Delivers an intriguing look at a fragmented mind; but this serious philosophical and scientific subject needs a more...
A psychologist explores the human psyche’s tendency toward fragmentation and a plan to restore a healthy self.
In this debut book, Litvin argues that the human psyche tends, often as a response to trauma, to shatter into disjointed parts. This can be a normal and even salutary psychological mechanism, especially when employed to defensively sequester the mind from overwhelming pain. But the mind can overreact to distress, leading to a self so addled with internal fissures that unhappiness, anxiety, confusion, and a deficit of self-esteem can ensue. Fortunately, the author contends, the splintering of one’s self can be remedied by establishing a dialogue between the parts, hence producing a “congruence” that results in the harmony of a “Utopian collective”: “The solid identity is a unique structure of the psyche where the fragments are aligned together in common goals and attitude.” In order to illustrate his chief points, Litvin concocts a fictional case study that chronicles the life of soldier Stepan Kryvoruchko, who fled the authoritarian ideology of the Soviet Union and suffered from a “shattered identity” as a consequence. The author vividly personifies the scattered shards of Stepan’s mind, and the process whereby he heals destructive “splitting” through a reconstructive unification. Litvin compellingly assesses the political dimension of his theory, and the “virus of radicalization” that can infect both individuals as well as body politics. He also includes helpful literary analogies, drawing a connection between his critique of totalitarian collectivism and Dostoyevsky’s novelistic dissection of the issue. The author’s intentions are breathtakingly ambitious: a comprehensive account of the human psyche, replete with a substantive vision of self-actualization. But the book is surprisingly unempirical for a psychological treatise—the author cites no experimental studies in his main text (some are listed in the Bibliography), and offers declarative assertions in place of careful arguments. In addition, the issue of the psyche’s fracturing into warring parts has a long philosophical pedigree as well, a history of thought Litvin mentions only in passing.
Delivers an intriguing look at a fragmented mind; but this serious philosophical and scientific subject needs a more rigorous treatment.Pub Date: May 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4502-1905-1
Page Count: 228
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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
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