Sublime

So we each become, in a sense, a poet of our own psyches.

They found that persistent self-contemplation and inquiry turns a temporary brain state of unity and love into a permanent, structural brain trait.

see neuroscientists as the “new high priests of the secrets of the psyche and explainers of human behavior in general.”

According to one theory posited by Wright, modules generate thoughts in our subconscious, and the thoughts that break through and reach our conscious awareness become our inner dialogue.

You have always acted as if you are being watched, because you always have been. Your minds are constructed to act as both an internal actor and an external observer. You have, in your minds, an idea of what a correct life looks like. Every decision you make, you check it against the story. You have to. The panopticon is inside you.”

Part of the critical work of understanding in which he engages is a differentiation of the voices, a disidentification.

“fully human”

[I]t can make sense to think there exists, inside your brain, a society of different minds. Like members of a family, the different minds can work together to help each other, each still having its own mental experiences that the others never know about.”

If the critical voice within says the same denigrating things about everyone, no matter how successful, how reliable can it be? Maybe its comments are chatter, not wisdom.