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 The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome (2007)
by Tony Attwood
397 pages - Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Asperger's Syndrome is a neurological condition that is considered to be on the Autism spectrum, and has only been recognized widely in the last decade or so. People with this condition generally have difficulty with social interaction, as well as other quirks such as clumsiness, trouble making eye-contact, and usually an exceptional talent or deep area of interest - though the nature of the condition is that it shades into 'normalcy' without any definite defining line. Because it is a neurological condition, it's not something that develops or that can be cured, but instead is life-long and stable. That also means that any treatments for it are focused on adapting to the condition.
This book is aimed at a general audience, with enough references for professionals, but easy enough to read for the general public. Its main goal seems to be summing up what is known thus far, and in that it does a good job, but even though it is meant to be a complete guide it's very noticeable that a majority of the material concerns children with Asperger's. I think this is because this is where most of the resources of psychologists are focused, and where they have gathered the most information. The main reasons for this are probably because most public schools are forced to care for all children that are brought to them, and the parents are likely to have extra health insurance that pays for things such as extensive counseling. There's much less information, in this book and in general, about adults living with the condition.
I read this mainly because I suspect I have Asperger's. After reading this (and viewing some videos), I suspect that if I do, it's somewhere on the borderline between this and normalcy. I'm not sure about the value of putting myself through a formal diagnosis (especially being that 'formal' doesn't seem to be that formal). I found it interesting that a lot of people think that this condition has been around basically as long as people have been around, and that it's likely that a lot of leaps forward have been due to it, as accomplishments like that require people that see things differently from the majority, as well as extreme focus, etc.
Though the stereotype is that Autistic people are good at math, to the point of being seen as human calculators, a lot of them actually have trouble with it. The general separation is between those who are math-inclined, and those who are visual thinkers. I know we shouldn't curse or take for granted the gifts that we're given, but I can't help sometimes feel like it would be much easier to be math-inclined, as there seems to be a much greater utility for those sorts of people.
Reading this, one of the things that kept running through my mind is the wonderful narration at the start of Little Dieter Needs to Fly: ""Men are often haunted by things that happened to them in life, especially in war or other periods of great intensity. Sometimes you see these men walking the streets or driving a car. Their lives seem to be normal — but they are not."
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The Instinct to Heal: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy (2004)
by David Servan-Schreiber
294 pages - Rodale
I read this book sort of by accident, as I was actually searching the library catologue for a quite different book by the same author, but that had hold queue, so I thought I'd take a glance at this first. It arrived without my thinking too much about it.
Much of the book is spent looking at things that can affect the 'emotional brain' - meaning that part that doesn't easily respond to things like words or ideas. The subjects covered in the book are: 1)Heart Coherence, 2)Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming (EMDR), 3)Dawn Simulators, 4)Acupuncture, 5)Omega-3 Fatty Acids, 6)Exercise, 7)Loving Relationships, 8)Greater Meaning/Connections. Mostly it's an introduction to a subject, and you'd probably need to do more research before you took up any of those paths. The author is a scientist and does admit that a lot of these things aren't completely proven by science, but compares that to many medicines doctors prescribe, which in studies often do not vary from a placebo.
I thought the most interesting part of the book was just the overall theme about your physical body and its upkeep and care being just as important as things like mental attitudes, if not more so. Living in the modern world, it's sometimes easy to spend so much time with your face in a computer screen, tv set, books and newspapers, that you can almost forget that you have a physical body at all. One interesting study the author quotes says that it's better to be a smoker, to suffer from high blood pressure, or to undergo ongoing stress than to not be loved by your spouse.
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The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play (1989)
By Neil Fiore
201 pages - Jeremy P. Tarcher
This is a pretty interesting book on procrastination, that takes a bit of a different approach than the usual advice that tells you to just set more goals and stick to a schedule and pull your socks up. There's some other aspects to it, but the main point of the book is that it recommends that you schedule your recreation and necessities and stick to those, and then try to fit in whatever you classify as 'work' around that.
