The human self from a neurobiological perspective: its emergence, its role as a social contact, and its importance as an "inner physician"

Joachim Bauer

The discovery of the neuronal "self-networks" is only a few years ago. They are located in a brain region behind the bindi dot that some women in India wear between their eyebrows.

The Self Networks have stored all information what a person knows about himself and what he (or she) believes who he (or she) is (see Joachim Bauer: "Wie wir werden, wer wir sind" and "Selbststeuerung", both Heyne TB). Human newborns have feelings and possess the full dignity of a human being, but they do not yet have a "self". So how does the "self" get into the child? Adults addressing each other activate their counterpart's self-networks, triggering positive or negative effects there.

Inner basic convictions and value attitudes also have their seat in the self-networks. Studies of the last years show that a prosocial, eundaimonic or sense-guided inner attitude top-down can have a positive effect on the activity of health-relevant genes (see Joachim Bauer: "Das empathische Gen" (Herder Verlag)."

Joachim Bauer, Prof. Dr. med. Joachim Bauer is a physician, neuroscientist, psychotherapist and author of non-fiction books, including several bestsellers ("The Memory of the Body", "Why I Feel What You Feel", "Principle of Humanity", "Pain Threshold"). For outstanding research, which also took him to the USA, he was honored with an award by the German Society for Biological Psychiatry. Prof. Bauer worked successfully for many years at the University of Freiburg. He now lives, researches and teaches in Berlin.