4 comments about Introduction to Physical Anthropology.

1. If this book is required for your anthropology course, then you're in luck! I appreciate that the authors genuinely enjoy the subject matter, and that it comes through in their writing.
   
   The book is very well organized. You can look forward to chapters of reasonable length -- usually 25 to 30 pages, at most. There are lots of colourful pictures and diagrams, though some flowcharts seem like page fillers to me. The margins are used for definitions of new key words and concepts, a very useful feature.
   
   Aside: There's a little bit of "handwaving" in the early chapters introducing concepts of genetics. That's unfortunate, but necessary at the same time. So if you're interested in the details, I encourage you to pick up a genetics textbook (I liked Concepts of Genetics), or better yet, take a genetics course.
   
   There are certainly debates and controversies in the field. This makes sense, since there are so many unknowns. I appreciate that the authors make mention of differing perspectives and points of view when appropriate.



2. The book is well written, factual and easy to read/understand. Chapters and concepts are not too overwhelming.



3. Thank you so much for the book. It was in great condition, and was shipped quickly. Hope to do business with you in the future.



4. This text was used in my Intro to Biological Anthropology course and I found it to be very useful and interesting. The sections on evolution and genetics are very similar to the material covered in Campbell/Reece's widely used Biology text. I often found myself skimming through chapters that weren't even assigned for class because the material was so fascinating. Key terms are conveniently located in the margins of the text for easy flash card making and studying.

5 comments about The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (Penguin Press Science).

1. I have been an expert and wide-ranging hypnotist for 25 years, and I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in consciousness and in the sheer colossal *capacity* of the human mind. Norretranders shows just how impossibly much information we take in each moment, and how much is stored away, way more than we would ever suspect. I've witnessed this many times in my hypnotic work, the shocking capacity and depth and quality of memory that comes up in people in deep trance, even when the information is seemingly trivial. You have to experience it to believe it.



2. Making sometimes difficult concepts easy to understand for the non-scientist, Norretranders presents a nice multidisciplinary approach to consciousness -- ranging from physics to psychology -- that centers on the interesting idea that consciousness may not be necessary for the majority of human behavior. Contains a good explanation of the split-brain research, the controversial research of Benjamin Libet, and I especially enjoyed his chapter on the origin of consciousness, which expands on the important ideas of Julian Jaynes.



3. A very deep book, but not a difficult one, it is a continuation of the journey which leads through Douglas Hofstadter's GODEL, ESCHER, BACH: AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID (Vintage Books, 1979), Bucky Fuller's SYNERGETICS (Macmillan, 1982) and Julian Jaynes' THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND (Houghton Miflin, 1982). Norretranders launches from a discussion of thermodynamics and information theory and spins into orbit around our deepest sense of self. What is it that consciousness is conscious of? Some surprising insights pass under the reader along the way. There is more information in a mess than in order. The expensive part of knowledge is not gaining new information but getting rid of the old. Calculation involves eliminating irrelevance -- the total on your grocery bill involves less information than all of the individual item prices taken separately, and is therefore more useful. The value of any piece of information is directly related to how much exformation (discarded data) resulted during its creation. The brain receives about 11 million bits of information per second from sensory sources but conscious thought can handle -- at most -- 40 bits per second. (15-25 is more likely) There is an awful lot going on that you are completely unaware of, and which you cannot possibly ever notice. There's more, much more. Our survival depends on unconscious decisions, in fact, consciousness lags at least .5 seconds behind events. Your brain makes decisions at least .5 seconds before "you" think "you" have made a decision. Advice to "trust your intuition" is really completely silly, you don't have a choice in that matter. Kant was right -- any theory presupposes axioms accepted on faith, preconditions to the accepted truth. And Godel proved it -- his theorem established absolutely that no system of thought can be complete unless viewed from outside. There will never be a complete theory of everything. That truth, of course, didn't stop Kurt Godel's best buddy Albert Einstein from trying. The ILLUSION of this work's title is drawn from the user illusion you are experiencing right now reading this review. Beginning with the Apple MacIntosh, and extending to most modern computer screens, we wired folk deal with a graphical user interface (GUI, or "gooey"). The documents on your screen, the file folders, the cascading menus, the trash can -- even the words I am typing at this moment -- are illusory in the sense that they do not exist inside your computer. They only exist on the screen. Inside one would find a network of impossibly complicated electrical circuits processing apparently endless strings of binary numbers. As a computer user you don't care how the innards work, as long as they do. You interact with a surface illusion which allows you to accomplish work or play. The GUI doesn't need to be accurate or real, it needs to offer a manageable working hypothesis. In the same way, suggests Norretranders, our consciousness is the result of one half second of processing by the most powerful computer known -- the human brain. The world we interact with is entirely a simulation, a very detailed user interface, in which almost all inputs and computation are hidden. It is very deep, resulting as it does from the creation of massive exformation. (Remember that we process about 11 million bits of sensory input per second, plus whatever signals such input creates internally; and only consciously experience about 30 bits per second.) But we experience that depth as surface, just as we experience our computer "desktop" versus the quick flicker of binary code inside the CPU. Life is largely a non-conscious experience. Consciousness is far too slow to save us. When a car veers into your lane, you swing a ball bat, or sit on a tack, your "Me" takes over and your "I" finds out the result. The order is: input, action, consciousness. The most troubling aspect of this unfolding of modern brain research, math, physics and information theory involves free will. It turns out that conscious free will consists of veto power. Conscious thought can halt a hand, but not un-wish to slap the silly grin off a face. This is profoundly at odds with the usual illusion that "I am in charge here." (For example: it flies in the face of the Christian notion that one can choose not to think sinful thoughts.) Norretrander's concluding chapter is entitled, "The Sublime." Heaven is all around us, he suggests ... it exists one half second in your past. Just as a map offers the barest outline of a journey, and the computer screen a pleasantly gooey workplace, consciousness provides only a hint of the depth and richness and wonder of human experience. Learn why good guys in Westerns usually win, why optical illusions occur, how to use a VCR and earphones to get a glimpse of preconscious processing at work and most importantly that nothing in your awareness exists sans context. "Life is really more fun when you are not conscious of it." A masterpiece.



