This was about 150 pages too long. Aftee the first 400 pages, I had to start skimming and eventually wrapped it up. I think you can get the gist of thThis was about 150 pages too long. Aftee the first 400 pages, I had to start skimming and eventually wrapped it up. I think you can get the gist of the book in the forward and first chapter. After that, like a good academic, Henrich is just laboriously justifying his claims. Mostly, his claim is that the Protestant ideas of literacy, direct relationship with god, and spiritual life at the center of life were the original dominos that set things in motion for big biological changes to occur within our “weird” and historically anomalous culture of individualism, obsession with time, work, and money, democratic ideals and individual rights. ...more
Totally enjoyable. Great storytelling. I loved learning about New York, medicine, and America from this perspective. I was not expecting to cry but laTotally enjoyable. Great storytelling. I loved learning about New York, medicine, and America from this perspective. I was not expecting to cry but late chapters were deeply touching. I don’t what I was expecting when I took a chance on this one- I think it was an Audible top 100 book- but I really enjoyed it. ...more
loved it. if you like Brooks' other books, you will feel right at home. More social research, weaving together different perspectives and stats to telloved it. if you like Brooks' other books, you will feel right at home. More social research, weaving together different perspectives and stats to tell a particular story. I love his sources, love his writing style, love reading where he goes with things and love thinking through his conclusions to see if I agree. As a mental health professional, all of this felt right on target and I could say, shout it louder in the back.
As a non-professional in my non-paid hours, it seems clear Brooks doesn't live in the "real" world - and is safely cocooned in privilege of affluence, gender, race, and socioeconomic status- doesn't drive in traffic, deal with landscapers or contractors, or have to stand in line at the grocery store, etc, because his conclusion is that we should all be more warm, loving, and attuned to others. That most people just need a chance to "tell their story". For those of us that have to gulp down liters of BS from people on a regular basis, this is untenable. Try turning on the TV and tell me that you want to hear anyone on any channel talk MORE about themselves. Yes, read more Toni Morrison, Zora Neal Hurston, and definitely get yourself some high achieving Bobo artist/intellectual friends, but this is a very specific group that his thesis works on and for. ...more
Written about the commonalities of mostly middle class Gen X women, I felt soothed, surprised, and encouraged. There were many great statistics and waWritten about the commonalities of mostly middle class Gen X women, I felt soothed, surprised, and encouraged. There were many great statistics and ways of orienting to my own life and women around me. ...more
This was an epic read. There were a few parts where I got a little distracted, such as the parts about religion or the point of having money, but overThis was an epic read. There were a few parts where I got a little distracted, such as the parts about religion or the point of having money, but overall this work is outrageously original in perspective and excellent in execution, not small task since Harari is trying to describe all of history. His delivery is dispassionate and descriptive, much more like someone trying to tell you about what happened than trying to convince you of their beliefs. I didn’t always like what he had to say, but I trust him on pretty much all of it.
Personally, I was intrigued and excited that he was clear and steady in his rebuke of our treatment of animals. I was disappointed that life probably doesn’t have any meaning. I think he does mostly avoid explaining our spiritual impulses. ...more
This gets 5 stars in the YA category, not in the overall literature category, but for what it is and what it tries to do, this is a great read. I listThis gets 5 stars in the YA category, not in the overall literature category, but for what it is and what it tries to do, this is a great read. I listened to this book through audible and had trouble putting it away. I didn’t always agree with the protagonist, and many times her life seemed quite foreign from my own, and this was not a detraction but rather an addition to the book. I don’t feel quite qualified to assess as far as portraying black culture and Black Lives Matter, but I can comment on the philosophy espoused and in that regard, Thomas get serious bonus points for clearly outlining the interconnectedness of oppression, karma, and social justice and for that I owe her a big thank you. As a story that is meant to teach as well as inform a young audience, I can’t recommend it highly enough....more
I really, really needed this and was far more convinced and persuaded than I would have expected. This has had a profound influence on my perspective I really, really needed this and was far more convinced and persuaded than I would have expected. This has had a profound influence on my perspective and absolutely necessary reading in Trump times....more
What a splash of cold, clear water. Yes, this is a pop psych/anthropology book but it was perfect as a zoom out lens on the big picture and though it What a splash of cold, clear water. Yes, this is a pop psych/anthropology book but it was perfect as a zoom out lens on the big picture and though it is at times limited and there are a couple places where Watters hedges, his instincts are good and the material is on point. Having already read Anatomy of an Epidemic, which painstakingly sifts through hundreds of studies, I could easily go along with Watters' points because I already had the background. Readers picking this up without a strong background in psychopharmacology, both the practice and the industry, may not be as easily able to go along with his perspective.
