Stranger in the Mirror
Trade Paperback
The Scientific Search for the Self
Who are we? Where is the boundary between us and everything else? Are we all multiple personalities? And how can we control who we become?
From distinguished psychologist Robert Levine comes this provocative and entertaining scientific exploration of the most personal and important of all landscapes: the physical and psychological entity we call our self. Using a combination of case studies and cutting-edge research in psychology, biology, neuroscience, virtual reality and many other fields, Levine challenges cherished beliefs about the unity and stability of the self - but also suggests that we are more capable of change than we know. Transformation, Levine shows, is the human condition at virtually every level. Physically, our cells are unrecognizable from one moment to the next. Cognitively, our self-perceptions are equally changeable: A single glitch can make us lose track of a body part or our entire body, or to confuse our very self with that of another person. Psychologically, we switch back and forth like quicksilver between incongruent, sometimes adversarial sub-selves. Socially, we appear to be little more than an ever-changing troupe of actors. And, culturally, the boundaries of the self vary wildly around the world - from the confines of one's body to an entire village. The self, in short, is a fiction: vague, arbitrary, and utterly intangible. But it is also interminably fluid. And this unleashes a world of potential. Engaging, informative, and ultimately liberating, Stranger in the Mirror will change forever how you think about your self - and what you might become.Buy now!
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- ISBN: 9781472146960
- Author: Robert Levine
- Pub date: 31.01.23
- RRP: $29.99
- Format: Paperback / softback
Author
Robert Levine
Robert Levine grew up in Brooklyn New York. After graduating high school in 1963, he enrolled at UC Berkeley where he had the blind good luck to experience the sixties from hippy central. After Berkeley, he went on to get a master's degree in clinical psychology from Florida State University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in personality/social psychology from New York University in 1974. He was a Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fresno from then until his death in 2019, with stints as Chairperson of the Department and as Associate Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. Over the years he also served as a Visiting Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil, at Sapporo Medical University in Japan, and at Stockholm University in Sweden. He won awards for both his teaching and research. He published many articles in professional journals as well as articles in trade periodicals such as Discover, American Demographics, The New York Times, Utne Reader, and American Scientist. His book, A Geography of Time (Basic Books, 1997), was the subject of feature stories around the world, including Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, CNN, the BBC, ABC's Primetime, and NPR's All Things Considered and Marketplace. It has been translated into six languages. His book, The Power of Persuasion: How We're Bought and Sold (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), has been translated into eight languages. An updated, paperback revision was published in 2006. He was former President of the Western Psychological Association and a Fellow in the American Psychological Association. (Website: www.boblevine.net).