Subject of the Week – Our Selves

“I think there’s something idiotic about the self, that every day you have to get up and be the same person.” – Wallace Shawn

 

Most of us talk to our selves – and listen as well.  When we are alone, mostly undistracted by media or worldly events, the conversations we have with our selves can fill our consciousness.

 

None of this seems out of the ordinary. The voices we hear are spoken by us – even if they portray different characters from our lives.  Our parents, our siblings, our children, our friends and lovers.  The familiarity of the voices and the consistencies of our own responses help define our interior lives. They form our consciousness.

 

But what happens when the voices seem to come from elsewhere?  When they become intrusive and demanding?  We can still adapt, but the problem grows more profound and considerably more complex.

 

The podcast linked below explores the experience and consequences of talking to other selves that seem as real as other people.

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/20/255831250/is-it-possible-to-live-with-the-voices-in-your-head

Robert N. Kraft

Professor of Psychology
Otterbein University

 

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