A dense, thorough guide that alternates philosophical musings with concrete suggestions.
A comprehensive guide to healing that incorporates psychological, physical, and spiritual practices for overall wellness.
As an integrative psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Lavretsky aims to help readers use scientifically backed strategies alongside time-tested spiritual practices to improve overall life satisfaction by “living from the Soul” (which occurs when people are “living in their authenticity, uninfluenced by others, or any events in their lives”). The author discusses why and how one can get in touch with the soul and the importance of learning how to self-regulate, which is essentially the process in which one learns to change emotional and physical responses to particular situations. The idea is that changing behavior can eventually lead to a more positive and adaptive rewiring of the brain, allowing people to experience the world around them more fully. Building this sense of resilience and elasticity can ultimately help people meet problems head-on with minimal physical or mental suffering, per Lavretsky. The author provides a handful of diagrams at the book’s beginning that can aid more visual learners, including one detailing the brain regions involved in emotion regulation and the body’s chakra centers. Lavretsky suggests a plethora of various methods and tools from which readers can choose on their way to healing, including breathing exercises, grounding, and acupuncture for self-regulation and mindfulness meditation, trauma-informed yoga, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for healing trauma. The variety of options greatly increases the likelihood that readers will find something that speaks to them personally. In between passages offering concrete advice, Lavretsky often waxes philosophical about the issues at hand, such as the idea of consciousness as it relates to the self and “spiritual emergences” that can occur both with or without the use of psychedelics. While these musings are certainly intriguing, they may not appeal to audiences who are unfamiliar with alternative medicine in general. Ultimately, the author delivers a detailed, somewhat loquacious handbook for those hoping to strengthen their mind, body, and spirit connection.
A dense, thorough guide that alternates philosophical musings with concrete suggestions.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798888503133
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Park Street Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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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
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