by Timothy D. Wilson
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"Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us. This is not your psychoanalyst's unconscious. The adaptive unconscious that empirical psychology has revealed, and that Wilson describes, is much more than a repository of primitive drives and conflict-ridden memories. It is a set of pervasive, sophisticated mental processes that size up our worlds, set goals, and initiate action, all while we are consciously thinking about something else. If we don't know ourselves--our potentials, feelings, or motives--it is most often, Wilson tells us, because we have developed a plausible story about ourselves that is out of touch with our adaptive unconscious. Citing evidence that too much introspection can actually do damage, Wilson makes the case for better ways of discovering our unconscious selves. If you want to know who you are or what you feel or what you're like, Wilson advises, pay attention to what you actually do and what other people think about you. Showing us an unconscious more powerful than Freud's, and even more pervasive in our daily life, Strangers to Ourselves marks a revolution in how we know ourselves. (20021005)
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Average Customer Review:
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Renovating the House of Freud, 2008-04-30
Timothy Wilson enters the structure erected by Sigmund Freud a century ago bearing a wrecking bar and fresh wall paint. Freud's concept of the unconscious is in dire need of updating, Wilson contends, but not demolished entirely. The construction can be refurbished with modern research. Instead of the unconscious being hidden away until a psychotherapist teases it back into view, says Wilson, its effects can be detected by new observing techniques - even done in the laboratory setting. In fact, the author argues, much of the unconscious is there to help us through our daily lives. We just don't perceive its role or influence. In an easily read and nearlycomprehensive account of how over the past century psychology has revised the Freudian construction, Wilson has produced a shiny, almost new edifice. Sadly, the structure lacks a foundation.
Wilson points out that our brains are the result of life's evolutionary process. There is the ancient, rapidly responding elements inherited from ancient ancestors. There is also the rather cumbersome, plodding segment, more recently acquired by our species. In fact, it may be that which distinguishes our species. The ancient parts drive us to jump back when we see a long, slim, dark shape on the ground while walking in the woods. The newer, slower cognitive functions allow us to detect the object has bark and knots - it's a twig, not a snake. Although Wilson is anxious for us to understand our brains are based on an evolutionary foundation, he's quick to dismiss the nascent science of evolutionary psychology as "too extreme" in comparing us to other animals. His field is psychology, not ethology, and he's not willing to surrender his role. He's also unwilling to "reduce" the mind to something in common with other animals - or allow it to be compared with computers.
His concept of "adaptive unconscious" is a compromise between Freud's dark realm and the realities of evolutionary biology - tilting toward the Freudian side. Wilson demonstrates how in many ways our "adaptive unconscious" influences us. There's confabulation - contriving reasons for behaviour we can't immediately explain. Wilson deems us "the ultimate spin doctor" for projecting how good we are - both to others and to ourselves. There's the problem of whether emotion is reflected in changes of body condition - or vice versa. The wide variety of expressions of adaptive unconscious behaviours is amply and ably spelled out in this book. Perhaps no topic drives his thesis home more vividly than the segment "Are You Racist", still a major topic in Wilson's [and other] nations. The section is a glaring example of what is going on within our minds without our being aware of it.
Wilson's underlying theme is that the adaptive unconscious is the ultimate multi-tasking device. It is not a single entity, as Freud would have us believe, but a complex mix of motivating and reacting mental elements that play a significant role in our lives. At the bottom, it's things like breathing and heartbeat; at higher levels, it's rapid breathing and faster heartbeat in time of stress. The adaptive unconscious goes beyond our sense of self, however. It's also fundamental in how we deal with others. We may "rationalise" our behaviour in our own minds, but we act as our own "spin doctor" in actions toward family, friends or workmates. It's the latter that concerns Wilson in turning our mental "CEO" into a responsive, cooperating social element. If we can rationalise improper or inept behaviour, why not reverse the process and tell our adaptive unconscious how to react. Wilson doesn't say we're able to utterly reverse personalities, but we can choose which actions to emphasise and repeat. "Do good to be good" is a common saying and the author thinks that can work. However, given that we've only just shed Freud's "subconscious" with this book, it will be a long time to see if this new form of "operant conditioning" actually works. Let alone how.
What is missing in this otherwise fine overview is discussion of the underlying roots of what is driving the systems. The information on brain science touching on these topics is nil. In a science where brain mapping and data on the flow of neurotransmitters is almost daily news, this is a glaring omission. Even the single case of testing students in their reactions to a film while injected with either a stimulant or a depressive only indicates to Wilson that reactions vary. This is an unfortunate aspect in an otherwise good summary. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting pile of circumstantial evidence, 2008-01-01
In this book the social psychologist Timothy Wilson tries to convince us that we know much less about ourselves then we think. Many of our behaviors, feelings and emotions are caused by unconscious processes that are not, or only with great difficulty, accessible to us. Wilson aims to enrich the Freudian view that this state of affairs is the consequence of our own repression of unwanted feelings and thoughts. He argues that the complicated division of labor between the unconscious and the conscious is as much a matter of evolutionary efficiency.
To shed light on this division of labor he cites a great number of experimental results from social psychology, as well as many examples encountered in his personal life or in novels. Unfortunately, Wilson is never completely convincing. The reason is simple: Since the unconscious seems indeed rather elusive, it is very difficult to say definite things about it. The cited experiments are often smartly designed, but are not so precise that they will not admit more interpretations then the ones Wilson uses to support his story. The examples from literature and every day life are often suggestive and entertaining but hardly scientific.
One cannot hold against the author that he cannot perfectly illuminate something he argues to be inherently obscured (although I would not want to call the shakiness of the evidence a vindication of his ideas :). And to be fair, Wilson often admits that he is not on completely solid ground. However, there is one source of evidence that he leaves largely untapped: neuroscience. I am not an expert, but it seems to me that neuroscience is a great way to get around problems of biased self-reporting and hard to measure unconsciously-driven behavior.
Having said this, Wilson does a good enough job to at least make his hypotheses plausible to the reader. And the final chapters, although again courtesy to a sizable degree of vagueness, present a remarkable amount of interesting advice to know and change oneself. In expectation of a more solid sequel, I think I may follow up on some of it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Makes more sense than Freud's analysis., 2007-11-24
I believe the author has shown an excellent portrayal of the adaptive unconscious and how it realates to what we believe to be our present self or "cognitive self." The adaptive unconscious is more than a heirarchy of ego strata, but is either brilliant or brutal, heroic or coward, sophisticated or crude, all in the same conflicted unique, wonderful, nightmarish, noble and brutish individual.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Great reding and very informative, 2007-10-12
The idea that there is so a huge amount in our brain/personality/etc. which we are not conscious of, is extremely interesting. It also have many practical implication.
While giving very deep material and various research stuff, it is very readable. A great combination.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Very interesting book, 2007-06-28
It is one of the most interesting books I ever read. It broadened my knowledge of our behavior and the controller. I recited many stories to my wife to explain the topics of this book during spare time. It is fascinating.
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