Occasionally compelling, but generally dry.
All you need is love. Or at least a cognitive psychological process that fosters intersubjectivity.
In an attempt to help the reader “become a more loving person,” Cowen (Interpersonal Enlightenment, 2005) argues for what he calls “insight,” based on a conviction that human beings, even infants, are more intelligent about interpersonal dynamics than commonly believed. He spends considerable space disputing popular psychological methods, especially psychodynamic, or Freudian, psychology, as well as the mechanistic behaviorism of B.F. Skinner. Because he devotes his early chapters, which are injected with hearty doses of jargon, to this negative strategy, the author relegates his text to the realm of academic exercise–though he seems to have more far-reaching and practical goals. The text displays the style and structure of a dissertation, and some of Cowen’s dismissive language occasionally becomes exaggerated. For example, he declares Noam Chomsky’s criticism of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior “devastating,” and he several times notes that another writer “must be called to task.” His chapter-length critique of psychotherapy, however, is quite systematic, as is his argument against Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve-Step Program. When the author speaks in practical terms, the text becomes more engaging. His argument against the spanking of children is quite persuasive, and when he eventually describes his theory directly, in the fifth chapter, the text’s style and structure loosen. Cowen ends by inviting readers to enter their own insights on his website: “Let there be no doubt that your insights are important to everyone, not only because of their intellectual content, but because they will inspire others to seek their own needed insights.” Hopefully, contributors will deal in clearer terms than the author.
Occasionally compelling, but generally dry.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 1425955568
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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