A useful, easy-to-read book about a difficult subject.
Wilson’s nonfiction work delves into dementia and its causes, and possible ways to attack it.
The author, a prescribing medical psychologist and board-certified neuropsychologist, tackles an important subject in his informative (and ultimately engaging) look at dementia. Wilson sets up his premise in the first couple of pages via an anecdote about a road trip he and his family took to see the ancient petroglyph panels at Legend Rock, Wyoming: “Much like we can take action to protect the ancient petroglyph panels, we can protect another, very personal form of history—our brains,” he writes. “There are certain things we can do as we age to protect our brains to allow ourselves to enjoy life to the fullest and for the longest time possible.” The text begins by defining dementia (which, the author asserts, afflicts a third of people aged 85 and older) before describing four different types of dementia: Alzheimer’s, vascular, Lewy body, and frontotemporal. He discusses each in detail, also answering the question many people have when they forget someone’s name or where their car keys are: Is forgetfulness a normal part of aging? The answer is “yes,” although Wilson goes on to explain when such forgetfulness indicates a cause for concern. The second part of the book delves into the risk factors of dementia, and the third section makes the connection between hearing loss and dementia. The fourth part details strategies to mitigate the effects of dementia, including exercise, proper nutrition, blood pressure monitoring, neuropsychological services, medication, and socializing. At 130 pages, the text is far from a daunting read, and it’s made easier by the author’s engaging (and, at times, even fun) writing style addressing this most serious of subjects. What could be dense and clinical information is presented in digestible, breezy chunks, with only the section on medications slowing things down. This is an excellent primer for those dealing with dementia or readers simply interested in one of the greatest mysteries surrounding the human brain.
A useful, easy-to-read book about a difficult subject.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-7377117-7-3
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Savory Words
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
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The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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