4. Tor Norretranders' "The User Illusion - Cutting Consciousness down to Size" is a work of science-journalism that departs from the object of its reporting and spills over into philosophy and advocacy. It is a book of highly variable quality. Its focus on certain neurophysiological experiments/phenomena, especially those that relate to subliminal perception, is willfully selective, but still informative. Norretranders has come across some interesting experimental results (these are from the neuroscience of the period 1950-1990) that should stimulate a great deal of discussion about their broader implications (and they are results that should be addressed by any attempt to explain or thoroughly describe consciousness in terms of brain activity). Ideas taken from information theory are correlated with the functioning of the brain and its relationship to the whole organism in which it resides and the outside world to which it responds. He also relates both of these phenomena to the laws of thermodynamics and their disturbing implications for the universe (increasing entropy through heat death) and quizzical problems arising from them that have troubled physicists for some time (e.g., difficulties in theoretically eradicating "Maxwell's demon" and therefore the possibility of "cost-free energy", i.e., perpetual motion engines). The interesting information-theory relationship which he dwells upon is the great disparity between the large number of information bits we are always taking in - approximately eleven million bits per second when we calculate the amount handled by our human sensory apparatus - with the amount of information we can consciously process - about 16 bits per second, with an upper limit of perhaps 50 bits/second. This is the "bandwidth discrepancy" which results in the organismic "Me vs. I" discrepancy discussed below (and which, I must opine, Norretranders beats to death through repetition and over-interpretation). The millions of "missing bits" constitute "exformation", i.e., discarded information which still leaves important traces within our organism, to which we have access through unknown, unspecified, yet natural means. In his reading, exformation is organismic knowledge of the world - even wisdom -- which bubbles up to consciousness or which, subconsciously, guides the actions of the organism. They used to call this "instinct"; behavioral philosophies or ideologies built upon this foundation have a deservedly bad odor, which is perhaps why he avoids that particular nomenclature.
   
   The particular neuroscience finding upon which he attempts to build a world-view (an epistemology, a phenomenology, and a set of ethics apposite to these) is that there is an approximate one-half second lag between "readiness potentials" (a specific, well-defined electrophysiolgical activity) that always precede conscious decisions and one's awareness of making the conscious decision (one interpretation of this is that non-willed aspects of brain activity always anticipate voluntary actions in some weird way, thus indicating that these actions are not fully voluntary in the way in which we believe them to be; the only salve for free-will is that we retain a consciously-controlled veto function over our "conscious" decisions to act, which we can implement in the last two-tenths of a second before beginning the action after it was intended to begin). This is the half-second which he feels is necessary for our nervous system to create the simulated reality which temporarily unifies all of the incoming stimuli and their associations based on our previous organism-environment history; the synthesized unified perception of which we become aware is consciousness itself. (The half-second is a much longer time, say, than one's reaction time to certain stimuli - hot stoves, pin-pricks, loud noises, etc.; many such reactions are automatic and therefore non-conscious or sub-conscious.) And it leads to the conclusion that the stream of consciousness is always about one-half second behind the outer reality which feeds it and to which it refers and on which it acts. Norretranders is very exercised by the fact that we are not conscious of this time gap in the organism-environment relationship which we call reality. He calls this gap - for purely rhetorical reasons, I believe -- the "lie" of consciousness to the rest of the organism. In this version the "I" (consciousness) is lying to the "Me" (subconscious mental activity) in order to create a narrative and an illusion of control which the "I" requires; the language he uses here - "lie" - seems overcharged and underthought. Alternatively one could say that the lag indicates a mistaken notion about the flow of real time within the organism, but one which has no consequences, since our version of the world's real time is also displaced by exactly the same amount - if everything is late to the same degree, then nothing is late, and our mistaken notion doesn't work against us. His schema describes an infinitely repeated series of natural events (for what else could the brain's sub-conscious processing of information be other than a natural event?) that produces an illusion of continuous consciousness: environmental input (from the world out there) into the nervous system, followed by internal, sub-conscious brain processing which yields us a time-displaced simulation of the outer (ultimately unknowable?) reality which we then experience. More simply put, we experience a simulation of reality created by our brains and mistake it for reality - this is the "user illusion", a term modeled on the way we think about computers that have been designed to mask their real high-speed computations on millions of ones and zeros while appearing friendly and understandable in other, quasi-human, terms to their users (i.e., we believe they are processing language, pictures, etc., rather than disassembling then re-constituting them).
   
