You're back for part two, hearing me wax philosophically about memory, the brain, the self,

who we are. And I do want to talk a little bit about memory and using it as a therapy.

But let's first talk about choices and influence. We have less free will with our thoughts than we would like to believe.

That clearly seems true with some forms of mental illness, as I don't think paranoid schizophrenics

choose to have the delusions and hallucinations they experience. In a similar way, that we don't

choose the bizarre thoughts and visions that can happen while dreaming.

But even when awake, without underlying mental illness, having a lack of free will with our thoughts,

and therefore some of our actions, is a truism for all of us to varying degrees.

Anybody who really thinks about this deeply is bound to have at least a little bit of an

existential crisis, but it also can be seen as an existential opportunity.

It doesn't need to be a crisis resulting in despair in a way it can be somewhat relieving

to know that the lack of predictability

of our minds is not totally because of self-induced faults. We can take pride in our ability

to remain strong during a time of struggle. Yes, we can make choices, and those that believe

they can determine their fate are more likely to be successful.

Believing that choices don't matter is not only wrong, but can kill self-motivation.

Though we do make choices, and even in diseases like addiction, that can sway us to make poor choices,

we must accept that our prior experiences and underlying dispositions influence choices in the same way a well-done advertisement or a news commentator influences us.

A frequently used example to make this point is airplanes.

Many people have some jitters when flying, while few have jitters getting into a car to drive to the store, even though

your risk of death is higher with the car ride. You may know that statistically, cars are more

dangerous, but news events about airplane crashes are partly responsible for influencing

...