My problem with procrastination can sometimes reach ridiculous proportions. This is actually the second time I've read this book, but it was rewarding to go through it again, and I think it encouraged me to try some of the strategies again. I do think the book is padded out a bit with some other ideas that don't really fit and aren't as helpful.
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Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors (2000)
by Colin Wilson
274 pages - Hampton Roads Publishing Company
Colin Wilson takes a look at the phenomenon of cults and cult leaders, and how the stories often end in tragedy and violence. A lot of the famous names are here, such as Charles Manson and David Koresh and Shoko Ashara, but the author also profiles lesser-known figures, such as the phenomenon of Sabbatai Zevi in 1666, and the LeBaron family which headed a break-away Mormon sect. Wilson also includes figures who follow the same pattern, but did not end quite so sensationally, such as Auguste Comte, who created his own 'rational religion', and Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalysts who followed him. I also found interesting the amount of Canadian content in the book; the story of Brother Twelve, who built a mini-Jonestown in British Columbia, and Rock (Roch) Theriault, who tended to isolate himself with a small group of followers in the woods, and actually presided over some incredibly gruesome and savage things just a few hours away from here. Eeep.
I started reading this because I was re-interested in the works of Colin Wilson after reading his autobiography, but as I read on I was surprised that this book was quite a bit better than I was expecting, and I mostly put all the rest of my reading aside until I finished it. I think Wilson takes a fairly unique approach as he doesn't echo the sort of view you hear people throw around; that these cult leaders are just out to make money, and that the people that follow them are just really stupid. Wilson acknowledges the religious impulse as something that is intrinsically a part of humanity, and he also believes that it's quite possible that at the beginning these leaders are able to demonstrate some degree of unusual psychic powers. What is remarkable is how often these movements start off with strong initiative and good intentions, before they spiral downward into conflict and sexual over-indulgence and violence and psychosis.
Wilson comes to the conclusion that what these people, both leaders and followers, are trying to do is to compensate for some inadequacy in 'real' life by creating an entire world which is more suitable to them. At some point, the imaginative powers of the mind, or the unconscious, actually create this world for a person or group, so that it truly becomes the only reality that they know. As always, Wilson sometimes seems a bit too ready to embrace every new idea that he hears, but I don't think that you need to agree with all of the author's conclusions, or even any of them, to get something out of this book.
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Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens (2005)
by Susan A. Clancy
179 pages - Harvard University Press
This is a creepy idea, and many people understandably resist it. Our memories are who we are. They inform our personal history, our life stories, our sense of ourselves. Our lives, after all, are only what we remember of them. It's unnerving to realize that our stories, feelings, memories of the past are reconstructed over time, and that we make up history as we go along. (pg.69) This book sets out to explore the phenomenon that has occurred in the last fifty years or so, of people claiming to be abducted and experimented on by extraterrestrials. The titles of the chapters sum up quite well the ground this book covers: How do you wind up studying aliens? How do people come to believe they were abducted by aliens? Why do I have memories if it didn't happen? Why are abduction stories so consistent? Who gets abducted? If it didn't happen, why would I want to believe that it did? The author pretty much assumes from the beginning that these events didn't literally happen, and tries to understand why people feel so strongly about what they claim happened to them. The author is very big on supporting the principles of scientific inquiry, but ironically enough she seems to be somewhat blind to this when it comes to her own book. A lot of the conclusions and remarks she makes have very little basis in actual testing or observation, and are just conclusions she jumps to because they make sense to her. At other times it seems like the scientific method is used more as a smokescreen, such as the time when she talks about a series of tests that were made while monitoring the subjects using MRI, but then when she talks about the results of the tests, it's all about what the subjects said, and no reference is made to anything that might have been picked up in the MRI, though it sure impresses you when mentions that an MRI was used at the beginning. I think too often people trumpet 'science' and then science just happens to be whatever it is that most of the scientists have as their own personal opinions, tastes, feelings, and prejudices, even when they have nothing to do with the scientific method. It was still a pretty interesting book to read, and sometimes pretty funny too, and probably better written than most of the 'unexplained phenomena' stuff out there. I don't believe that extraterrestrials are flying around on our planet and abducting people (and, in fact, I have strong doubts that there's anything else out in space that we would recognize as alien intelligence or alien civilization), but perhaps ironically, I think I'm a touch more likely to believe abduction accounts after reading this. The author touched on it briefly, but I would have liked to have heard more about comparisons between these current experiences and other phenomenon people have experienced in the past in regards to shapes in the sky or beings they've encountered such as spirits, fairies, demons, etc.
