Education beyond the conscious

[3 December 2006 - Times Union - Albany, New York] Human beings have divided selves. Some philosophers emphasize that people have a cool, rational side and an unruly, passionate side. Some theologians emphasize that people have a loving, virtuous side and a selfish, sinful side. Freudians used to emphasize the divisions between the ego, the superego and the id. But lately some brain researchers have another way to conceptualize the divided self. They distinguish between the conscious, intentional parts of the mind and the backstage automatic parts. The best metaphor for this last division comes from Jonathan Haidt's wise book "The Happiness Hypothesis." Imagine, he writes, a boy riding an elephant. The boy is the conscious mind, the prefrontal cortex and such. The boy can plan ahead. The elephant is the unconscious part of the brain. It produces emotions and visceral reactions. It processes information and forms intuitions. More