William James, in his excellent “Principles of Psychology”, discusses the work of Janet and others in hypnosis. A very interesting finding is that we seem to have multiple “selves”. For example, someone may have lost all feeling in their hands, and consciously feel nothing. Yet, you can touch the hand, and get it to write “I felt that.”
As James puts it: “It is . . . to no ‘automatism’ in the mechanical sense that such acts are due: a self presides over them, a split-off, limited,and buried, but yet a fully conscious self.”
We have, empirically–at least some of us–multiple, aware selves. I wonder, in this regard, if we have a TV self, and a normal self. Certainly, there is ample evidence for something called “state dependent learning”, in which, for example, a drunk can do things drunk they can’t when sober. One example I saw was of an alcoholic helicopter pilot who had, in effect, to relearn to fly when he gave up drinking.
If you look at the prominence of the TV in most homes, it is the altar. It is where we direct our attention, for hours of every day. How does it affect us? Do we acquire one type of sense of self while watching TV, which then disconnects when we move on?
How is it that pscyhologically normal people CHOOSE to watch the most grisly, macabre scenes for hours every day? Is it perhaps not the case that some part of them is NOT psychologically normal, and that this is not obvious since that deficiency is in some respect state dependent?
I think that is an interesting question.