The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self

229 Pages·2015·1.29 MB·English

by  Anil Ananthaswamy

Contents:
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Epigraph
PROLOGUE
1. THE LIVING DEAD
2. THE UNMAKING OF YOUR STORY
3. THE MAN WHO DIDN’T WANT HIS LEG
4. TELL ME I’M HERE
5. I AM AS IF A DREAM
6. THE SELF’S BABY STEPS
7. WHEN YOU ARE BESIDE YOURSELF
8. BEING NO ONE, HERE AND NOW
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author

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Copyright © 2015 by Anil Ananthaswamy Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity,
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Portions of chapters 1, 7, and 8 appeared in New Scientist magazine. Most of chapter 3 was first published
as a feature in the online magazine Matter. The parable narrated in the prologue is adapted with permission
from Jonardon Ganeri. The English translation of the parable appears in his book The Self.
DUTTON—EST. 1852 (Stylized) and DUTTON are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House
LLC.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Ananthaswamy, Anil.
The man who wasn’t there : investigations into the strange new science of the self / Anil Ananthaswamy.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-69819081-8
1. Neuropsychology. 2. Identity (Psychology) 3. Mind and body. I. Title.
QP360.A48 2015
616.80092'2—dc23 2015003576
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other
contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any
responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any
control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Version_1
to
those of us who want to let go
but wonder, who is letting go of what?
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
PROLOGUE
1. THE LIVING DEAD
WHO IS THE ONE WHO SAYS, “I DON’T EXIST”?
2. THE UNMAKING OF YOUR STORY
MEMORIES, A PERSON, A NARRATIVE—AND ITS UNRAVELING
3. THE MAN WHO DIDN’T WANT HIS LEG
IS THE FEELING THAT YOU OWN YOUR BODY AND ITS VARIOUS PARTS BASED ON
REALITY?
4. TELL ME I’M HERE
WHEN YOUR ACTIONS DON’T FEEL LIKE YOUR OWN AND WHAT IT DOES TO THE SELF
5. I AM AS IF A DREAM
THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN THE MAKING OF THE SELF
6. THE SELF’S BABY STEPS
WHAT AUTISM TELLS US ABOUT THE DEVELOPING SELF
7. WHEN YOU ARE BESIDE YOURSELF
OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES, DOPPELGÄNGERS, AND THE MINIMAL SELF
8. BEING NO ONE, HERE AND NOW
ECSTATIC EPILEPSY AND THE UNBOUNDED SELF
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
It seems outlandish that the centerless universe, in all its spatiotemporal
immensity, should have produced me, of all people . . . There was no
such thing as me for ages, but with the formation of a particular
physical organism at a particular place and time, suddenly there is me,
for as long as the organism survives. . . . How can the existence of one
member of one species have this remarkable consequence?
—Thomas Nagel
PROLOGUE
A
n allegory about a man who was devoured by ogres first appears in an ancient
Indian Buddhist text of the Madhyamika (the middle-way) tradition. It dates
from sometime between 150 and 250 CE and is a somewhat gruesome
illustration of the Buddhist notion of the true nature of the self.
A man on a long journey to a distant land finds a deserted house and decides
to rest for the night. At midnight, an ogre turns up carrying a corpse. He sets the
corpse down next to the man. Soon, another ogre in pursuit of the first arrives at
the deserted house. The two ogres begin bickering over the corpse. Each claims
to have brought the dead man to the house and wants ownership of it. Unable to
resolve their dispute, they turn to the man who saw them come in, and ask him to
adjudicate. They want an answer. Who brought the corpse to the house?
The man, realizing the futility of lying to the ogres—for if one won’t kill
him, the other one will—tells the truth: the first ogre came with the corpse, he
says. The angry second ogre retaliates by ripping off the man’s arm. What
ensues gives the allegory its macabre twist. The first ogre immediately detaches
an arm from the corpse and attaches it to the man. And so it goes: the second
ogre rips a body part off the man; the first ogre replaces it by taking the same
body part from the corpse and attaching it to the man. They end up swapping
everything—arms, legs, the torso, and even the head. Finally, the two ogres
make a meal of the corpse, wipe their mouths clean, and leave.
The man, whom the ogres have left behind, is extremely disturbed. He is left
pondering what he has witnessed. The body that he was born in has been eaten
by the ogres. His body now is made up of body parts of someone else entirely.
Does he now have a body or doesn’t he? If the answer is yes, is it his body or
someone else’s? If the answer is no, then what is he to make of the body that he
can see?
The next morning, the man sets off on the road, in a state of utter confusion.
He finally meets a group of Buddhist monks. He has a burning question for
them: does he exist or does he not? The monks throw the question back at him:
who are you? The man is not sure how to answer the question. He’s not sure he’s
even a person, he says—and tells the monks of his harrowing encounter with the
ogres.
What would modern neuroscientists tell the man if he were to ask them Who
am I? While some would likely point out the near-biological implausibility of
what the ogres did, they would nonetheless have some tantalizing answers.
These answers, which strive to illuminate the “I,” are the focus of this book.