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The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You (1996)
by Elaine N. Aron
251 pages - Birch Lane Press
This book identifies about 20% of the population as being HSPs (Highly Sensitive Person), which, roughly speaking, means both a greater receptivity to things, but also a much greater risk of being over-aroused and overwhelmed by things. Various aspects of life are explored, such as childhood, the social world, the workplace, medical and psychological treatments, and spirituality; all with a view of re-framing past experience and finding a way to live a balanced life which holds meaning for the individual.
I'd heard about this book a few years ago, and anytime I would come across a mention of it, I always kind of dismissed it; the title and the pastel-colour cover of the paperback just seemed to make it something for people that listen to Yanni and need to have everything draped in diaphanous silk sheets. But it's actually not like that at all. It's a brief book that's very reasonable and down-to-earth, that doesn't shy away from the darker and uglier sides of life, and is rooted in a Jungian approach. Reluctant as I am to admit it, I don't think there's a lot of doubt that I fit into the definition of an HSP, and this book gave me a lot to think about, both about understanding my past and trying to find a way to exist without going to the extremes of either trying to be like everyone else, or the inevitable withdrawal from everything when that approach becomes traumatically overwhelming. It's something I think I'm just beginning to process, really. But it's a lot better than the useless sort of advice I got from my parents like 'you'll grow out of it' or 'you just need to get used to it'. I'm sure I'll want to read this book again a little bit down the road.
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Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences (1970)
by A. H. Maslow
123 pages - Penguin Compass
The best part of this book is the title and the cover photo of a clouded mountain - the text inside is mostly a bad artifact of the 60s. About half the book is the title essay, and it is preceded by a forward written by Maslow five years afterward, where he says he was a bit too harsh and unilateral in his opinions. The piece itself is mostly concerned with Maslow stating his opinions about how science and religion should change; making it sound like these changes are not just inevitable but right around the corner. When he makes statements like saying that religions should drop most of their ideas about God, and that science is going to need to change to be able to incorporate, and even be dominated by the non-scientific -- well, you wonder if he even understands very much about what religion or science are.
The second half of the book is various appendixes, some of which are interesting reads, such as detail about some of the usual characteristics of peak experiences, and the effects they have on people. But even here there is some eye-rolling content, such as his statement that every person in every circumstance will be extremely miserable unless they 'have' someone of the opposite sex.
I like some of Maslow's ideas, especially about peak experiences, and studying happy people rather than focusing on just the sick, and so I picked up this book thinking I was going to learn something about, well, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences. How disappointing that it's really devoid of that, and delivered in a patronizing tone which isn't just assured that it's right, but that everything will in the world will promptly turn this way. As another example, he states that established Western religions have absolutely lost all relevance for anyone, have been invalidated, and doesn't offer anything to support his assertion. Also, terms and names of Eastern religions are thrown around and twisted for new definitions of the author's choosing, which makes it sound like he's pretty ignorant about most of what he talks about.
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Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (2006)
by David Lynch
181 pages - Jeremy P. Tarcher
David Lynch is the director behind such films as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive. In this short book he shares some of the ideas and thoughts he has about the creative process, and especially how Transcendental Meditation has helped him be a better artist and a better person. There's a lot of short chapters and blank spaces in the book, and it can easily be read in a couple of hours. With all the positive thoughts combined with down-home wisdom and quotes from things such as the Upanishads, it could all come across as quite the parody of the vapid pretentiousness of an LA movie-maker, if it wasn't for the fact that Lynch makes such damn good movies.
Lynch comes across as a very kind and caring person, who feels compassion for others and genuinely loves making films and living life. He's practiced meditation for over thirty years, and feels that it's helped him expand his consciousness and allows him every day to get in touch with the Absolute. To Lynch creative ideas are like fish swim up into your waking consciousness, and by getting in touch with the Absolute your consciousness is broadened and so you are able to come up with bigger, more beautiful and powerful fish.
