The Illusion of a single, unified Self

One frustration when reading, particularly dry study tomes like the one I am reading now, is keeping focused on it. The self is not one thing but a bundle of impulses, often pulling in different directions. I type this trying to keep my thoughts sufficiently ordered for you to read. Knowing my partner requires my help in going shopping keeps disturbing and intruding in. My heavyweight book on the history of violence is taking some digestion. As I read it I am looking for details to support or disprove a theory I am working on regarding how superstition relates to violence; how religion directly disrupts the common good. This is counter balanced by the knowledge that prior to the enlightenment and the rise of reason, religion with its threats of eternal damnation actually served to lessen violence and unhappiness. There are phone calls I need to make regarding my business, a vehicle I need to inspect. All these and many more impulses are pulling my body, the only true self in to action. My dog needs to go out too. The self is an illusion the mind creates to accommodate these separate drives and impulses. If you could systematically strip away each thread there would be no self left standing.