EP21 Keynote 12 - What is a Self? - Diane Ackerman, MFA, PhD

Description: This keynote is a sweeping, poetic tour of what makes a self, blending neuroscience, evolution, memory, relationships and metaphor into a vivid portrait of human identity. Diane Ackerman explores how the brain constructs experience, how relationships shape our inner life, and how memory, emotion and imagination continually revise who we are. Participants are invited into a playful, profound meditation on consciousness, connection and the ever-changing mosaic of selves we carry through the world.

Syllabus Description: Most of us feel reasonably intact and continuous, despite the constant commotion in our lives, our relationships, and our cells. But what exactly is a "Self?" In this talk I'll explore how the brain becomes the mind, and how it builds a sense of self (even a secret society of selves), to manage the ever-changing mental fantasia in which we spend our days.

Learning Objectives

1. We arrive in this world with the loose fabric of a self, which then tailors itself to the world that it finds. Learn how this sleight of mind-- a fluent, personal, durable sense of self-- is an elaborate illusion that's refined throughout one's life by both conscious and unconscious influences.
2. Develop a better understanding of the "secret society of selves" that some people possess and experience as a plague, a gift, or paradoxically (in the case of artists, for example), both.
3. Discover why the death of a loved one, or the end of a marriage or affair, can fracture one's sense of self, and the compelling role that plays in the sensory experience of grief.