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Description of  Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain

From the small niceties that foster social cohesion to the large claims about the afterlife that allay our fear of mortality, humans constantly engage in forms of deception. The lies we tell each other and ourselves explain why some people live longer than others, why some couples remain in love and others don't. In The Invisible City, Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler show that reason, logic, and data the language of the rational brain aren't enough to make us happy or bring meaning to our lives. They argue that stories, symbols, myths, and rituals the dialects of the ancient "lizard brain" are fundamental to human achievement as a cornerstone of business success, an effective tool in medicine, a way to bind communities and nations together. Drawing on eye-opening true stories, literature, and wide-ranging studies in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychotherapy, The Invisible City is part journey through cutting-edge science, part roadmap to a happy life.