WAKE UP YOUR MIND

Here is a book that is aimed at turning the reader into a well oiled, presentable, jolly, considerate, likeable American-probably of the business executive type, or, more specifically, an adman. Osborn, as a co-founder of the well known advertising firm, Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn, is one himself. But he is a foresighted one and it seems, about as happy as he expects others to be if they follow his advice in this. His by-word is-creative imagination. After a long winded, homey, anecdotal definition of imagination that side steps the important period of adolescence- the beginnings of the loss of it in our society- he starts off on all sorts of helpful hints, reading, enjoyment of children, travel, painting, etc., for building it up. Then, after a preliminary chapter on empathy, he gives advice for the rest of the book, on problem solving and seeing things from the other fellow's view point. This is all fine, but in itself an uncreative job. Osborn does not help the reader to understand how he has lost imagination in the first place. He has a set pattern of rules for happiness in his mind and is telling society's boreds how to make the best of a bad job. But in spite of its tendency to coerce people into creative activity rather than to free them for it, this is the kind of book that tries to search out and heal sore spots in many lives, with no assured success.