A stimulating treatise on how lofty ideals can grow from primitive, unreliable urges.
A debut psychological study that asserts that our instinctual aversion to disgusting biological phenomena also shapes our ideas about legal and political issues—with dysfunctional consequences.
Lieberman (Psychology/Univ. of Miami) and Patrick (Law/Univ. of Central Florida) link together the universal human revulsion at things such as rotting food and diseased flesh with our sense of moral conviction, particularly regarding different types of sexual behavior. They trace this notion back to a genetically programmed disgust reflex that makes humans avoid things that harbor disease-causing microbes, such as bad-smelling, bad-tasting, maggoty food or animals with blotchy skin or open sores. They argue that people also adapt these emotions to judge prospective mating partners: One feels an aversion to sex with those who look unhealthy or too old or young to be fertile or with family members, because mating with close relatives confers a high risk of genetic abnormalities. The Darwinian survival mechanism of disgust, they contend, also lends itself to social bonding: When one paints marginalized individuals or groups as disgusting, it’s easier to convince others to help expel or exploit them. This plays out in politics, when officials apply metaphors that elicit disgust to racial minorities or gay people, and in criminal cases, when prosecutors label defendants with terms such as “scum” or “filth” or display gruesome crime scene photos. The authors make a cogent plea to eliminate such visceral feelings from law and policy in favor of more rational, tolerant principles: “If we are going to claim a moral high ground,” they write, “it will not be built atop disgust.” They illustrate this by examining the inconsistent rationales for banning various taboo sexual practices. Lieberman and Patrick draw on a wealth of research to make their case; for example, they note that putting test subjects in a room that has an unpleasant odor causes them to make harsher moral judgments. They also convey it all in lucid, readable prose. The result is an occasionally gross but always engrossing account of how the mind cobbles together seemingly self-evident attitudes out of repurposed, subconscious mental processes.
A stimulating treatise on how lofty ideals can grow from primitive, unreliable urges.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-049129-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing look at suicide weighed down by dense facts and figures.
A mechanical engineer zeroes in on the physiological dynamics of the brain in a valiant effort to explain suicide and make sense of his son’s death.
In 2002, Sanchez’s son Mitchell Xavier killed himself after suffering for years from depression and panic attacks. Unsatisfied with current therapies and methods of pharmacology, the author has written two previous books searching for clues to the causes of depression and other brain disorders. This third book continues the hunt, focusing on aftoktognosis, which the author defines as the knowledge of suicide. Despite a tendency to indulge in a deluge of statistics, Sanchez offers wise and elegant words–written by the likes of Andrew Solomon and Kay Redfield James–to bring dry facts to life. The centerpiece of the book is an exhaustive, often tedious exploration of the brain based on modern neurological theory, which concludes with a lengthy description of brain mechanics and the chemical changes that may lead to panic attacks, depression and suicide. A more successful section devoted to a catalogue of mental disorders is made memorable by the inclusion of the author’s personal experiences. In a brief, moving passage, Sanchez reveals that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder in the months following his son’s suicide–anxiety disrupted his sleep and visions of Mitchell’s death haunted his waking hours. Later in the book, a suicide autopsy–a fascinating investigation into why a promising lawyer overdosed on pills–makes a convincing case that the many theories currently in play among psychiatrists and psychologists may work against each other, complicating the potential for prevention. Perhaps the most innovative theory presented involves the idea that the loss of a sense of self–otherwise known as idiozimia–may be the prerequisite for suicidal behavior. Sanchez ultimately concludes that saving a person from suicide depends on a more accurate assessment of risk and a deeper understanding of this tragic phenomenon through collaboration and communication.
An intriguing look at suicide weighed down by dense facts and figures.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-7990-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This academic exploration of female sexuality is marred by a facile categorization of feminists. Sexologist McCormick (Psychology/State Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh; Changing Boundaries: Gender Roles and Sexual Behavior, not reviewed) simplistically defines feminists as either ``Liberal'' or ``Radical.'' She constructs the former as focused on women's sexual pleasure and the latter as concerned with protecting girls and women from sexual abuse and exploitation. Placing her work as outside the typical model of sex research centered on white, middle-class heterosexual women, McCormick seeks to widen her readers' conception of female sexuality with her discussion of seduction, intimacy, lesbians and bisexuals, female sex-trade workers, pornography, and models of pleasure and fulfillment. She challenges the popular belief that sex should have orgasm as its goal, asserting that it denies many women their sexuality, especially those who are paralyzed or otherwise disabled. In the context of her research, McCormick encourages us to move beyond the ``dehumanizing [equation of] sexuality with genital juxtapositions and intercourse'' and to view sexuality as ``a whole body and whole mind experience.'' She is at her strongest in her explorations of women sex-trade workers, sexual victimization, and pornography; she advocates the legalization of prostitution and the creation of erotic material that affirms women's sexuality. Unfortunately, McCormick has a tendency to idealize women as more sentimental, affectionate, and desirous of intimacy than men. She sees female sexuality as almost spiritual, which leads her to make some extravagant generalizations. She suggests, for instance, that lesbians value intimacy more than sex, that loving lesbian relationships work better than gay or straight relationships, and while she lists the dangers faced by female participants in the sex-trade industry, she tends to glamorize their agency. A flawed but sometimes astute analysis of power and sexual relations.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-275-94359-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Praeger
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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