Dr. Dan Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, and Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute that offers online learning and in-person seminars on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. An award-winning educator, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of several honorary fellowships. Dr. Siegel has written six New York Times bestsellers including Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, and Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence. His most recent book, IntraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging, is now out in bookstores and is also the topic of conversation for this episode.

In this episode of Intersections, Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa has a conversation with Dr. Dan Siegel on the topic “Breaking the Illusion of the Self.”

Modern culture has influenced many of us to view the self—the seat of human experience—purely by the boundaries of the body and the mind, creating a fundamental sense of separateness from the rest of existence. And yet, the pandemic shattered the illusion of the separate solo self in many ways. Could it be that despite our best intentions, we have a misunderstanding of who we really are? And could it be that the illusion of the self may be standing in the way of us realizing our full potential?

“If something is excessively differentiated, let's say, in the body and it starts growing with disregard of its being a part of the intra-connected whole, we call it cancer. So then it became clear that it could be that the construction of the solo self by modern culture is a kind of cancer of modern times.”

Dr. Dan Siegel

This episode offers key insights on:

• Why the common understanding of the “self” is a constructed illusion
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• Two life-changing tools to deepen our perception of the self, break out of this illusion and take action that not only serves us, but everyone and everything around us
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• And how to live joyfully even when the world rejects your vision and your ideas