Self-reflection

Only an anachronistic lack of informed self-reflection would lead one to suppose that an intelligent, alien life-form would be even remotely like ourselves. Evolution is an unceasing river of forms and adaptive solutions to special conditions, and culture is even... 

The kind of factors that might come into play - needs, preferences, perceptions, emotions - and divert us from being as effective as we might have been, were discussed in Chapter 2. It is not always easy to be fully conscious of all the nuances of our motives. Nevertheless, some self-reflection, coupled with awareness of the more common forms of distorted managerial behaviour, can be a first step to bringing our surreptitious agenda under conscious control. 

Amassing reasons why you should not do something could be an instance of the unconstructlve side of self-reflection. The risk is that it masquerades as a realistic appraisal of circumstances, and you do not see it for what it is, a... 

The task that confronts you if you are serious about meiklng use of this book for self-development is getting honest and accurate feedback on your performance to aid you in your self-reflections. My experience of action-learning sets is that, valuable as these are, they do not give the feedback that can only come from someone who sees you in operation at work. On the other hand, an effective set, in that it will get you to address personal obstacles to achievement at work, may Indirectly lead to the kind of observational feedback that you need. 

It is not always easy to be honest in one s self-reflection. Habitual patterns of behaviour may not readily come to consciousness. Or eill the self-Justiflcations and other defensive reactions that we have for concealing from ourselves the... 

Insight Self-reflection lost Failures of attention, logic, and memory weaken second- (and third-) order representations... 

My inability to take stock of what was going on, to direct my dream action, and to realize that my experience was entirely illusory denote the loss of critical judgment, self-reflection, and insight that we value so much as executive functions in our waking consciousness and without which we are as lost and helpless awake as we are in our dreams. 

Freud correctly assumed that the failure of self-reflection in dreams that results in our delusional belief that we are awake, can fly, or survive surely deadly falls from vertiginous heights was akin to psychosis. As such we accurately regard it as primary process thinking, which is by definition narcissistic, omnipotent, and uncritical. But why does it have this character And by what mechanisms Certainly not to defend consciousness from invasion (because consciousness is invaded by primary processes in this case ). It seems far more likely that this failure to test reality is the outcome of an organic deficit related to two other deficit conditions of dreaming, the disorientation that creates bizarreness and the amnesia that creates dream forgetting. 

I will address the mechanistic implications in the following section on cortico-limbic interaction. With respect to function, the most immediate and compelling hypothesis is that the subtraction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex from the otherwise highly activated forebrain maps on to the subtraction from waking consciousness of self-reflective awareness (self-evaluation), lack of capacity to direct thought (active evaluation), and failure to enact deliberate behaviors, however fictive, in dreaming consciousness (volition). 

But why are hypnopompic hallucinations even more unwelcome than hypnagogic ones Probably because most people find that falling asleep is easily understood as a time of increasing disorder of the brain-mind and, as such, better tolerated because it is also a time of diminishing awareness of internal experience. Waking up, on the other hand, is a time when increasing orderliness is expected, and waking is followed by persistent awareness that allows critical self-reflection. 

Conduct an honest self-reflection or analysis of how you currently use your time. 

Conduct an Honest Self-Reflection or Analysis of How You Currently Use Your Time... 

She advocates determining your style and preferences first (refer to the earlier section of this chapter on self-reflection and analysis) and then considering whether you prefer visual/tactile options (such as paper-based calendars and appointment books) or linear/digital options (such as computer programs and PDAs). She also warns that no system is perfect. Whatever your choice, Morgenstern recommends that you customize it, use it to its fullest, and accept its imperfections. 

L. Roso-Franco, Self-Reflected Wave inside a Very Dense Saturable Absorber, Physical Review Letters 55, 2149 (1995)... 

Just as we expect (and find) selective activation of brain circuits underlying emotion and related percepts in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, so we seek (and find) selective inactivation of brain circuits - and chemicals - underlying memory, directed thought, self-reflective awareness, and logical reasoning. 

Why is dreaming so rarely self-reflective, when waking consciousness is so often dominated by internal thought ... 

Third, many physical disorders also affect mental attitudes and behavior. Hyperthyroidism as well as overdoses of thyroid hormone can increase anxiety, irritability, and other emotions that the individual would not ordinarily experience and that can lead to behavioral abnormalities. There are, of course, many similar examples involving hormones such as testosterone and cortisone. More to the point, accidental brain injury to the frontal lobes and surgical lobotomy usually impair judgment, ethical restraint, and self-reflection. The character of the injured individual is often viewed as changed and worsened. 

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