   Norretranders appears to be correct about the majority of human behavior not being under conscious control, and he calls this subconscious (organismically dominant) portion of our brains/minds/lives the "Me" (as opposed to the conscious "I" which imagines that it is somehow in control of the self/organism and its interactions with the surrounding environment; the bandwidth discrepancy mentioned above shows the relative proportions of subconscious "Me" vs. conscious "I" in actually "operating the organism"). It's not a bad picture and may be true in some way, but he uses this distinction as a license to make numerous general observations that appear questionable and unsupported by science, known history, intuition, common-sense, and experience, to wit: (1) There is a great deal of "I vs. Me" talk which sounds less like a description of natural events and more like psychobabble. (There is even a peroration at the end of the book that we should all "Dare to be Me", i.e., dare to allow our subconscious selves make our decisions for us - go with our "gut feelings". How to do this is not stated, but in doing this we are told that we will not only feel better about ourselves but take a step in the right direction toward solving the various crises of modern civilization. The crises are real enough, the recommended course of action sounds like an empty advertising slogan, as does his repeated mantra "More is different", a slogan meant to stand for the emergent-properties notion that wholes are different than the sums of their parts; the notion is useful, the slogan rather empty). (2) A consideration of the basis of good or effective art residing in the appropriate "I vs. Me" relations within the artist, who elicits the same balance from the audience if and when he is successful (he discusses music, theater, dance, and highly skilled athletic performances in these terms, but says very little about the plastic arts and literature, even poetry, which might be amenable to his approach, while most prose, regardless of its qualities, might not). (3) An explanation of the actual history of religious ideas/ideals based on the "I vs. Me" distinction. (4) A description of Marxist and capitalist analyses of markets/values/prices as both mistaken since they misinterpret the "I vs Me" distinctions appropriate to "natural economies". (5) A description of why current versions of holism vs. reductionism-constructionism are deficient due to their faulty apprehension of "I vs, Me". (6) And more, much more; in fact, everything under the sun and inside the skull, selected examples to be listed below. Regardless of the field of activity or thought, "Me" just keeps on beating the hell out of "I".
   
   With regard to the history of human cosmological and religious ideas he makes a great deal of Julian Jaynes' notions presented in his book "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind", which has us poor old confused humans availing ourselves of conscious thought in only the most recent three-thousand years of our history. Before this all humans were, as it were, functioning schizophrenics (all "Me", no "I", with "Me's" inner voices - organismic urges -- interpreted as gods speaking directly to us; this begs the question of how such an equation could not be a product of conscious thinking, since gods appear to be always created in man's self-image). What can one say, other than that there is ample evidence from history and anthropology that this is an extremely unsupportable claim, a sort of "just-so" story that is entertaining and even plausible in parts but not even remotely close to the true state of affairs, even if we have a very faulty picture of the true state of affairs. It does not even allude to the interesting subject of non-human animal consciousness - how it might be described or tested for, how it differs from its human counterpart, etc. With respect to the problems of knowledge caused by Gödel's theorem (the famous one concerning the ultimate undecidability of certain propositions in formal systems of logic, which Norretranders cleverly points out is mirrored by Turing's "halting problem" in his theories of computation by machines and/or man) Norretranders makes all of the now-obligatory homages to this theorem and, I would say, even finds this idea to open up liberating avenues rather than to create constraints upon the further (extra-logical?) development of human knowledge (I happen to agree with this assessment). He does not appear to think that foundational problems of knowledge have any real impact on the correctness of our ideas about evolution, which he describes as a historical and factual discipline as opposed to a theory-driven one (I doubt this distinction is meaningful with respect to the knowledge problems discussed).
   
   And there is a surfeit of the "I vs. Me" distinction used to explain and describe everything. Norretranders being Danish also obliges him not only to consider the subconscious "Me" athletic masterworks of a particular (Danish) soccer-player, but also to drag in Kierkegaard whenever he can (whose life and existential Angst, the truth be told, have something unfailingly comical about them in the light of the philosopher's biography). When discussing mental illness he relies upon Gregory Bateson's psycho-social inner conflict model and assimilates it to control problems between the id-like Me and the social I; he does not address the biology of the disease at all or even give it a loose medical definition. And there is some totally misleading discussion of the "placebo effect", as well as broader claims about the irrelevance of current theories of disease within modern medicine. Like everyone else who beats the particular drum that it is improved sanitation conditions and not medicine that have increased human longevity, he overlooks the fact that this in fact validates the "germ theory" of disease. Reinterpreted in the light of his `Me vs. I" distinction, we get to finally understand Kant's remarks on the "Thing in Itself" vs. the "Thing for/to us". We also see how this distinction validates the "Gaia Theory" of earth as one super-organism (and the details of just what this means); naturally the "I" is responsible for pollution (the "Me" is somehow wiser about these things) and can be blamed for the prospect of self-extinction. By the way, no surprise here, straight lines and linear design features of our urban environments are bad (they don't occur anywhere else in nature or within the "Me", but have been forced upon us by the crafty yet impoverished "I"). He goes into the occasional rant about Newton's laws of motion as covering only idealized cases that we do not encounter here in our everyday lives (and yet he cherishes the concept that the surface area of that gravitational sink called a black hole is the best illustration of entropy; he likes to keep Newton handy as both genius and whipping-boy). All of these excursions and alarums seem more than a little beside the point, if the point is actually to arrive at an improved understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain-function. Having started out by giving the reader a fairly good science-journalism account of information theory, the laws of thermodynamics, and some recent neuroscience, Norretranders then lapses into frequent New Age jargon and conceits, though he forswears that he is doing this.
   
