Mark R. Leary is Professor of Psychology at Duke University. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and former president of the International Society for Self and Identity. He was named by the Institute for Scientific Information as among the 25 most productive scholars in psychology (1986-1990).

• 1: The Self-Aware Animal


• 2: Living in Two Worlds


• 3: Through the Eyes of the Ego


• 4: Making Ourselves Miserable


• 5: When Selves Collide


• 6: Risking Life and Limb


• 7: Religion and Morality


• 8: The Self Out of Control


• 9: Bringing Out the Best in the Self

Although the capacity for self-awareness is an essential aspect of human nature, self-reflection comes at a high price. Self-awareness and its accompanying egotism profoundly affect people's lives, interfering with their success, polluting their relationships with other people, and undermining their happiness. Drawing from work in psychology and other behavioural sciences, in The Curse of the Self, Mark Leary explores personal and social problems that are created by the human capacity for self-reflection and offers insights regarding how these problems may be minimised.