Strangers to Ourselves

Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

By: Timothy D. Wilson

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

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 primative 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 that Freud's, and even more pervasive in our daily life, Strangers to Ourselves marks a revolution in how we know ourselves. The book is published by Harvard University Press.

©2002 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2011 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"[Wilson's] book is what popular psychology ought to be (and rarely is): thoughtful, beautifully written, and full of unexpected insights." (Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker)

pretty good

the narration is great, the subject is fascinating, but the overall book is good, but not the best. i do recommend it though.

Compelling Analysis

If you have ever consumed a mild dissociative and noted the percentage of your behavior that appears to be initiated outside of conscious intention, then this is the book for you my friend.

Great research report.

I learned about my personal biases and how to spot them. It's an interesting material to listen to in your free time.

Good book

I have truly enjoyed getting to know a little more about how our brains work.

Excellent listen and will have you thinking a lot

This book pairs well with "Thinkg fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman if you want to go further down the rabbit hole. Enjoy