   The book needs a lot of editing -- revisions in the direction of eliminating repetition, rhetorical cascades, and scattershot observations (it needs more "I", less "Me", a prescription the author would not like). When it comes to giving both practical and ethical advice the book is marred by self-contradictions which often occur in close textual proximity, a sign of negligent thinking or editing to begin with. One good thing about the book is that it does turn the reader's attention to some older neuroscience findings which have not become less important even though they have been temporarily ignored or put on the shelf by scientists who are wary of tackling problems related to consciousness. The B. Libet experiment locating the "pre-conscious readiness potentials" (an electrophysiological phenomenon measured by EEG recordings, both from the surface and from within the brain) is worthy pondering when formulating ideas about consciousness (Libet's article on this and numerous responses by other scientists and philosophers of mind are in Behavioral and Brain Sciences 8:4, 1985). Norretranders' discussion of this is at times clear and judicious, but for him it's a launching pad into speculative territory which rapidly becomes arbitrary in the extreme. He also does some justice to the "binding problem" and to the possible relationship between 40-Herz coherent oscillations in neuron populations and their relationship to the phenomena of attention and attention-switching during conscious thinking (e.g., he uses this body of data to explain the odd involuntary switching of interpretations when we are presented with visual illusions or designs that flip back and forth in a way we can't consciously control, such as the Necker Cube and some figure-ground illusions, situations in which neither interpretation is so compelling that it becomes fixed - each interpretation has its group of oscillating neurons, neither ever wins for long, chance fluctuations - background noise in information theory -- being enough to tip our reading of the figure one way, then the other). Overall the book is interesting and provocative, but also muddled and sloppy in many places (the author himself would find its muddled, sloppy character to be aligned with the nature of reality as apprehended by the sub-conscious mind, and reflective, in some way, of an ultimate reality which is also muddled and sloppy). Paradoxically, given his "Me" bias, Norretranders often says too much about that which he believes we cannot say anything useful or true (because it is beyond conscious access), and too little about that which he believes we can.



5. This book is very good insofar as it compiles some of the more interesting research from several different fields and neatly summarizes it for the lay reader. However, as an actual book, it falls a bit short of the author's goals and seems a bit aimless. Although he makes a very specific argument (Consciousness is an illusory phenomenon which appeared only a short while ago and can at times get in the way of our happiness and functionality as artists, athletes, drivers, etc.), Norretranders does a poor job of relating all his individual points to the greater argument as he makes them, resulting in a book that produces a reaction closer to "oh, that's interesting" than "wow, he just made a really good point." His writing style is also a bit jumpy and disjointed, although this doesn't necessarily get in the way of reading.
   
   Despite these problems, I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book. It certainly gave me a new perspective on how we think that I was lacking due to not reading very much about experimental psychology. For all you philosophy nerds out there, you could more or less classify Norretranders as a materialist. Yes, he says a lot about tapping into the powers of our unconscious, trying to get free of our egos, saving this fragile planet, and other things in the vein of most New Agers, but there's no metaphysical "astral plane" or "merging with the clear light" which will reward us for doing so. In fact, based on his characterization of the divine as the part of us that is not conscious, one could say that unity with oneself is really the moral/intellectual goal to be gotten out of this book... if that's what you're looking for. I personally don't recommend that approach, though. Given the depth of his summaries and the diversity of the material covered, I'd suggest just taking in all the great ideas here (most of which are not Norretranders') and enjoying the ride.

5 comments about Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding.

1. I've read a lot of books about getting organized--enough to stop. This book was recommended on the NACBT forum and I found it to be very worthwhile reading.



2. First, there is so much more to say about the topic of hoarding and how to overcome it. The book could have been better if it had contained more text and fewer blank pages disguising themselves as workbook pages. Anybody, not only a hoarder, certainly has their own blank paper around to house that they could use as worksheets. The publisher does not need to provide it for us and charge for it.
   Secondly, the book says what it has to say then repeats virtually all the same things!
   Third (thirdly?) the person who needs this book either won't buy it, or she'll get it then lose it.
   Nevertheless, it was fun reading about myself. The authors apparently got inside my head and spilled all my secrets. Yes, the book helped a little, but it should either be much more concise or it should contain more information. Taking a small amount of helpful material and padding it to fill out a book is a sham and waste of the consumer's money.



3. Well researched and professionally presented. I don't feel it's the complete answer for recovery from this obsessive-compulsory behavior; but it would be helpful in conjunction with other supports.



4. I found this book to be insightful and very helpful. It asks the hard questions, and makes one honestly take stock of their addiction. The exercises at the end of each chapter are to the point and are great tools to help in this endeavor. Chapters on change give realistic approaches to dealing with the problems encountered when beginning the process.



5. First time ever to see a psychologist. She recommended this book. IT IS a TREASURE!! Some of the exercises are hard to do, but they sure open "doors" I didn't know I HAD!! A collector collects thing of VALUE; an accumulator saves EVERYTHING--Just In Case!!

5 comments about Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment (Essentials of Psychological Assessment).

1. This is a very handy book to understand, interpret, and write Reports. It is written in an easy to understand language.



