Your Symphony of Selves
Discover and Understand More of Who We Are
by James Fadiman; Jordan Gruber
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Pub Date 4 Aug 2020 | Archive Date 1 Jun 2020
Inner Traditions | Park Street Press
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Description
• Reveals that each of us is made up of multiple selves, any of which can come to the forefront in different situations
• Offers examples of healthy multiple selves from psychology, neuroscience, pop culture, literature, and ancient cultures and traditions
• Explores how to harmonize our selves and learn to access whichever one is best for a given situation
Offering groundbreaking insight into the dynamic nature of personality, James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber show that each of us is comprised of distinct, autonomous, and inherently valuable “selves.” They also show that honoring each of these selves is a key to improved ways of living, loving, and working.
Explaining that it is normal to have multiple selves, the authors offer insights into why we all are inconsistent at times, allowing us to become more accepting of the different parts of who we and other people are. They explore, through extensive reviews, how the concept of healthy multiple selves has been supported in science, popular culture, spirituality, philosophy, art, literature, and ancient traditions and cite well-known people, including David Bowie and Beyoncé, who describe accessing another self at a pivotal point in their lives to resolve a pressing challenge.
Instead of seeing the existence of many selves as a flaw or pathology, the authors reveal that the healthiest people, mentally and emotionally, are those that have naturally learned to appreciate and work in harmony with their own symphony of selves. They identify “the Single Self Assumption” as the prime reason why the benefits of having multiple selves has been ignored. This assumption holds that we each are or ought to be a single consistent self, yet we all recognize, in reality, that we are different in different situations.
Offering a pragmatic approach, the authors show how you can prepare for situations by shifting to the appropriate self, rather than being “switched” or “triggered” into a sub-optimal part of who you are. They also show how recognizing your selves provides increased access to skills, talent, and creativity; enhanced energy; and improved healing and pain management. Appreciating your diverse selves will give you more empathy toward yourself and others. By harmonizing your symphony of selves, you can learn to be “in the right mind at the right time” more often.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781644110263 |
| PRICE | US$19.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 448 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Laura F, Bookseller
Really an interesting book.
So many books tell us to FOCUS on one thing, but let's be realistic, we have many different interests (to match different aspects of our personality).
This book helps you work with all the aspects of your personality so you can be a better version of yourself and, most importantly, helps you realize there's no reason to be overwhelmed, we all have different selves.
Eszter B, Reviewer
Your Symphony of Selves: how to tame your various selves
Your Symphony of Selves by Jame Fadiman, Ph.D. and Jordan Gruber, J.D. is an impressively comprehensive and well-researched book about the different selves that exist within us, their articulation by various other disciplines and the techniques we can learn to tame our various selves to become more accepting and more successful in whatever our yet unorchestrated selves are hindering us from.
The book will enlighten us as to why we are constantly yelling at our Mum, while being active charity workers, and why we procrastinate while we run 10k well under an hour. While this is not a self-help book, the final chapter offers practical, short-term and long-term techniques on how to befriend our different selves and make them work to our advantage. Between the overview of our selves and the techniques for their betterment lies an impressive review of psychology, religion, literature and post-modernism. The authors highlight how different disciplines talk about the selves, and they make us realise that even Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 are but another articulation of selves.
The book is a great asset for people working in marketing, PR, communications, education or any field where they have to understand the constantly changing behaviour of people and need to influence it with compassion but firm measures.
The book takes us through this vast array of insights in 451 pages, which is one of the reasons why a more in-depth, upcoming review is divided into three parts: Part 1 is about the basic premise of the different, healthy selves that coexist within us. Part 2 offers a glimpse into the relationship between selves and other disciplines. Part 3 is about the techniques we can cultivate to befriend our selves and make them work for us.
The book, Your Symphony of Selves by Jame Fadiman, Ph.D. and Jordan Gruber, J.D., is out in September 2020 by Inner Traditions.
Mark K, Educator
"Your Symphony of Selves" is an incredible book of depth and wisdom that helps us know ourselves intimately so that we can live out our full potential. To know ourselves is to the know the internal family of selves within. If you are looking for a book to help you become beautifully integrated and holistically succeed in life, this is the book for you!
Media/Journalist 652998
This was an incredible book about the multiple selves that we have, which is what makes human beings complex. Our personalities are multi-faceted and create hypocrisies, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies within all of us, which our society has ignored through the propagation of the idea of each person having a single self. This is NOT a self-help book but comes with practical strategies for applying the research which is extremely helpful.
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