I was feeling a bit frazzled and burnt-out today, so it was nice to pick this up and not only get to know a really wonderful person, but also to be reminded of the importance of transcendent experiences. There's a nice part where he talks about seeing reality as three differently coloured curtains over a window, corresponding to the states of waking, sleeping, and dreaming; but that it's possible to occasionally part those curtains and have the unfiltered light from the Source fall upon you.
'The idea is the whole thing. If you stay true to the idea, it tells you everything you need to know, really. you just keep working to make it look like that idea looked, feel like it felt, sound like it sounded, and be the way it was. And it's weird, because when you veer off, you sort of know it. You know when you're doing something that is not correct because it feels incorrect. It says, "No, no; this isn't like the idea said it was." And when you're getting into it the correct way, it feels correct. It's an intuition: You feel-think your way through. You start one place, and as you go, it gets more and more finely tuned. But all along it's the idea talking. At some point, it feels correct to you. And you hope that it feels somewhat correct to others.' (pg.83)
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The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius (1999)
by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen
399 pages - Ballantine
Firstly, I haven't been really reading a lot of books front-to-back lately, mainly either just reading parts or abandoning them. I'm not too worried, I figure if I really enjoy reading it'll come back after a break.
Anyhow, I'm re-reading this, but I read it before under it's previous title Liberating Everyday Genius. Both titles are kinda sketchy, though I guess this one is a bit better. The author's choice to use her own capitalized terms like 'Everyday Genius' and 'Evolutionary Intelligence' sometimes sounds a bit too new-agey.
But, it's interesting how much more you pick up on a second reading. And how many different things. I suppose it's a product of both reading the material a second time, and being at a different place in your life. I realized that because I'm so adaptable, for various reasons I've been mostly simulating the self I present to the world. And it's very tiring and not very satisfying.
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Solitude: A Return to the Self (1988)
by Anthony Storr
216 pages - Quality Paperback Book Club
This book begins with the statement that personal relationships are given a excessively prominent role when considering people's happiness. This also means that time spent alone, or given over to impersonal pursuits, is devalued. The author gives examples, mostly from the worlds of art, science, and philosophy, of people who did not necessarily have many and/or deep personal relationships, didn't accord them the highest importance, and yet lived reasonably happy lives and contributed immeasurably to the rest of the world.
The premise of this book makes it sound quite interesting, but I would say at least half of this goes quite off-track. Though the author insists that there's nothing wrong with people who desire/require solitude, a large part of the book is taken up by theories of what could have gone wrong in childhood to make people this way. As another example, a chapter near the end deals with 'The Third Period' in the lives of artists, a subject that is very loosely related to the theme of the book, if at all. It's as though the author started a book on a subject, and then decided to just throw in whatever scattered research and thinking he'd found interesting, as long as it vaguely had to do with psychology.
Also making it a frustrating read was that it's hard to tell what the book is - it's too dry and dense and packed with references to be a popular work, but it doesn't have the rigour or pointed argument to be an academic work. There are some insights to be gained here, but you need to do a lot of the work yourself. At least it has a nice picture on the cover.
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Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (1990)
by Stephen Nachmanovitch
208 pages - Tarcher
This is a book not about techniques or skills in the creation of art, but about the ground from which it originally springs. It's applicable to various disciplines, though the author is a violinist and so there is a bit of an emphasis on music. There's discussion of various phases and difficulties in artistic creation, with an emphasis on a holistic view of both creativity and life.
This is a pretty good book as far as these types of books go. At the same time, I do really think that books on creating art, or courses in it, or talking and thinking to the point of being too self-conscious about it, can really be damaging. 'Too many words,' was a thought that came to mind while reading some sections. A good and concise book, but many of the ideas weren't new to me.
