A steady stream of insights into the psychology and neurological mechanisms of wise decision-making and the researchers...
A veteran science writer delivers a dense but illuminating combination of philosophical ideas and hard research.
Laboratories study intellect, emotion and ethics, writes Hall (Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys-and the Men They Become, 2006, etc.), but only recently have scientists turned their attention to wisdom, which may be defined as using all three to make a sensible decision. The author begins by sketching the teachings of history's first great wise men (Socrates, Buddha and Jesus) not forgetting Confucius's admonition that paths to wisdom include reflection (the noblest), imitation (the easiest) and experience (the bitterest). In the pre–CT scan era of the 1970s, a graduate student, Vivian Clayton, published pioneering research. Her first study, aimed at lawyers, attempted to determine if wisdom increases with age. The results were inconclusive; later studies suggested that it's important but not essential. This and her later papers produced a considerable buzz at psychological meetings, but she failed to receive research grants and left academia in 1982. By this time the ball was rolling, aided by swelling scientific fascination with the brain and dazzling high-tech instruments to examine it. It turns out that patterns of knowledge and judgment typical of wisdom appear in adolescence and don't measurably increase over time. Exposure to adversity such as war or personal loss helps, although it's not a good idea to have too much. Those searching for easy tips on achieving wisdom will not find them here, but diligent readers will be rewarded.
A steady stream of insights into the psychology and neurological mechanisms of wise decision-making and the researchers uncovering them.Pub Date: March 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-26910-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
An intimate and provocative glimpse into the lives of adolescent schoolgirls at two West Coast middle schools by journalist Orenstein (formerly managing editor of Mother Jones). Orenstein was motivated by the disturbing findings of a 1990 study from the American Association of University Women. It revealed that girls' self-esteem plummets as they reach adolescence, with a concomitant drop in academic achievement- -especially in math and science. By sixth grade, both boys and girls have learned to equate masculinity with opportunity and assertiveness and femininity with reserve and restraint. In her attempt to delve more deeply into this phenomenon, Orenstein observed and interviewed dozens of young girls inside and outside their classrooms. The resulting narratives are likely to move and vex readers. The classrooms at Weston Middle School ring with the symptoms: Even girls who consider themselves feminists tend to ``recede from class proceedings'' while their male classmates vociferously respond to teachers' questions; girls who are generally outspoken remain silent in the classroom. When probed, they tell Orenstein that they are afraid of having the wrong answer and of being embarrassed. They are not willing to take the risks that boys routinely take. The girls are overly involved with their appearance, with clothes and beauty products, instead of their studies. Sexual desirability becomes the central component of their self-image, with negative feelings often translating themselves into eating disorders. At the Audubon Middle School, with its predominantly minority population, it is apparent that ``the consequences of silence and marginalization for Latinas are especially dire.'' The Latina girls we meet often become gang members and mothers, while school becomes increasingly irrelevant. A comprehensive bibliography and annotated notes enhance Orenstein's ardent and significant exploration of the adolescent roots of key women's issues. (First serial to the New York Times Magazine)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42575-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
While the coming of August is enough to send most psychoanalysts fleeing the needs of their patients for the beach, it appears that not even death can keep the wizened Fromm (On Being Human, 1993, etc.) from dispensing wisdom. Fromm gained renown less for his writings about clinical psychology than for his more contemplative works that fused the insights of psychoanalysis with those of existentialist philosophy to ask—and occasionally answer- -the Big Questions traditionally left to priests, rabbis, and barkeeps. But this posthumous collection focuses on the relationship between analyst and analysand, and its goal is much more modest than that of some of his other books. Fromm is concerned here, it seems, not with building a better world but with building a better shrink.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8264-0654-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Continuum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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