A Mind of its own: how your brain distorts and deceives

In recent years, we've heard a lot about the extraordinary workings of our hundred-billion-celled brain: its amazing capacities to regulate sensation, perception, thinking, and feeling; its ability to shape all experience and define our identity. Dr. Cordelia Fine introduces us to a brain we might not want to meet, a brain with a mind of its own." "Exposing the mind's deceptions and exploring how the mind defends and glorifies the ego, Dr. Fine illustrates the brain's tendency toward self-delusion. Unbeknownst to us, our brain - vain, emotional, immoral, deluded, pigheaded, secretive, weak-willed, and bigoted - pushes, pulls, twists, and warps our perceptions. Whether it be hindsight bias, wishful thinking, unrealistic optimism, or moral excuse-making, each of us has a slew of mind-bugs and ordinary prejudices that prevent us from seeing the truth about the world, the people around us, and ourselves.