Your mind is a very complicated entity. It has been suggested that looking at it as a network (or an ecology) of multiple agents is a more useful view than thinking about it as something monolithic.

In particular, your reasoning consciousness is very much not the only agent in your mind and is not the only controller. An early example of such analysis is Freud's distinction between the id, the ego, and the superego.

Usually, though, your conscious self has sufficient control in day-to-day activities. This control breaks down, for example, under severe emotio... (read more)