An overly general hypothesis that’s unsupported by scientific evidence in the text.
A psychologist anatomizes an unhealthy, fragmented fictional mind and discusses how to establish a healthy sense of self.
California-based clinical psychologist Litvin (Escape from Kolyma, 2019, etc.) avers that every human psyche pines for a “solid identity,” which he understands as one in which all its diverse parts are harmoniously organized and united. The fracturing of the psyche into incongruent elements can be healthy, he says—such “splitting” can be a worthwhile response to trauma. However, he asserts, the long-term effects are destructive and can be the root cause of chronic anxiety, depression, and a lack of self-esteem. Litvin discusses this fragmentation in inconsistent terms; it often seems to involve compartmentalization, but sometimes, it seems like a sequestering of experience—something more akin to Freudian suppression. The good news, Litvin says, is that one can transform a fractured psyche into a “utopian harmony,” or “balanced identity,” by conducting a dialogue between the disconnected fragments. He constructs a fictional case study that follows the plight of Professor Kryvoruchko, whose family members were murdered by the Nazis; his psyche is “immune to split,” Litvin says, and “represents flexibility, tolerance, and unification.” The content of this book nearly replicates that of Litvin’s Life of the Sailor (2010), which also includes the fictional example of Professor Kryvoruchko. This volume expands upon that book’s idea of sailing as a metaphor for introspective search, and provides a broader account of the nature of individual equilibrium; these concrete illustrations are of great instructional value. However, the author’s prose can be stilted and obscure, offering broad generalizations: “Superficial knowledge of who we are is responsible for the luck of intricacy.” The study also lacks scientifically rigorous investigation; Litvin doesn’t cite any evidence for his theories in the text itself, and although he often discusses chemical processes in the brain, he only does so in vague terms—without even naming the specific chemicals involved.
An overly general hypothesis that’s unsupported by scientific evidence in the text.Pub Date: May 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4759-0558-8
Page Count: 250
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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BOOK REVIEW
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