Thomas R. Blakeslee

Beyond the Conscious Mind: Unlocking the Secrets of the Self Thomas R. Blakeslee Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1996 edition

A new understanding of consciousness that helps you to better understand your own and others behavior. Your mind is a self-organized team of specialized, independent centers of thinking. When we discuss our thoughts and actions in words, it is our self speaking. Yet most of our behavior is controlled by specialized centers of thinking which prevail when the context requires their special abilities. 
Unfortunately, the self tries to explain all of our behavior, even though it is simply rationalizing. Being word-oriented, it has no direct knowledge of the real reasons for our non-verbal behavior. Chemical signals do give the self vague clues, such as queasy or elated feelings, but the self is forced to fabricate, sometimes elaborate, explanations for our behavior and feelings. With practice, you can learn to see through these rationalizations and better understand your own and other's behavior. 
Self-control is when the self actually takes control of behavior. Though useful for suppressing bad impulses, continual self-control is not a goal we should strive for. There are good reasons for the way our brain is organized as a consortium because logic and language are not always the best approach to everything. Intuition and "feel" are more effective for many tasks. Once you understand how the brain really works, you can work on developing mental habits that will increase your effectiveness by using minimal self-control and building a harmonious team of specialists in your head that know how to cooperate to get the job done.