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The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World (2002)
by Marti Olsen Laney
330 Pages - Workman
This is the greatest book ever :)
Unlike other books I've read on personality types or psychology or whatever, this one is *all about* introversion. Which means it goes a lot deeper and into a lot more detail; the chapter on the different brain chemistry of introverts vs. extroverts was totally new to me. And I had no idea that a lot of things I experience are related to introversion, like only coming up with responses for group conversation much later when it's already moved on, and being sensitive to temperature shifts.
I suppose it's not a perfect book, but it's the only one like it, so that makes it ultra-valuable. It's filled with things like, "You have free time, but you can't remember what you like to do. This may sounds nuts to an extrovert, but it is a common problem of introverts." A book all about me. I didn't even realize I felt so ashamed of ways I act that I feel like I'm not 'supposed' to, but I guess I do. I want to give this book a hug. Oh, and the ink is blue, not black, which I don't think I've ever seen before.
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The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception (2000)
by Emmanuel Carrere, translated by Linda Coverdale
191 pages - Stoddart
"After I killed Florence, I knew that I was also going to kill Antoine and Caroline and that those moments in front of the television were the last that we would spend together. I cuddled with them. I must have said sweet things to them like 'I love you.'" - from Jean-Claude Romand's testimony
Jean-Claude Romand was known to his family and community as a successful doctor with a prestigious position with the WHO, someone who travelled the world and rubbed shoulders with intellectuals and politicians. In early 1993, he was the sole survivor of a fire he set in his home after he murdered his wife and their two young children. When a relative went to inform his parents, he found them murdered as well. In the next few days it was discovered he had also tried to murder his mistress, and was probably guilty in the less recent death of his father-in-law. It soon came to light that eighteen years ago Romand had dropped out of medical school after missing his exams, did not have any kind of job with anyone, and merely stayed in the airport hotel when he told people he was travelling. He lived off the money he took in from relatives, promising to put it in long-term investments that would generate immense amounts of interest. His life, with his family, his best friend, his mistress, was a complete lie. But he wasn't hiding another life underneath it all; he was just a zero.
This is an amazing and profound book that tells the story of Romand in a personal, intimate, matter-of-fact way. Carrere tells the story as it has been pieced together by the accounts of others, the police investigation, and Romand's own (sometimes questionable) version of events. It's also a very personal tale, Carrere letting you into his thoughts and feelings and speculations on events. Reading the book was an immense and involving experience but now that I'm finished I feel struck silent. There's so many things to reflect on here. Identity and authenticity. Certainly we all tell little lies sometimes, and we begin every day inheriting a history that we have mixed feelings about. But at what point does this slip into completely sociopathic behaviour? And perhaps is there really a force of evil active in the world that enters in at our weakest places?
Many psychiatrists on the case, and external observers, believed this entire charade was an attempt by Romand to narcissisticly avoid and escape feelings of depression that he was never allowed to feel. He denied them until he entirely separated his public self from reality. Now he is a model prisoner, being the sort of remorseful criminal prison officials dream about, friendly with fellow prisoners and prison workers and volunteers, and clinging to a reborn Catholic faith. But isn't he still playing the role that will please everyone else? Putting on an act that is expected of him and will cause the least dissatisfaction and rejection? Is he still as dead inside as ever? Carrere finishes his narrative with, "He is not putting on an act, of that I'm sure, but isn't the liar inside him putting one over on him? When Christ enters his heart, when the certainty of being loved in spite of everything makes tears of joy run down his cheeks, isn't it the adversary deceiving him yet again?"
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The Truth Will Set You Free: Overcoming Emotional Blindness and Finding Your True Adult Self (2001)
by Alice Miller
203 pages - Basic Books
A book about acknowledging and making peace with what happened in the past. Most of my thoughts with regard to this are personal, and are things that I'm still processing in my mind, so I'll just leave it at that.
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The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self (revised ed. - 1997)
by Alice Miller, translated by Ruth Ward
136 pages - Basic Books
This book maybe wasn't quite what I expected. It doesn't have much to do with giftedness, if anything. It talks about how emotions get repressed or ignored in childhood, and then people fall into the trap of trying to heal the hurt that happened to them in the past or somehow make it right. But there's really nothing you can do but accept it because it's already happened, and it's over now. The author gives an interesting definition of being your true self, which is basically just feeling all your feelings and thinking all your thoughts and following your natural urge to express yourself. When you're not really yourself it makes sense to have an urge to suicide since the person you're being is someone you don't want to be. So, some good stuff mixed with some things that are a bit off-the-wall.
