The self is an illusion: a conceptual framework for psychotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS: Our usual experience of the self is an illusion. Rather than a discrete entity, it is a network of processes that maintains apparent irreducible unity via alterations of perceptions, beliefs, intentions and memories. By providing an efficient summary of an individual and its surroundings, the self-illusion allows one to predict, experience and interact with the world efficiently. Targeting mechanisms that preserve the self-illusion could provide a focus for psychotherapy. Viewing the self as a complex network offers a valuable conceptual framework for psychotherapy. PMID: 28193093 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australasian Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Australas Psychiatry Source Type: research