Watters tells four stories of how mental illness was treated abroad, weaving in the influence of Western (Cartesian mind-body split, individualism, biosocialmedical) medicine and Big Pharma. As a psychotherapist, it is always humbling and refreshing to have the profession reframed by a cross-cultural perspective, when treatments, modalities, and drugs are so often represented as "cutting-edge" "facts" from "science" rather than phenomena born from and shaped by a sociohistorical context. It goes right along with Black Psychology, Norman Doige's Anatomy of an Epidemic, and other texts that dare to put an unrosy-spin on mental health treatment in the US. I had never heard of a psychological anthropologist before (I looked it up and there are about 200 in the country) but dang, that sounds like an awesome job!
After writing my review, I looked through goodreads and scanned the reviews- realizing how many haters this book has--- from pretty misinformed perspectives. The whole silver bullet 'prozac is like penicillin' thing has been throughly debunked in Doige's book so hating on him for not advocating that people receive their "lifesaving medication" is the same nonsense he is pointing a critical eye to. I would also suggest the documentary film "Off Label" that talks about some of the truly gruesome outcomes of these drugs, as well as the people who do these trials as their "job". Oh, you thought the drugs trials were done on ordinary, god-fearing folks like yourself? Uh, think again. Watters point isn't that they don't work, it's that whatever help they may be to some level of the population, that percentage is lost beneath a blizzard of misinformation, marketing, and misdirection.
Another was from a girl who was sure that her CBT therapy was really helping the Tanzanian orphanage children, her review seemed to based on feeling personally insulted, which that in and of itself plays out all kinds of therapist sins (therapist as expert, healer, helper, dogooder, etc). We can safely assume that she doesn't have a background in development economic so she doesn't realize that after 75+ years (we'll choose Truman's Four Points Plan as our starting point) the overwhelming evidence is that development projects have been, pretty much overwhelmingly, totally unsuccessful. Exporting "mental health" is the next wave of the industrial white savior complex, a point that could be a book all on its own.
So, in sum, if you're already pretty convinced that we Americans have, after about 100 years, solved *The Answers* to how to live a happy life for all people, despite the fact that permanent disability numbers keep INCREASING and don't mind the fact that there is STILL NO EVIDENCE anywhere to support the chemical imbalance theory, you prolly won't like this one. If some small part of your red, white, and blue mind can bend far enough to imagine that some other culture just *might* have any legitimacy and that our thinking *might* be influenced by a confluence of corporate marketing, the desperate death rattle of psychiatry, 40+ years of declining real wages, and the breakdown of civil society, then this is definitely worth a gander....more
I am deeply indebted to Carter for introducing me to Don Delillo's White Noise, but the "primer" is chock full of philosophical and literary referenceI am deeply indebted to Carter for introducing me to Don Delillo's White Noise, but the "primer" is chock full of philosophical and literary references that are worth following up on. In short, Carter holds the notion that American affect is blunt or stunted and the essays give various examples and themes on how this plays out. All the essays are impassioned, and Technology and Time, the first essay is worth the price of the whole book. Carter is convincing in his call to a return to feel, live, and love deeply, fully and consequentially- rather than resign ourselves to to chilling numbness of popular culture. ...more
There is so much to love about this book that it gets four stars, despite some, what I would consider pretty major, flaws in organization. I loved TheThere is so much to love about this book that it gets four stars, despite some, what I would consider pretty major, flaws in organization. I loved The Social Animal so when I saw the NYT article that preceded this book, I immediately pre-ordered it and couldn't wait to begin. As a psychotherapist, existentialist, and identified "stumbler" I was hooked by the article and the idea of studying the drive of virtue and ethics. Overall, the book didn't disappoint. It has stayed with me and provoked some pretty deep reflection on how I live my life, especially the moral gray areas that are more and more supported in a post-modern culture. The biographies are interesting, well paced, and fascinating reads. There are great quotes and beautiful writing peppered throughout. The final chapter is a knock-out and I would consider required reading. However, if you are short on time, I suggest reading the introduction and the final chapter, which are more reflective and philosophical (they read more like the NYT article) than the text in between. Below I have listed the major problems I had with the book, having mostly to do with organization and what Brooks left out rather than what is in the book itself.