2. I'm a fan of these sorts of texts having found the Essentials of the WAIS-III a great resource I keep returning too. I imagine it will be the same with this text as I found it really easy to use and easy to read. Perhaps my only complaint is that there is little discussion about interpretation. Otherwise a great resource in scoring up your WISC-IV.



3. The Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment book is an excellent resource for school psychologists and students. It is a must-have for your library. I recommend this book to everyone!



4. I found that this text was a great resource to add to my professional library. As a previous student of Dr. Kaufman, I have found that the "Essentials" series has helped me stay current with recent changes in test development and assessment. I really enjoy the way that the texts are structured and easy to use in a private practice setting. My special thanks go to Alan Kaufman and to all of the authors who have contributed to this wonderful series. Sincerely, Norman D. Severe, Psy.D.



5. The item arrived in great condition and in just a few days. I was very pleased.

5 comments about Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences.

1. [A review of the 7th Edition, that came out in 2006.]
   
   The text starts off easily. With the elementary definitions of mean, median, percentiles etc. Things you probably should have dealt with in high school. Likewise with its treatment of probability theory. Though the latter goes directly to the normal or Gaussian distribution.
   
   But the meat of the book really starts in part 3, which is about inferences of means and mean differences. For you, as a student or researcher, what is important is not a definition of terms and distributions, but how to test hypotheses. From this flows such ideas as the t statistic and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Part 4 builds on this, with nonparametric tests and regression analysis. The linear regression in one variable is simple. Then you get multiple regression with 2 variables. Tied in is the chi square test and various other tests.
   
   The book also is a quick introduction to using SPSS as your basic statistical program. In your field, SPSS is likely to be the dominant such program, and you need an indepth acquaintance with it.



2. I must say I felt bad with the price of the book - I felt it was much too high. But after reading the first few chapters of the book, and noting that it flows and is very easy to understand, I do not have to complain so much now. I am loving the book now.



3. Delivered quickly and much cheaper than college book store. This was teacher's edition, which has answers the student edition does not.



4. This textbook was the recommended text of two that we were required to buy for a doctoral level Stats course. I think that speaks for itself. It's definitely not just a basic Stats text. Worth buying if you want something comprehensive.



5. I suck at math, but this book tries to keep it pretty simple, especially if you have a professor that goes along with the book pretty well.

5 comments about Black Skin, White Masks.

1. I own the original French version of this book: "Peau noire masques blancs"! Franz Fanon addressed very well the racial issues encounted by previously colonized civilizations like the French island of Martinique. But Martinique is just an example. The truth is raw, but it's the truth, and there is still a long way for the freedom of the mind.



2. Frantz Fanon was a black man born in the French colony and island of Martinique. He trained as a doctor specialising in psychiatry. He was deeply concerned about the impact of colonialism on the people of colour, particularly how it humiliated them, destroyed their culture, values and dignity. This led him to get involved in the Algerian war of independence in the 1950s.
   
   The book "Black Skin, White Masks" was written almost fifty years ago. This was during the time when decolonisation of the African continent and elsewhere was gathering momentum.
   
   To adequately capture and assimilate Fanon's thinking of the question of colonialism and racism and their impact on the coloured people, one also needs to read Fanon's other great works: "The Wretched of the Earth" and "Dying Colonialism". Here one can see his anger and the background to his conclusion that it was only through violence that people of colour could liberate themselves from colonialism, particularly from mental bondage and inferiority complex that accompanied colonial subjugation.
   
   In "Black Skin, White Masks", Fanon develops his thesis about the impact of inferiority complex of subjugated peoples and the alienation of some of them from their kind resulting in their wish to identified with the colonialists or imitate the European. There are a number of celebrated and classic cases of coloured people who have tried various formulas to change the colour of their skins, the tone of their voices or their names so that they sound more civilised (European).
   
   Fanon's ideas about how the coloured people can liberate themselves (physically and mentally) influenced many leaders of revolutionary movements that were fighting colonialism. Some organisations in the USA, such as the Nation of Islam, appear to embrace a lot of Fanon's ideas and thinking.
   
   The book is recommended reading for those who wish to understand the impact of colonialism on the colonised around the world and their different reactions to this menace.



3. Fanon really draws you in with this book. One feels involved with Fanon's fight not just against racism and colonization, but also his own self evaluation and struggle within himself to accept himself for who he is.
   
   Among other things, what struck me the most was the way Fanon showed that minorities do not feel inferior because they were thrust in the midst of a majority. Considering that South Africa has minority white population and yet the black population there took on the brunt of racism and that had nothing to do with the minority subjugation.
   
   Another line of thought that Fanon brings about is the domination of the colonized language. In Martinique, the average middle class family would insist children to speak French like the French would and not the commonly spoken Creole. The Martinican returning from France was expected to uphold that standard and speak proper French. If he reverted to his old ways of speaking, it was looked down upon. Fanon shows that the black man of Martinique maintains locked in his own cultural impositions and unless that is shed it would make it difficult for him to rise out of it.
   
   Fanon brings about how the psychological impact of colonization through language, culture and history plays on the black man. Fanon delves into studies done by others and compares or rejects ideas put forth by them either with by presenting his own experiences or a generalistic view of the colonized Martinique land.
   
