Far-reaching, sometimes far-fetched psychobiography of the Catholic mystic, saint, and founder of the Jesuits. Ignatius (1491-1556) has been the subject of hundreds of biographies, but Meissner (Psychoanalysis/Boston College), a Jesuit himself, is the first to attempt a full-scale psychoanalytic life. His model is Freud's psychobiography of Leonardo da Vinci, and the Viennese master's thought is much in evidence here. For instance, after noting the premature death of Ignatius's mother, Meissner reports not only Ignatius's reactions as indicated by the historical record but also the thoughts of a herd of psychiatrists (Spitz, Solnit, Rochlin, Fleming, Lewin, Birtchnell, et al.) on early maternal loss. This approach permeates, and sometimes suffocates, the text. At the same time, Meissner shows considerable biographical skill, ably laying out the major stages in Ignatius's life: early adventures as soldier, gallant, and libertine (Meissner finds evidence here of ``phallic narcissism''); conversion while recovering from a horrible cannonball wound; years of asceticism; visit to Jerusalem; founding of the Jesuits, etc. By excising the psychoanalytical material, readers will discover a first-rate biography, richly researched and elevated by the author's fierce admiration for his subject. Those preferring to keep their book intact will find a full spectrum of psychological insights, some obvious (that the name-change from Inigo to Ignatius signaled a new spiritual identity); some tantalizing (that Ignatius's Marian devotion sprang from ``libidinal attraction'' to his brother's wife); some common-sensical (that Ignatius's ``zeal was inexhaustible''); some nonsensical (interpreting ``water from the side of Christ,'' a classic biblical image found in a line of Ignatius's poetry, as amniotic fluid). An ambitious attempt to join the couch and the prie-dieu, this reveals much about the saint as a man, almost nothing about the man as a saint. (Twenty-four illustrations.)
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1992
ISBN: 0-300-05156-5
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf