Strangers to Ourselves : Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

Rating:
Summary: Where do negative thoughts & feelings come from?
Review: Let me start by pointing out that I am a colleague of the author's at the University of Virginia. Still, I wanted to write a review because I think that this book does such a good job of reviewing and summarizing what is known about the unconscious mind. My research also deals with unconscious processes (but of a sort only briefly touched on in the book-I study memory & motor skill learning) so I picked up the book with particular interest.

One of the best features of the book is the absence of a problem present in so many other books on the unconscious mind; many other books make outrageous claims (e.g., that absolutely nothing is ever forgotten, that cultic child abuse is probably quite common) based on rank speculation. Wilson's work remains firmly grounded in empirical research. Each claim is carefully documented, and when he goes beyond the data with some interesting speculation he says so plainly.

Another thing I liked about this book is that Wilson shows us that there is no *need* for outrageous, unfounded claims; the truth is remarkable enough. He outlines in a systematic and compelling way that unconscious motives, desires, and thoughts influence how we see others, how we see ourselves, what we do from moment to moment, and so on. Still, Wilson makes clear that we are *not* at the mercy of an all-powerful unconscious mind. In other words, he avoids another common mistake of these books, which is to purport that the conscious mind is irrelevant. What is most important, he not only tells us *that* the unconscious mind is important, but *how*.

I find Wilson's style easy to read and his use of anecdotes and examples very effective. On occasion I thought that some points needed to be explained in a little more detail; that perhaps a reader wouldn't fully understand the explanation. On the other hand, when I pointed out one or two such passages to my wife she gave me a fishy look and said I didn't know what I was talking about....It's not a self-improvement book. The "do good, be good" business covers all of about 2 pages and Wilson puts the appropriate caveats on the principle.

All in all, this is a book I very much wish I had written. (Who's kidding who; this is a book I wish I could have written.)

Rating:
Summary: A good enlightening read
Review: Presents some interesting ways of looking at our ways of thinking. Complete with reviews of the scientific literature.

Very good ideas and particularly interesting scientific studies behind the ideas.

The thorough nature of the book makes its message a bit redundant and drawn out. Still recommended though.

Rating:
Summary: Have you seen yourself lately?
Review: Strangers to Ourselves is a clearly written and important book identifying the various internal walls impeding self-knowledge and providing advice on how we might enhance our ability to surmount them. The former constitutes the more interesting aspect of Wilson's book. His contention is that "human personality resides in two places: in the adaptive unconscious and in the conscious construal of the self." The latter is often deceptive, the former inaccessible. Much of the difficulty we face in getting an accurate assessment of our self stems the existence of our "adaptive unconciousness," that set of mental processes that influence our behavior "behind the scenes," as it were. For all its important influence, our adaptive conciousness remains beyond the accessibility of our conscious. So, how are we to achieve his second objective; that of trying to improve our self-knowledge? On this question, Wilson does not abandon us, though he does concede that there are limits to what we can do. The development of self-narratives, trying to observe ourselves as though we were outside ourselves (like the mathematician who solved a problem he found otherwise intractable until he managed to transform himself as his friend, John Nash, and approach the problem from Nash's vantage point), and altering our behavior in advance of attitudinal change are among his proposals for deepening self-understanding. In all, an excellent source for the general reader to come to grips with him or herself. I know, if my adaptive unconciousness could reach me, that it would agree!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Presentation About Self-Knowledge
Review: The book that carried the most influence on my thinking this year (I went back to it half a dozen times).
This is a clearly written presentation of our inability to forecast our own behavior and to predict our emotional reactions to positive and negative events. One would think that the repetition of experiences with consistent forecasting biases would lead to some correction but this is not the case.
We are more resilient than we think ("immune neglect"). The book also discusses the reversion to baseline happiness after what we thought would bring a permanent improvement in our moods (yet we never learn from it).
The most important part covers the "hindsight bias" how we see past misfortunes as deterministic --and how we can confront negative emotions by making them even more so (by creating a narrative that make the events appear unavoidable).

