What is the self? A psychobiological perspective

Philosophers have long struggled with questions about the nature of personal identity and of the self, with some viewing the self as a transcendent entity, and others arguing that the self is a constructed fiction. An approach based in cognitive-affective neuroscience emphasizes that self-related structures and processes are based in the brain-mind, and emerge within the social processes of human development. Alterations in such structures and processes are present in a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders, and neuropsychiatric lesion and functional brain imaging studies have led to more detailed awareness of the precise neuronal circuitry underlying self-representations. A cognitive-affective neuroscience approach provides a conceptual basis from which clinical research can further explore how best to assess and treat a wide range of disruptions to the self.