Brittany Blalock

10/8/02

Freshman Seminar

The Feeling of What Happens Chapter 7 Thought Question

Damasio’s explanation of extended consciousness and its connection to core consciousness was made clear to me this weekend. My boyfriend was telling me Sunday morning how when he first woke up yet was not fully conscious yet he thought that it was Saturday. He has no previous knowledge of psychology or consciousness principles, yet he knew that in the time when he first woke up, he was not fully conscious yet. When I thought about this, I brought to mind the idea Damasio raised about self and autobiographical self. The self that exists with core consciousness was not fully there yet for him as he was waking up and not fully conscious yet. He was in that brief period of time between the two. He still knew that it was himself; his core consciousness was beginning to work, but full extended consciousness for autobiographical self had not fully re-emerged because he was not in a state of full wakefulness yet. He could not yet recall that it was Sunday rather than Saturday because he autobiographical self was not present to remember that he had to work Saturday, not a usual occurrence, and thus it was Sunday instead of Saturday. He knew it was himself there thinking it was Saturday due to core consciousness resurfacing, but memory recall had not yet come, he was not fully wakeful. If he was he would have been able to remember that although it was his first day of the week to be able to sleep in, it was not Saturday like normal.

This real like situation put into perspective for me the different levels of consciousness as Damasio describes them and how a person is able to have core consciousness and not extended.