   Fanon digresses frequently from topics of discussion and jumps around wildly in some of the chapters. But overall the book is well written and makes you think and begs you to put your own experience and thought into it.



4. Frantz Fanon was a contemporary writer of the 1950's. Born in Martinique, he studied psychiatry and medicine in France as a young man after volunteering his services in World War II. He had an educational background in post colonial studies including racism and colonization. At the age of 27 he published "Black Skin, White Masks" which played a vital role in civil rights and Black consciousness movements throughout its time. Fanon's analysis of the Black psyche, "Black Skin, White Masks", was amazingly interesting and educational. It gave me a fresh perspective to what it means to live as the minority, as a person of color in a White world. This is a wonderful review of how the French of different backgrounds interacted with each other. There are also a few downfalls in understanding "Black Skin, White Masks". This book is hard to follow because it jumps around quite a bit, making various points throughout the same train of thought. There are many topics covered, one of the most thoroughly explored being romantic love between interracial couples. It also explores the use of language and the importance of knowing one's familial, racial, and cultural history.
   One of the topics Fanon concentrates on is the Black man and his goals in life. To understand what Black men go through, one has to first understand the history of the particular Black man he is talking about which is born in an island off of France then moves to France and faces the culture shock of entering a country where the language and customs are different. Here the Black man goes from being comfortable and part of a larger entity to being the minority. At this stage the Black man feels he is worthless because of the history of the relationship of Blacks and Whites, where the Black man has led a forced life of servitude and abuse which has caused him to believe that he is inferior to the White man. The White man's racism has created the White man's feeling of superiority which correlates with the Black man's feeling of inferiority. Because of this inferiority complex the Black man has an overpowering need to prove himself equal to the White man. Fanon goes on to argue that the Black man's goal is to prove to Whites, Blacks and himself that he is an intelligent, good, and worthy of pursuing happiness individual. One of the most detailed examples was how the Black man attempts to get closer to being White by having any relationship, be it friendship or romantic (preferably sexual), with a White person other than a master/slave association. As an example Fanon tells a story of a young mulatto woman who marries a White man and in a split second goes from being the slave to being the master. Yet there are other cases when the Black man succeeds and he is not only rejected by Whites, he is repudiated by Blacks.
   Another theme was that of language and what happens to a Black person when he arrives to France. The Black man has to learn how to speak French as it is spoken in France in order to become "whiter", for example, an educated Black man is no longer seen as Black because Blacks are savages while the intellectual is civilized. Yet there have been many cases where despite the success of the Black man, Whites refuse to accept them as equals and show it by speaking to them in pidgin or as children. There is also the struggle of remaining part of the Black community after assimilating into the White world. After learning to speak French, he returns home as white in the eyes of other Black people. The Black man must be able to code change in order to survive in both worlds.
   Antillean education is looked at carefully in this book. Fanon compares the children of France with those of Martinique. As French children learn about their culture and their ancestors, Martinique children learn of the ancestors of others. Fanon proposes that the Black Martinique children should learn about Black history as a separate section in order to build self esteem and confidence. Children need to learn that there have been others in similar situations that have pulled through and made it despite discrimination and hate. If the educational system increases the Martinique children's knowledge and understanding of their own heritage and history, they will be able to make connections with their own ancestors and their amazing accomplishments. This would thus curb ideas of inferiority.
   There was a contrast between Blacks and Whites that kept the world as it was. In order for there to be white, there has to be black. In order for there to be a slave there has to be a master. In order for one group of peoples to be superior another group has to be inferior, and this is the case with Whites and Blacks. As a result, whatever one group is the other is the opposite. Here arise a series of stereotypes that support how people think of these two groups. Whites are intelligent, progressive, civil people while Blacks are primitive savages in need of taming. Since Blacks are savages they cannot control their emotional and sexual needs hence in contrast Whites are not sexual and have the ability to suppress their emotions. From this Fanon argues that a subtle jealousy was born; the White man envied the Black man's sexual freedom.
   As I read this book I could not help but think of my students and how they embody many of the same believes as Black men in the 1950's. The children I teach Mathematics to are people of color, either Latino or Black. I spend much of my day listening to them speak among themselves about various topics and have picked up on certain ideas that reflect that of past colonized populations. Although there is this total rejection of anything and everything that is White, there is also an underlining want to be White (perhaps mainstream is a better word). For example, I have heard my students discuss accents and the implication that those who have one are in some way less intelligent than those who speak like Americans. Students have also expressed in happiness that they do not speak their parent's native tongue, typically Spanish, which is an indication that they are closer to being white than those who's first language is not English. Another disturbing behavior I have noticed is the animosity towards Whites. It seems my students have been programmed to be hostile towards White people, especially peers. They constantly refer to Whites in derogatory terms; for example, when one of my mentors (an older White woman) spend a period in my classroom the students were flustered and after she left referred to her as "the white b*$^%" as opposed to "the lady who was just here". At the same time they insult each other by using terms that are associated with being Black such as insulting the wideness of their nose and/or thickness of their lips. I find this to be an interesting contradiction and would like to explore it further in hopes of understanding the contemporary adolescent.
   As a teacher I found this book to be very helpful in understanding why our children of color behave the way they do and why they consistently fail in a system designed for children who are not exposed to the gruesome situations the students in the South Bronx (where I teach) go through on a daily basis. These children could very well have an inferiority complex which they will have to overcome before being able to succeed in this White man's world.