Brooks begins the book with a fantastic introduction about how he chose the subject matter and a summary of Soloveitchik's Adam I and Adam II from The Lonely Man of Faith. He calls the values cultivated by Adam I as "resume skills" and those of Adam II as "eulogy skills." While Brooks admits that he has spent most of his life cultivating the former, he is increasingly interested in the latter and wanted to research how one might go about cultivating the kinds of values that create depth of character.
Each chapter is a biography of a particular character from history that was both famous and virtuous in some way. I was deeply disappointed that Brooks didn't share how he chose the people he did or spend any part of the book talking about why he chose particular virtues or attributes. While each of the people were interesting and the biographies well written (think Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers), Brooks doesn't make it explicit how he chose the people he did or provide any analysis of the personality traits they might share. I would say that probably 90% of the people Brooks' covers are enneatype 1 or 8. Though Brooks says he is researching virtues, nearly all the people are writers or political figures. Are we surprised that these are the people a pundit would admire? Maybe not so much but the bias is so blatant that it really should have been acknowledged. While the biographies are a convenient method of organization and well researched, it was at the expense of the commentary and reflection that made The Social Animal so rich.
Brooks recounts, but he falls far short of grappling with the choices these figures made or the virtues themselves. In other words, we take it for granted that they were famous and virtuous, without Brooks proving to us that these virtues are indeed worth following through on. For instance, by the end of the chapter on Dorothy Day, it was unclear if her religious zealotry, insane husband, and psychologically unwell daughter were part and parcel with her extraordinary acts or the price she paid. And if it is our lives that are what we sacrifice for "the good" how is that good determined? Says who?
One of my biggest bones of contention with the book: though nearly all were particularly spiritual or religious people, the role of faith in shaping moral development is totally ignored. Because the book is organized by people instead of by themes, Brooks fails to account for the influence of spirituality or religion on character development. This is a huge flaw in a book that is about building character where the examples of people who had character also had strong religious convictions. Whether we believe that it is an influence or not, the fact that it is ignored is, in my opinion, a huge gaff.
It is of course much easier to criticize a book than to write and edit it and to be clear, I thoroughly enjoyed it and imagine that it will stay with me for months to come. In my yearning for more books of this nature, I am desirous of more and wishing that Brooks had gone even further. I hope he does in the next book and look forward to what comes next.
"Behaving in this way, requires the innocence of a dove and the shrewdness if a serpent. The ultimate irony is that in any struggle we could not be virtuous if we were really as innocent as we pretended to be. If we were really that innocent we couldn't use power in the ways that are necessary to achieve good ends."
'Beau ideal of a certain sort of communication. It's communication between people who think that the knowledge most worth attending to is found not in data but in the great works of culture, in humanity's inherited storehouse of moral, emotional, and existential wisdom. It's a communication i which intellectual compatability turns into emotional fusion. They could experience that sort of life altering conversation because they had done the reading. They believed you have to grapple with the big ideas in the big books that teach you how to experience life in all its richness and how to make subtle moral and emotional judgements. They were spiritually ambitious. They had a common language of literature written by geniuses who understand us better than we understand ourselves."
