Learner Reviews & Feedback for Know Thyself - The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge: The Unconscious by The University of Edinburgh

I would give this course a five star review but for the subtle mind manipulation technique employed when conflating Trump's immigration policy with mass genocide. There is a difference between locking your doors at night, fencing your property, and intentionally attacking and brutalizing fellow human beings. America is a country of laws and there are many opportunities that arise as a result of justice for all. As a country of laws, America has a right and even a duty to both welcome those in need and those who wish to improve their lives while at the same time insisting they do so legally. America welcomes immigrants that come through the door. If you think this is wrong, then open up your home to anyone and everyone who wishes to share whatever you have including your spouse. If you have an opinion, express it as an opinion--don't just sneak it into a collection of photos and quotes that are repugnant as though it is equally and factually immoral!

I found this course to be helpful personally and the information a valuable tool for assisting others. The presentation was engaging and packed with fascinating facts. Dr Green is easy to listen to -being knowledgable, humble and humorous- and the video editing highlighted his points as effective visual learning tools. I hope to take the other two courses in the near future.

Amazing experience of blended learning. I think this course is a must do for anyone with a penchant for Neuroscience, Behavioral medicine and Phiolosophy. What are we; but rational beings.

Excellent course! Dr. Mitchell Green's discussion of how somatic markers can be used as a practical and rational guide to decision making is highly informative. According to Green, somatically marked objects or events elicit physical-emotional responses that may reveal deep seated needs and desires. Such self knowledge is sometimes difficult to access through direct introspection. Combining individualized responses from somatic markers within the framework of subjective expected utility theory provides a novel approach to gaining self knowledge and potentially improving personal decision making. Highly recommended.

Professor Green has once again put together a well-structured, well-delivered, and highly interesting and relevant course that I enthusiastically recommend to all learners and not just those with a fascination with philosophy. By offering this course in three depth levels, Professor Green appeals to divergent learner interests and styles and he infuses fresh life into topics that for non-philosophers can easily become tedious.

Great course. Clearly presented and enjoyable. Professor Green was easy to understand and had a good presentation style. I enjoyed his Meditative Moments and found them relaxing (I'm a daily meditator). The extra material provided was very interesting and rounded out the lecture material nicely, helping me solidify understanding of the concepts. I'll be taking the other courses in this series. Thanks, Professor Green!

very very interesting, and very clear, I had a great pleasure studying with you, thank you ! Maybe I would just have liked a bit more link between the Freudian concept of unconscious (week 1-2) and the more recent one developped (by Damasio, Wilson...) according to neurology (week 3-4)

I am very grateful for Mitchell Green and for all who gave life to this course. It was a great adventure, I enjoyed! I was surprised by meditation moments, it is a really good idea!

I've learned a lot and I will not dwell on it ;)

Know Thyself is suitable for beginner. Well explained in the lecture and good in depth if you have extra time in reading materials. The information is practical and useful for daily life.

Very insightful course, I really enjoyed it. It also gave a lot of extra source material that was very helpful in getting a better understanding of concepts.

Excellent course, I learned a lot. However I wish the quizzes were a little tougher to ensure more effective learning.

Really interesting. Hope to do the third course in the series once it becomes available on Coursera.

Very interesting, well put together course.

All I say... "a BIG THANKS...!"

A wonderful course combining psychanalytic thery and practical skills l of everyday life. ! The lecturer has the carisma of making complicated psychological theries about the unconsious, easy to cmprehend and digest. Apart from an basic education in psychoanalitic concepts as also on more contemporary reasearch about the unconsious, the course provides tools to practicaly come more in contact with ones own unconsious. Also the course is helpfull in raising awareness in how we make descisions in our daily life, and thus offers a fantastic connection between psychological theories of the unconsious and awareness in decission making and skills on a practical level of ones everyday life. I so look forward and expect the next course in Know Thyself to start ''Losing Oneself''. Thank you !

Knowing myself - and knowing others through this self-knowledge has always been important to me. In the region I was brought up, people always said (in those days): "Know thyself so as to know others. One might not say this as easily anymore nowadays, building on all the discoveries since then. But inferring from one's own behaviour to that of others can still give you some clues, at least to begin with.

I hope that you will not "forget" informing me when the follow-up course starts, for which I very would like to enrol!

UP WITH MOOCs! THEY ARE GREAT!

I expected this course to be quite easy and was pleasantly surprised to be challenged every week. I enjoyed variety of formats - lectures, video and reading assignments, self analysis tasks and meditative moments. Very good part of this course - that it provides lots of additional information (links to articles etc.) if a student is willing to explore more, but does not require to complete all of them. That allows flexibility and makes a student to share responsibility to depth of the course.

This is a great, albeit more challenging, follow-up to KT-TVLSK: The Examined Life. In this course, neuroscience and psychology take a bigger role as significant overlaps to philosophy in understanding the self - particularly that aspect which is thought to not be accessible to introspection. Professor Green seamlessly integrates these fields in the material. I strongly recommend devoting more time than you normally would in a MOOC for this course to get the most of it.

This course makes an excellent job at summarizing the main points about psychoanalysis and the Unconscious, especially considering how short it is. After each lesson, I was left trying to apply each concept to my daily life: finding defense mechanisms in my own or other people's actions, finding meaning in apparently meaningless elements of my day, paying close attention to my emotional response to each situation… It was a wonderful experience.

There wasn't a moment in this course where I felt disengaged - the structure was very professional and relatable/understandable, the meditations really helped me focus on the tasks at hand, and the subject was incredibly interesting! I learned so much about myself and others and this knowledge is truly valuable for self-development and is very interesting to say the least. HIGHLY RECOMMEND for anyone and everyone to take this course.

I found this course is so insightful to develop my self-knowledge as the way to gaining more positive mindset and the information is a valuable tool for assisting others. The presentation was engaging and packed with fascinating facts. Dr Green is easy to listen to-being knowledgable and the learning materials are excellent to guide me through this course. I hope that I can take other course related with this topic in near future

The first course at coursera that I actually finished, and in just two weeks instead of four. All because it was really interesting and not too challenging (for me, a person without any psychological background). I didn't learn anything groundbreaking, but a lot of things were nice to note, and the material was well delivered (even had some jokes - highly appreciated) and easy to follow. Thank you for the good work on the course!

I really enjoyed this course. I knew a bit about Freud and the unconscious prior to taking this course, but was very interested to hear new perspectives on Freud and to be introduced to other theorists who have developed and / or responded to his work. I took this course out of pure interest, but would recommend it to students who are studying Freud whether they be doing so from a humanities or social science perspective.

I really liked participating in the course, because I learnt of various aspects about the human unconscious and how every one's behavior is influenced by it. Very interesting was also that older as well as newer interpretations of the human psyche were analyzed. I expecially enjoyed the tasks to reflect upon oneself by meditating and analyzing past situations. Overall the course was very helpful and engaging.

One of the best courses in Coursera! The videos and lessons are very well presented by use of examples and animations which help to understand the topics clearly. This course is a must for those who have an interest and want to delve in philosophy and psychology particularly about the human mind.Finally, I would like to thank teacher Mitchell Green and The University of Edinburgh for this course.