5. If you want to understand racial identity, you should read Fanon's approach. The most influential author on ethnicity and colonization in the twentieth century.

5 comments about Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior.

1. This is a terrific book. I learned about animal behavior and autism. I am a science teacher and I gained understanding of my autistic students and my pets and insight to share with students regarding animal behavior.



2. This is the most fascinating book I have ever read. The amazing Temple Grandin takes two subjects: autism and animal behavior,and draws comparisons with remarkable insight. She brings the world of animal behavior into sharp focus with examples and explanations and makes it easy for the lay reader to understand. She and coauthor, Catherine Johnson, write with a conversational prose that makes even the most difficult concepts easy to grasp. Every chapter elicits a "Wow".
   
   Although the dry title may put some people off because it sounds clinical and cerebral, this absolutely exciting book holds a plethora of facts and wonders about the animals we come into contact with on a daily basis. A real eye-opener!
   
   - C.A. Wulff, author of Born Without a Tail



3. Please do not use this book as a guide to understanding your dog. Dr. Grandin does not appear to know anything about dogs or even like them very much.



4. Temple Grandin truly has a gift to see the world through the eyes of animals--and humans. Somehow she manages to be both empathetic in her point of view, yet objective in her reporting, which enables her to offer us this fascinating text on the subtleties of animal response and behavior. What a great book. Her non-academic tone makes the style fluent and enjoyable to read, and every few pages there emerges a "Wow" moment when she reveals some truth about the psychology of animals in general, including humans. I liked this book a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is studying or interested in animal (or human) behavior.



5. My favorite kind of book. This is such a rewarding book - so much information, such insights, interesting case studies, lots of documentation in the form of scientific studies. I loved this book so much that after reading the library copy, I asked to have it as a birthday present, and then turned around and bought two copies of it as a CD to give my son-in-law and a friend to listen to in the car. I am so grateful to the author for all that I learned and the growth I felt in my understanding of the animal and human world.

5 comments about Man and His Symbols.

1. The content is classic and deserves better quality presentation. How about a hardcover? The paper is cheap and already turning brown. The print is miniscule and could be a font size or two larger. I want to buy books to continue building a quality library, not a cheap throw-away.



2. I picked up a copy of this book in Mendocino, CA just after I graduated from college and was trying to figure out what to do with my life. For those of you who are somewhat introverted, academic, or artistic, you may find that his book changes your view and helps begin the process of what Jung (and now other therapists) call the "individuation" process, or normal unfolding of human life. I ended following my bliss and doing all kinds of things that have made me a very happy, very satisfied and yet unendingly curious person. I am now studying to be a therapist, and whether or not I graduate is not the point. The journey and the dream images and meaning we assign to them are the whole point. Life became a meaningful joy for me and (no kidding) this book was the ONLY source of that inspiration.
   
   I have the coffetable version of this book, which is much larger and in color, but the smaller paperback will also do...I'm sure the pictures are good enough. It is the words, not the pictures, that change your life. Who knew that western individualistic humanism was such a powerful and compelling force of psychology?
   
   This book changed my life for the better permanently. Read it.



3. I purchased this in a batch of books which I had wanted to read for a while, including Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene.
   
   To be honest, this book is quite a disappointment to me. As noted in other reviews, Jung actually wrote only 1/5th of this book, serving as editor for the rest of the pieces. And it is exactly Jung's own writing which I find disappointing.
   
   Jung's style is sloppy and unfocussed, possibly because this is evidently the first time he writes 'for the layman'. Compared to Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which I read alternatingly with this book, Man and his Symbols reads like a sloppy collection of personal opinion. It's hard to see from this introduction how Jung is considered to be such an important thinker.



4. This is a book that everybody should own, in my opinion. Karl Jung is a must have.



5. This is a classic must read for any counselor, psychologist, therapist, Etc. or someone just interested in interesting thought. Some truth some fantasy some bewildering mind scapes. C'mon why just read about how the original masters thought, why not read their own words!

5 comments about A Mind at a Time.

1. This book clearly defines how different minds learn and process the vast amounts of information encountered on a daily basis in school and in everyday life. The author is clearly at the top of his field and can very easily communicate his findings in a way that is easy to comprehend, extremely informative and interesting to read.



2. Thank you Dr. Levine for this instruction manual about the mind!!! I have read this book several times already and learn something new each time I read it. I continue to use it as a reference for when I am stumped about either my own behavior or a child's behavior.



3. Dr. Levine's book, A Mind at a Time, is so comprehensive that it is challenging to pare it down to a few essential ideas. He begins by telling the reader why he is "a pediatrician with a mission". He endeavors to accurately describe the struggles of unsuccessful children, to explain the brain's working and dysfunctions which we all experience and see in others, and to provide a "road map" for parents and teachers to knowledgeably observe their children's cognitive development. This observation by a trained eye allows for early detection of breakdowns in learning as well as necessary identification of a child's cognitive strengths, overall assets, and consuming passions. Interestingly, research into problematic learning is also a study of all learning, and how the brain is supposed to function. Only when we are equipped with accurate information regarding a child's diverse kind of mind can we begin to explain why they are struggling and how they can best conquer or compensate for these challenges. It is vital that this knowledge be openly shared with young developing minds so that they know from the start that they are not what they feared, but rather free to grow stronger given the knowledge and help they need to succeed.
   
