The Roots of the Self: Unraveling the Mystery of Who We Are

by Robert Ornstein

Book Overview

In this work, the author marshals the evidence for a new science of the self that tries to understand the myriad ways in which individuals become who they are. Drawing on examples and scientific... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062507893
• ISBN13: 9780062507891
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

It Doesn't Take a Textbook!

If you would like to understand the most basic elements of individuality in human beings from a light and humorous approach, get down to your bookstore and purchase The Roots of Self, by Robert Ornstein. Through the use of humor, comic illustrations, and yes, a bit of sarcasm, Ornstein takes us away from the textbook and brings "real life reading" to the often dry, scientific, and matter of fact subject of the human brain and the development of the self. He supports the position that self-development is a result of the combination of nature and nurture; the biological hand we are dealt at birth vs. the environment's influence over our development. He goes on to explain temperament; "the person's predisposition to respond to specific events in a specific way." He says that there are three dimensions of temperament; high and low amplification, deliberate or liberate actions and thoughts, and a positive approach or negative withdrawal from the world around us. High amplification people have a lot of "stuff" going on in their heads and need to limit stimulation from the outside world. They are happy to sit quietly in a park and enjoy the day. Their low-amplification counterparts, however, need the loud music, the skydiving and cliff climbing challenges to increase their stimulation. Individuals who act deliberately plan their lives and regulate their activities with control and organization. The liberate individual will purchase a plane ticket to Paris on a whim for the long weekend! They are spontaneous and open to new experiences. Finally, a person with a positive approach to the world wants to conquer it, while those who possess negative feelings, want to avoid it. If you find yourself contemplating which category you fall into and believe it is time for a change, fear not! Ornstein says that most of us possess a little of each. There are however those among us that do tend to be to the extreme in any of these given dimensions. It is these people, Ornstein says, who are at greater risk of psychological disorders; anxiety, panic attacks, and to a greater extent, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) or schizophrenia, to name a few. Ornstein completes this basic description of self development by discussing the impact of culture and family, and the influence of race and sex. The Roots of the Self is a great beginner level book for figuring out who we are and how we react to the world. Although at times Ornstein makes gross generalizations about personality types, all in all it is a good resource for understanding the basics of human beings and our nature.

Good starting point for beginning self-actualizers...

This is a good starting point for people who are beginning to ask why... Why do I feel the way I do, why do I think the way I do, and why do I do the things I do? It isn't all random, and the more we can learn about how we are wired, the more effective we can be in all of our relationships. Reading this book led me to many other simmilar treatises of the same genre (most notably Wilson's Consilience), and I really feel like I'm a better person as a result of the thinking it has forced me to do.I've always felt psychology has been composed of too much speculation and not enough rigorous analysis. As medical science has advanced, there has been a tendency to specialize into narrower and narrower fields of study. For me, Ornstein's book was satisfying in that it helped me understand, at least a rudimentary level, that there are significant linkages between neurology, physiology, endocrinology,, and psychology. The book reduces many very complex notions borne from the last hundred years of medical learning into some simple theories about why we think, feel and behave the way we do.I absolutely buy into Ornstein's first notion about the RAS and high gain-low gain characteritics. It makes a lot of sense, there is strong scientific evidence behind it, and it dovetails well with other theories like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for introversion/ extroversion. His other two components of human make-up, I either didn't fully understand, or the chain of evidence seemed less complete. So I enjoyed the first half of the book less than the second half.I look forward to reading more of Dr. Ornstein's work...