"Love depends on the willingness of each person to be vulnerable. You will be loved the day when you will be able to show your weakness without the other person using it to show their strength."...more
I couldn't put it down. There are some great lines that just hit me in the gut. Far better than I expected. I couldn't put it down. There are some great lines that just hit me in the gut. Far better than I expected. ...more
This is the kind of book I would have probably really enjoyed at 13 or 14. As other reviewers have stated, it is pretentious, but in a I-may-only-be-1This is the kind of book I would have probably really enjoyed at 13 or 14. As other reviewers have stated, it is pretentious, but in a I-may-only-be-14-but-I-read-deep-books-because-I'm-deep kind of way. As another reviewer said, the female lead is problematic, as are, I think, all the characters-and the plot, really. For instance, the opening scene is of our female protagonist going to breakfast with her uber-conservative parents wearing a cum-stained party dress from the night before. Unlike Tom Wolfe, Eugenides doesn't seem to be saying "look how gross the ivy leaguers are" but rather, "we're rich and ivy league and even in a cum dress we're smarter than everyone else". This might be funny if Eugenides were making fun of this attitude but, as a Brown grad himself, I think he might believe it. This creepy attitude happens again in the semiotics section, where it is unclear whether Eugenides is making fun of how idiotic and self-important these kids are, or if these characters are just a vehicle to air idiotic and self-important thoughts. There is a lot of literary name-dropping, but this also felt pretentious/pathetic. Who is getting off on the idea that Madeline likes Jane Austen? And if female writers are so super hot, why did Chopin get passed over? The multiple paragraphs devoted to people's bookshelves felt incredibly hipster-douchebag (were there a sequel the opening scene might be Madeline reading heartbreaking work of staggering genius) and were hard to read what with my eyes involuntarily rolling into the back of my head (can you believe the parking valet had Camus on his shelf?! O M G!!!! So plebeian, yet so typical of a Botswana refugee Marriott parking attendant. Our Brown grads shake their incredibly smart heads in sad disgust as they say incredibly deep things to each other while mulling over their archetypal-yet-unique quandaries.)
There was a lot about each of the characters I found problematic but Madeline the most so. Again, I couldn't tell if we were supposed to feel sympathy for how painfully stupid and immature Madeline is, or if she is supposed to be a sketch of your basic Brown grad. I also missed what the point was of Madeline's sister- besides a setup for the final pages. The plot line of the sister felt tangential (actually, the sister, the lab, and mitchell's friend all felt tangential- which is about 25% of the book). Finally, the final paragraph of the book is so painfully cheesy I am embarrassed for him.
For all I didn't like, I did like the shifting POVs, the descriptions of Leonard's family (some classic Laing mystification examples), and Mitchell's travels (I wish this had been more of the book). There are also a few good lines and some nice city sketches.
I read this for ToB so I'm glad I slogged through, but I would never recommend it. ...more
I got about halfway through and then decided to check in with good reads before potentially wasting another minute on this. As someone who doesn't ownI got about halfway through and then decided to check in with good reads before potentially wasting another minute on this. As someone who doesn't own paper towels, gave up meat 15 yrs ago, tampons 10 years ago, started vermicomposting 5 years ago, and would have never even considered disposable diapers, this book was ridiculously elementary. As I read through his major philosophical breakthroughs I kept half expecting him to have a Eureka! moment where he realizes he should turn off the lights when he leaves a room.
Other readers are right: he doesn't explain how he makes changes, preferring to waste the ink on long diatribes. He is embarrassingly sentimental and his rhetorical pleas are as nauseating as his science and math are dubious. His wife sounds insufferable and despite a disarming beginning, he ends up being as annoying as people make guilty white liberals out to be.
I believe this is one for the Marley & Me/Tuesdays with Morrie segment of the population, for whom a modicum common sense and a analytic thinking are all but entirely absent....more
I thought this was going to be about belief, but it mostly a nasty rant about what idiots people are if they believe in anything except Western sciencI thought this was going to be about belief, but it mostly a nasty rant about what idiots people are if they believe in anything except Western science ('cuz of course science is objective, rational, and never wrong ever because it's all conducted by infallible robots). The author incessantly picks apart religious and supernatural beliefs but devotes all but zero energy examining what some the problems of skeptical zealotry might be. Perhaps the worst example was when he said that being skeptical was difficult and unnatural, THEREFORE we should admire and applaud skeptics. So we should admire all things difficult and unnatural?
If one were to cut out these rants, one would be left with about 35 pages of interesting studies, interviews, anecdotes, and brain chemistry facts.
I don't adhere to very many beliefs, but I am not really interested in the intellectual masturbation of bashing those that do. ...more
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