Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self

by Todd E. Feinberg

It may be the deepest mystery of philosophy, psychology, and how does the brain unite to create the self, the subjective "I"? In Altered Egos , Dr. Todd Feinberg presents a new theory of the self, based on his first-hand experience as both a psychiatrist and neurologist.
Feinberg first introduces the reader to dozens of intriguing cases of patients whose disorders have resulted in what he calls "altered egos": a change in the brain that transforms the boundaries of the self. He describes patients who suffer from "alien hand syndrome" where one hand might attack
the patient's own throat, patients with frontal lobe damage who invent fantastic stories about their lives, paralyzed patients who reject and disown one of their limbs. Feinberg argues that the brain damage suffered by these people has done more than simply impair certain functions--it has
fragmented their sense of self. After illustrating how these patients provide a window into the self and the mind, the author presents a new model of the self that links the workings of the brain with unique and personal features of the mind, such as meaning, purpose , and being . Drawing on his own
and other evidence, Feinberg explains how the unified self, while not located in one or another brain region, arises out of the staggering complexity and number of the brain's component parts.
Lucid, insightful, filled with fascinating case studies and provocative new ideas, Altered Egos promises to change the way we think about human consciousness and the creation and maintenance of human identity.

Genres: Psychology, Neuroscience, Science, Nonfiction, Reference

205 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Essam Munir · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most interesting books regarding the self and consciousness.
The cases were great and the author's experience can be felt in the writing, this is the first half of the book. The second half was an attempt to create harmony between neurology and philosophy.
Good, concise book.

[Jason Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked this out of the library hoping it would help me with my paper comparing classical chinese and contemporary bioscience models regarding the relation of the brain to emotions, consciousness and the body. I hoped it would be on par with Damasio, LeDoux, and even the two books co-authored by Sh. Begley. Unfortunately, I found its scientific founding too soft for my tastes. It did have a nice chapter on emergence theory, and plenty of case studies (asomatagnosia and the like), so if you find case studies fascinating reading in and of themselves, you'll definitely like the first half of this book.

[Simon Thirsk · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, as a non-psychologist general reader, this was a good introduction to "how the brain creates the self".
It was reasonably easy to read and not only gave a good overview of current psychological thinking on identity but also provided a -for me- intriguing theory linking psychology to philosophical propositions about epistemology, teleology and our perception of being.
In some ways it is invidious to give star ratings to books like this, in terms of their academic importance.
I certainly found it interesting and am glad to have read it.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feinberg Explores the brain, mind, and the unified self. From descartes, sherrington, kant, to Hubel and Wiesel ... etc. With illustrative neurological/psychiatric cases.
interesting and concise.

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book in the area of How I Mistook My Wife for a Hat. Looking a brain damaged patients and discovering what the healthy brain does to create reality from observing how the unhealthy brain does it. Here's a note I took that might give you the flavor of the book.

According to Jackson (who is also widely considered the father of modern neurology), the most automatic picture of reality that requires the least amount of complex thought-would predominate in states of brain disorganization. Under these conditions whatever is unfamiliar to the patient, such as hospital surroundings and strangers, should be mistaken for things more familiar. In other words, the brain-damaged patient resorts to primitive, automatic modes of thoughts in which the least flexible most ove-rlearned association would predominate. Levin called this the law of the unfamiliar mistaken for the familiar.