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“The multiplicity of selves becomes more intuitive as the time span increases…we tend to attribute out own bad behavior to unfortunate circumstances, and the bad behavior of others to their nature.” The Atlantic, “First Person Plural”

How is it possible to have multiple “selves” within one brain (body)? At first, I thought that this was an excuse that people use when they’ve done something bad and don’t want to claim responsibility. Children will say that they were angry when they hurt another child the same way that a murderer will say that they were clinically insane when they committed murder and should not be held responsible. How is this possible to separate the many “personalities” that someone can have from their physical being as one person? It’s difficult to argue that there are multiple people within one body, but I could be persuaded to believe that any individual has different characteristics and decision-making selves that arise depending on the situation. However, it seems that this is a one-way street. An individual is able to say that they should be excused for their bad behavior because they were not themselves (whomever that is) whereas they would judge and critique someone else with whom they associate a negative experience, say getting reprimanded at work or at home as a child (even if it’s only one time), as a mean or bad person on the whole. Now, that doesn’t seem fair, does it? Where does moral judgment arise in the brain and how do we decide which of our “selves” wins in the end? Obviously there are people who exhibit both ends of the spectrum—incredibly moral and selfless versus purely self motivated and detrimental towards others—and they were presumably born with remarkably similar brain structures and function. So, where does the bad self arise and dominate the good self into submission?