The feeling of a unitary, continuous self is not a fixed property but a narrative the brain builds and revises using predictable neural processes (the 'inner voice', memory re‑weighing, and attentional framing). Understanding identity as a malleable, mechanistic product makes therapeutic change, persuasion, and policy interventions (e.g., in mental health or rehabilitation) more tractable and ethically fraught.
— Framing identity as an engineered, editable process shifts responsibility and regulatory conversations about mental‑health treatment, persuasive technologies, and claims about authentic selfhood.
Sara Wheeler
2026.04.17
72% relevant
The article examines Jan Morris’s self‑presentation and life story as a writerly construction, directly tying into the idea that identity is narrated and can be reshaped; Morris’s transition and autobiographical method illustrate how inner life is edited into public identity, showing the social mechanics of 'editing' a self that the existing idea names.
Ethan Kross, Heather Berlin, Nicole Vignola
2026.04.16
100% relevant
The article’s central example — 'the voice in your head feels like your own, but it’s constructed by neurological processes' — concretely illustrates how internal narration functions as the substrate that can be edited.
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