Rating:
Summary: Truth is Stranger than Freud
Review: This book asserts that we rarely know much about our own minds, what we do know is sometimes wrong, and moreover, that introspection is often powerless to help us to better self-knowledge. Not only that, but perfect strangers can sometimes tell us things about our personality that we didn't know.

Wilson, a psychology professor, is not really going out on a limb here, but rather reporting the strong results of recent research (some of which is his own) on the "adaptive unconscious". The new view of the mind that is gradually being built up by controlled experiments is often at variance with Freud's compelling but fanciful views on the unconscious and repression. The current model has the mind composed of a conscious part and, perhaps, several unconscious parts, each of which has a special ability, like recognizing faces, responding to emergencies, or selective remembering and forgetting. The author normally lumps these specialized parts together for purposes of discussion, since his intent is to contrast our conscious mind with our unconscious, and to re-evaluate what it is we can know about ourselves through examining our conscious motives, thoughts, and feelings.

Anyone who has ever been surprised at an emotion that has come over him, seemingly from nowhere, or by his actions in a new situation knows how disconcerting it can be. Are one's conscious emotions just fake - placeholders for real feelings that well up when one isn't looking? Are one's firm intentions just flimsy self-deceptions that are blown away by the right circumstances? It's probably not that bad (usually!), but we should know just how much of what we feel and think and think we remember is under our conscious control. The author is not really in the self-help business, but he does recommend several things we can do to find our real selves - and even to change. His tone is modest but hopeful: it's true that self-knowledge is elusive, but one can find out important things about one's self by indirect means. One can even influence one's unconscious, so change is possible. Perhaps an introvert will never become the life of the party, but he can take action to readjust his socializing comfort level so as to at least enjoy the party.

This book will interest someone who wants to see what sorts of things psychologists are learning about the mind these days, or who just wants to learn some things about his own mind. I liked it. In spite of the fact that much of the time we are running on autopilot, Wilson by no means absolves us of the responsibility for our actions, and gives us techniques and suggestions that help us to control our (often obstreperous) unconscious minds. Most usefully, he points out that self-knowledge is not simply "there", nor is it particularly easy to get. On the other hand, he made me realize that there is a new person that I might want to know better - myself.

Rating:
Summary: This was good for me, probably also good for you.
Review: This book it is dealing with a fascinating aspect of human nature that is somewhat less emphasized by many other authors. I highly recommend reading it - (and to the reviewer from Finland: so does Tor Norretranders, see his review in New Scientist). Having read this book, I see differently, more clearly, issues like: How much do we know ourselves? How accurately can we describe ourselves? How much can we predict ourselves? Advice ourselves and others? How much control we have on our decisions?

The reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that I've noticed the author sometimes misinterpreted data, or at least ignore other possible explanations. Also, is seems that he is frequently swimming comfortably in main stream, not questioning common assumptions that became questionable is recent years. As readers we can easily "inherit" biases. Just a sample: The author suggestion we learn about ourselves from what others think of us. However, as implied from the book itself, others have their own (unconscious) agenda, they have no means, and frequently no desire, to see us in objective eyes. Therefore, I keep (in my conscious mind) a question mark next to the author's explanations, probably a good thing to do with any author. Although this might seem like as a severe shortcoming, the book is nevertheless very enriching. Just by asking the questions and bringing the facts, it gives one a new perspective on oneself and others.

Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary Ideas That Shatter Preconceptions
Review: Wilson is one of the leaders of a growing number of psychologists, economists, neurologists, geneticists, and others who are shattering our Englightment view of human beings much like relativity and quantum theory shattered Newtonian physics.

One never likes to have their world views upended, but Wilson is masterful at presenting completely new concepts about how people take in and process information, form judgments, values, biases, opinions, and even behaviors. The implications from his theories affect virtually every aspect of human interactions, including business, politics, and personal.

The concepts might be difficult and sometimes disconcerting, but Wilson is a superb writer who neither writes down to the lay reader nor needlessly complicates ideas with overly technical language. It's a book you'll go back to again and again.