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Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious by Timothy D. Wilson, Belknap Press, $27.95/拢18.50, ISBN 0674009363 Reviewed by Tor N酶rretranders

IN THE JOKE about two behaviourists chatting after sexual intercourse, one says to the other: 鈥淭hat was fine for you, but how was it for me?鈥� This captures the core idea of behaviourism 鈥� that human beings should be seen as black boxes whose input and output, stimulus and response, are the only worthy objects of study. All internal states, experiences and hairy stuff like consciousness are best ignored.

Behaviourism passed away half a century ago, but the joke is now in for a renaissance.

Ever since the ban on discussing conscious awareness and other subjective features of human existence was lifted a little more than a decade ago, it has become more and more clear that most of human mental functioning is nonconscious. We experience, feel and think many things that we do not 鈥� and cannot 鈥� know of.

Timothy Wilson, a psychologist from the University of Virginia, offers a charming, talkative and yet authoritative review of how it became clear that most of what happens inside us is not perceptible by us. In fact, other people often know more about events inside me than I do, because they can monitor my actions and body language better than I can.

That鈥檚 sort of creepy, and Wilson鈥檚 kind and gentle presentation of psychological experiments and well-picked quotes from works of fiction doesn鈥檛 make it any less so. The understanding just slowly creeps into your mind that, often, our conscious and nonconscious interpretations and motives are in conflict. We don鈥檛 know what we feel, what we express or what we want to do.

So what remedies does Wilson offer us non-transparent beings? Study the scientific knowledge of how you are 鈥� it will offer the possibility for some self-insight. Study your own behaviour to learn who you are. Do not trust the stories you tell yourself and others about yourself. Know that these stories are false 鈥� and then make up better ones to make you act in a better way.

All of this seems to be good advice. Strangers to Ourselves is certainly worth reading and reflecting upon. You will like this book. Perhaps you could now tell me if I liked it too?