ABSTRACT
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Despite Goethe’s disclaimer and Freud’s claims about the unconscious, people probably know themselves better than they know anyone else. We alone have direct access to our private thoughts and feelings. We alone have witnessed and experienced every event in our lives. Even close relatives and lovers know only some of our private thoughts and some of our experiences. For many of us, the self is uniquely fascinating, as well as familiar. Dedicated personal historians, we dwell on our past experiences in thought and conversation.
