The Human Mind: A Brief Tour of Everything We Know

Are you a human? Do you have a mind? Then this book is for you.’Like having the mind’s complexities untangled by a witty, eloquent and deeply knowledgeable friend’ OLIVER BURKEMAN ‘Really wonderful, hugely readable … loving it’ DERREN BROWNNothing is more familiar and yet less understood than the human mind. It defines the experience of being human, and yet its workings contain some of the deepest mysteries ever encountered. Written by one of the world’s greatest teachers of psychology, The Human Mind provides a masterful and riveting guide to all that we have learned since modern science began probing those mysteries.How does a three-pound lump of grey-ish meat give rise to conscious experience?What is the function of emotions such as disgust, gratitude and shame?How do our biases affect us and how can we overcome them?How does the mind of a child differ from that of an adult?How does memory work? What causes mental illness?Are we rational? Are we all a little bit racist?What makes us kind? What makes us cruel?What makes us happy?Many of these questions now have answers; many others don’t yet; many widely accepted theories are probably wrong. This book takes us to the very limits of what is known. It shines new light on all that you take most for granted: everything you think and feel, everything you say and do, everything that makes you you.’The story of the human mind as told by psychology’s best story-teller’ DANIEL GILBERT