Understanding the Human Mind: Why you shouldn’t trust what your brain is telling you

Description

Drawing on current research in anthropology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the humanities, Understanding the Human Mind explores how and why we, as humans, find it so easy to believe we are right―even when we are outright wrong. Humans live out their own lives effectively trapped in their own mind and, despite being exceptional survivors and a highly social species, our inner mental world is often misaligned with reality. In order to understand why, John Edward Terrell and Gabriel Stowe Terrell suggest current dual-process models of the mind overlook our mind’s most decisive and unpredictable mode: creativity. Using a three-dimensional model of the mind, the authors examine the human struggle to stay in touch with reality―how we succeed, how we fail, and how winning this struggle is key to our survival in an age of mounting social problems of our own making. Using news stories of logic-defying behavior, analogies to famous fictitious characters, and analysis of evolutionary and cognitive psychology theory, this fascinating account of how the mind works is a must-read for all interested in anthropology and cognitive psychology. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements: The Powers of More than Two Getting Started 1 How Your Mind Works: Travels in Wonderland 2 Models of the Human Mind: How Do We Think About Thinking? 3 Human Failings in Reasoning: Why Do You Trust Yourself? 4 The Great Human High-Five Advantage: What Makes Us Human? 5 The Brain As a Pattern Recognition Device: How Do You Know That? 6 The Brain As a Pattern Learning Device: Why Do We Have Habits? 7 The Brain As a Pattern Making Device: What Makes Us Creative? 8 The Impact of Creativity: How Did You Learn That? 9 Lies, Deceit, and Self-Deception: How Gullible Are You? 10 Human Isolation and Loneliness: Private Lives and Public Duties 11 Pros and Cons of Being Human: The War of the Worlds 12 Making Sense of Our Future Prospects: Are We an Endangered Species? Index