Antonio Damasio does an admirable job in hypothesizing neural/biological connections to the seemingly immeasurable existence of self and consciousness. I appreciated how he worked from the ground up, beginning with the development of a single cell organism and relating its basic properties to its more complex manifestations in the modern human. I was also fascinated by the concept of single cells exhibiting a “will to live”—a need for survival and adaptation that possibly became the foundation for consciousness. I thought that was such a profound and creative idea—that a stepping stone to human consciousness was the neuron’s imitation of a body cell’s inherent will to survive.

Damasio also tackles emotions and their effect on memory and identity. He relates cultural development and creativity with a sort of social homeostasis, a way that our creative impulses correct imbalances in our constant search for well-being, which was an interesting thought. All of these ingredients came together in an intriguing hypothesis about the unique emergence of the self and consciousness, things we know are there but are still trying to explain.

I was a bit disappointed, Damasio is a brilliant neuroscientist and good communicator, however here he does little more than repeat himself. If you've read his previous books, you'll not gain much by reading this one.

A longer analysis will be made soon available in my blog.

Blog PT: http://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/2013/01/a-mente-como-autobiografia.html

Antonio Damasio is one of those rare intellectuals who both fills me with wonder and makes me want to tear my hair out in confusion. I found this book to be incredibly enlightening, but keeping up with the technical jargon was difficult, and I know I missed many key points because my eyes were glazed trying to comprehend all of the detail.

This is likely a book I will read again in the future for a more thorough understanding.

This is just a quick thoughts not a review yet.
Damasio is an excellent writer, I liked the way the book is written and how the main ideas are explained. Damasio is digging for the reasons behind the existence of the brain and awareness or consciousness, he separates between different types of consciousness such phenomenal which we share with other animals and self-consciousness which is unique to humans. How such a things came to be and what do they mean and how do they function? he says at the end of chapter 2

“Life and the conditions that are integral to it—the irrepressible mandate to survive and the complicated business of managing survival in an organism, with one cell or with trillions—were the root cause of the emergence and evolution of brains, the most elaborate management devices assembled by evolution, as well as the root cause of everything that followed from the development of ever more elaborate brains, inside ever more elaborate bodies, living in ever more complex environments.
When one looks at most any aspect of brain functions through the filter of this idea—that a brain exists for managing life inside a body—the oddities and mysteries of some of the traditional categories of psychology (emotion, perception, memory, language, intelligence, and consciousness) become less odd and far less mysterious. In fact, they develop a transparent reasonableness, an inevitable and endearing logic. How could we be any different, those functions seem to be asking, given the job that needs to be done?”

Once I finish Christof Koch book Consciousness I will write a review comparing both books. Hopefully.

I had to skip some parts but it was interesting

I probably didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would because I was expecting more of the case-studies-of-brain-damaged-people-who-think they're ghosts/thought-experiments-about-teleported-clones book about selfhood and consciousness. But it actually involves quite a hardcore investigation of brain anatomy and how selves and consciousness might come into being.

Damasio clearly knows his brain onions and his idea that the self must be really firmly routed in homeostasis seems convincing (not that I have the knowledge to judge).

But the writing is a bit technical (for what I'm fairly sure is meant to be a pop science-level book) and sometimes even businessy (lots of things 'open the door to' other things) and not always especially clear. Particularly on this topic, I really prefer more distinctive writing like Paul Broks or Douglas Hofstadter.

And of course I'm constantly disappointed that none of these books answer the hard problem (of consciousness WTF???!???). Maybe I should start reading Deepak Chopra.