   Dr. Levine's text covers an overview of the ways of learning, and how lifestyle choices can help or hurt an individual's learning styles. He then goes on to detail the eight neurodevelopmental systems, chapter by chapter: the Attention Control System, the Memory System, the Language System, the Spatial Ordering System, the Sequential Ordering System, the Motor System, the Higher Thinking System, and the Social Thinking System. These systems develop at diverse paces, but must be utilized to grow strong and to stay strong. Although complex and detailed, this book is written in terms a layperson can understand with some thoughtful reading and perhaps a little rereading.
   
   Chapter 10 is devoted to helping the educator or parent pinpoint the areas of breakdown based on evidence from past productivity, behaviors, and learning difficulties. Dr. Levine has divided these areas of breakdown into particular profiles based upon recurring patterns that occur with particular types of brain wiring. He explains each profile, giving case studies to better illustrate what may be typical of each profile. He also details different emotional mindsets that can interfere with a child's achieving his or her potential, and provides strategies to overcome those negative behaviors. Finally, he addresses the benefits and possible detriment of testing, and the outcomes in adulthood.
   
   Dr. Levine adds several additional chapters to provide even more tools for working with different kinds of minds. He discusses the management of a profile, which is broken down into stages: demystification, accommodations, interventions at the breakdown points, strengthening strengths and affinities, protection from humiliation, and using professional therapies. He devotes a whole chapter to provide parents with best methods for nurturing these children at home. He also devotes a chapter to the teacher's role and what types of policies are practiced in "a humane school".
   
   I especially appreciate Dr. Levine's kind heart, which is evident throughout this book. He encourages parents and educators who know a child with a brain that is not meeting necessary demands not to give up on that child, and don't allow them to give up on themselves either. He reminds us that our minds are not stagnant, but come into their own with time. School is the hardest thing that many of these kids are ever going to have to face, because it focuses so intensely on particular skills, such as math and language, while devaluing other important skills, such as interpersonal abilities and creativity. He also reminds us that report cards are notoriously poor predictors of a child's potential. Throughout the numerous case studies, Dr. Levine is an encourager, an empowering force, the voice of hope and predictor of success. His position, experience, and knowledge of current research lend weight to his optimistic determination. Later, at the end of each chapter detailing the neurodevelopmental systems, Dr. Levine lists strategies, a tool box of helpful, practical information to help students, their teachers, and their parents in ways that are immediate and useful. He considers these children to be heroes and heroines, distinctively different in their learning styles, but valiantly courageous in their ability to cope, their resilience, and their will to overcome.
   
   Dr. Levine has covered his topic completely, with every avenue of possibility addressed appropriately and in the most humble, helpful manner. I have worked with a developmental pediatrician who trained under Dr. Levine, and I can say without any hesitation, if I was younger, I would jump at the chance to train under Dr. Levine myself.



4. In this book you realize that there is really no such thing as dumb, that all brains work differently. It helps focus on the REAL issues of learning, instead of lumping your understanding into ADHD or some other category. You should read it!



5. Dr. Mel Levine has worked for a long time with children so that they could grow up feeling responsible, successful and with good self esteem. He has spent a great deal of time working with experts in many disciplines in order to understand how children learn and how to help them if they are struggling.
   
   He has broken learning into several areas of input, processing, storage, retrieval and output. Parents and educators can use this information to understand where a child may be having problems and then use ideas from his book to help turn things around for the child/student.
   
   What the book does let us know is that learning is not easy but more like rocket science, in that it is a combination of innate abilities and deficits of the child, and the abilities of the adults to work with the abilities and help remediate the deficits through a combination of interventions and accommodations. There is also no quick turn around, since the educational demands change over time with new areas of difficulty recognized with the increased demands.

5 comments about The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent: Living the Art of Allowing.

1. As always I was able to find the product I was looking for and it did arrive as scheduled. No complaints! No complications! Amazon never fails me.



2. I just finished reading this book. I really got a lot out of it.
   
   I must say I was a bit leary at first about Abraham and the authors. I still can't quite buy into the idea that everything I ask for is given to me, or that the authors are so confident in their healthy emotions they cancelled their medical insurance or that every disastor victim attracted their misfortunes with "bad vibs."
   
   Having said that, it is truly a wonderful study in positive thinking and really simple, but effective techniques to improve your emotions and outlook on life. That part really does work! All and all I got a lot out of the book and am thankful I read it. Do I beleive every work as it is written, let's say I have my doubts. Read it with an open mind and take for it what works for you.



3. We used this book for several classes at the Hollywood Center for Positive Living in Florida and it was really well recieved. If you liked "Ask and it is givin" You will like this too. If channeled material bothers you and you can set that asside I think there is much here to appreciate. As always the Universe is saying "Yes" to you so "Living the Art of ALLOWING" Good and creating deliberately with intention can be a great assist to anyone wanting to change their life experience for the better.



4. This is really really great follow up to Ask and it is Given. The book has many great practical applications of the concepts laid out in Ask and it is Given.
   You will really like it.



5. this is the 3rd book I have read by the Hicks. I just loved it how it explains the Law of Attraction and how to apply it. They make it so simple and easy to follow ...has changed my life. Another book along the same lines is Living The Secret Everyday: My Secret Workbookwhich is tremendous with all the exercises you can use to help you apply this law.