A well-presented religious study of the brain.
A debut treatise about finding greater mental health through spiritual renewal.
Psychologist Matheson uniquely ties one’s faith in God to the health of one’s brain. Rather than compartmentalizing faith and neurological functions as separate concepts, he connects the two inextricably, noting that “[e]very choice you make changes your brain.” Therefore, he says, “sinful” actions degrade it, and positive actions assist it. He asserts that because God designed the brain, one’s faith in him, and how well one follows his precepts, improves its functionality. He goes on to say that Jesus, as a perfect, sinless man, would have had the perfect human brain, so he should be the prime example for others to follow; believers, he says, should study Scripture to get a fuller understanding of Jesus’ psychological health. Matheson structures his work around the idea of “the faithful brain,” which he defines as “one fully integrated with God, within itself, and with others, optimizing its design.” He backs up his work with a wide variety of case studies featuring patients suffering from such maladies as post-traumatic stress disorder and seizures. In addition, he draws upon a full array of neurological concepts—neuroplasticity, epigenesis, and many others—and discusses each in a nonthreatening manner that’s easy to comprehend. Overall, this work is compassionate and uplifting, and any reader may be moved by the author’s sincere desire to better the lives of those who suffer. It wouldn’t be surprising if other experts disagree with his conclusions, however, and certainly there’s room for debate regarding the science behind this study. That aside, Matheson’s book is successful as a self-help work: he offers laypeople meaningful food for thought, direction for spiritual and mental health, and encouragement that one can overcome even the most entrenched mental and psychological problems.
A well-presented religious study of the brain.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490858586
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
