. When they go wrong we just bluff. And we use some outrageous tricks to maintain the illusion.
..'I meant to keep my cool but I just couldn't. I'm supposed not to eat pork but I forgot. I'd decided on an early night but somehow here we are in Piccadilly Circus at four a.m. with silly hats and a bottle of wine.....if all else fails - and this is truly an audacious sleight of hand - we can reinterpret our failure of control as an actual success!! I changed my mind, we say..'
(Claxton, G, (ed) Beyond Therapy: The Impact of Eastern Religions on Psychological Theory and Practice. London, Wisdom. (1986)
Claxton concludes that consciousness is a 'mechanism for constructing dubious stories whose purpose is to defend a superfluous and inaccurate sense of self'. Our error is to think of the self as separate, persistent and autonomous. Like Dennett, Claxton thinks that the self is really only a story about a self. The inner self who does things is an illusion."
This is a theme throughout her book on memes; and it is pretty convincing, though for some rather awesome, particularly for those who think they are in control of and generate their own 'thoughts' by conscious planning. We live by stories, true and untrue, told by the memes for their own benefit...not ours.
How does this theory of 'no self' impact on what we do and say with patients and what of their responses??
More later....
nari