The Mysterious Story of the Self

Today I will discuss the nature of the self and try to convince my listeners that beginning a sentence that expresses a psychological fact should not be "I am" but "I do" thereby changing the nature of our selves from nouns to verbs. This small grammatical shift allows us to recognize the enormous difference between judging ourselves and judging our actions or behaviors. Once we judge ourselves as a noun the judgment becomes a permanent attribute of our identity and self. Once we judge our behaviors we have an opportunity to change any aspect of our behavior which we (or others) feel is wrong or harmful. The change from "I am" to "I do" also allows us to challenge the psychiatric nonsense of being lablelled as mentally ill or disordered and living with the belief that our selves are permenantly defective. For example, "I am Schizophrenic" changes to "I behave schizophrenically and I can always learn to behave differently."   I will also discuss the relationship of our brain's activities to our understanding of self and selves.  

To learn more read my book 'Psycho"therapy" and the Stories We live By' www.store.bookbaby.com/book/psychotherapy-and-the-stories-we-live-by