Remembering the Future

We appear in our own memories, fears and hopes, desires and plans—as we are, or as we believe ourselves to be, or as we wish to be seen by others, as we want or do not want ourselves to become and as we see our past, and our future possibilities. Behavioral dispositions are influenced by these ‘‘self-images’’, which of course do not represent concrete spatial conceptions, but are rather abstract representations of features of the individual in his or her own brain. Self-images are often contradictory and can never be complete because no physically existing entity can contain a complete duplicate of itself. Self-images change in the course of time and alternate within conscious experience. They interact with one another and feed back on themselves. Perhaps these multiple self-images belong to the aspects of consciousness that cannot be determined fully by analysis of the physical state of the brain.

Topics: brain | consciousness