Try free for 30 days

  • Strangers to Ourselves

  • Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious
  • By: Timothy D. Wilson
  • Narrated by: Joe Barrett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (26 ratings)

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Strangers to Ourselves cover art

Strangers to Ourselves

By: Timothy D. Wilson
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $28.00

Buy Now for $28.00

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us. This is not your psychoanalyst's unconscious. The adaptive unconscious that empirical psychology has revealed, and that Wilson describes, is much more than a repository of primative drives and conflict-ridden memories. It is a set of pervasive, sophisticated mental processes that size up our worlds, set goals, and initiate action, all while we are consciously thinking about something else. If we don't know ourselves -- our potentials, feelings, or motives -- it is most often, Wilson tells us, because we have developed a plausible story about ourselves that is out of touch with our adaptive unconscious. Citing evidence that too much introspection can actually do damage, Wilson makes the case for better ways of discovering our unconscious selves. If you want to know who you are or what you feel or what you're like, Wilson advises, pay attention to what you actually do and what other people think about you. Showing us an unconscious more powerful that Freud's, and even more pervasive in our daily life, Strangers to Ourselves marks a revolution in how we know ourselves. The book is published by Harvard University Press.

©2002 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2011 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"[Wilson's] book is what popular psychology ought to be (and rarely is): thoughtful, beautifully written, and full of unexpected insights." (Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker)

What listeners say about Strangers to Ourselves

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Our Subconscious knows more

It was enlightening to hear how our subconscious is doing more than we realise but is like how a complex piece of machinery works, we don’t need to know each piece of a computer operates we just need to input information and expect the output similar to our subconscious (CPU,RAM) conscious (keyboard, monitor). I feel smarter :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Why do I do what I do and why I should know.

Where does Strangers to Ourselves rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

nothing like Freud or other pyschology books I've read so far. It gives you the evidence, gives you the theory, opposing arguments, how it can apply to you and situations where it works and doesnt work.

What did you like best about this story?

learning about why i thought that why and how i can change that and in turn change what i do subconsciously.

What three words best describe Joe Barrett’s performance?

old school. scientific. matter of fact

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

who are you really

Any additional comments?

If you journal, think you're introvert or confused to about who you are, where you came fromand ask why you do things even though you know bettem. this is for you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.