'Both the depressive and the grandiose person completely deny their childhood reality by living as though the availability of the parents could still be salvaged: the grandiose person through the illusion of achievement, and the depressive through his constant fear of losing "love." Neither can accept the truth that this loss or absence of love has already happened in the past, and that no effort whatsoever can change this fact.' (pg.66)
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Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing: Spiritual Preparation for the Office of Confession (1847)
by Soren Kierkegaard, translated by Douglas V. Steere
220 pages - Harper Torchbooks
'As a devotional classic, the nineteenth century produced almost nothing in either Catholic or Protestant circles that can compare seriously with Purity of Heart. Designed as a preparation for the church's office of confession, it is prepared to put into the hands of the serious reader the surgical instruments for a major spiritual operation. The instruments are razor-sharp and they can cut through any cancerous worldly growth, no matter how fibrous, in order to liberate again the healthy tissues of a man's individual responsibility before the gaze of the living God' - Translator's Note
This small book is one of Kierkegaard's 'Edifying Discourses' where he states, as the title suggests, that purity of heart is to will one thing. And that one thing is The Good (as under the aspect of The Eternal). Emphasis is placed on different types of possible double-mindedness and evasion, as well as the necessity of living as an individual. As SK himself says in the text, books like these are much more about what happens inside the reader than anything that the speaker might say, or how he says it -- so I'll just say that it was a worthwhile read.
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Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You Always Wanted to Be. (1998)
by Steve Chandler
219 pages - Career Press
A self-help type book, the title is maybe in the neighbourhood of what it contains, but is perhaps not entirely accurate. It's not really a entire strategy, but sort of a collection of small thoughts that might nudge you along. Sometimes it's good to get a little advice. It was pretty good.
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Seeing with the Mind's Eye: The History, Techniques, and Uses of Visualization (1975)
by Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels
331 pages - Random House
This is a book that covers visualization both in very general terms, discussing its history and theory, as well as getting down to specific recommendations and suggestions as to how it can play a role in your life. There are lots of illustrations, including many works of art. Not only is that a visual delight, but I think it's a great example of how the authors present visualization in the context of the history of humanity and each living person's place in creation.
A really good book if you're interested in the role visualization plays in art, religion, modern psychology, or various areas of modern life. It also presented a visualization/hypnosis technique that has really done wonders in the short time I've been exploring using it. This was a library book, and I'll definitely need to hunt down a used copy for myself (it's currently out of print). I'm always fascinated by how personally important books get to cross a person's path, and I'm amused that I actually heard of this book in, of all places, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.
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Sleep Thieves: An Eye-opening Exploration into the Science and Mysteries of Sleep (1996)
by Stanley Coren
304 pages - Free Press
This is a well-written, entertaining and informative book about sleep, intended for a general audience. The author's main message is that most people in society are getting far less than the 8 hours of sleep necessary each night, and are thereby harming themselves and others in a myriad of ways. Additionally, if we increased our sleep to about 10 hours a day, there is a definite benefit to productivity, creativity, alertness, mood, etc.
The author takes aim at a lot of the people and forces that seem to want us to cut down on our sleep, and that view people who are concerned about sleep 'lazy'. Many famous people of accomplishment are, by their own word or that of others, popularly known to need very little sleep; from Leonardo Da Vinci to Edison and Tesla to Churchill and Stalin. However, when the facts of their lives are examined, it seems they took sleep very seriously, and over the course of a day possibly even slept longer than the average person. There's also lots of information about natural cycles of the body, such as the 'down' times at 1-4am and 1-4pm, when it's hard not to fall asleep, and the 'up' times around 8-11am and 7-9pm, when it's almost impossible to fall asleep. There's all sorts of studies quoted and explained, and the book is quite nicely neither too technical nor too dumbed-down. The author's personality really comes through, and it's warm and engaging.
Personally, a lot of the time I've felt there was usually something 'off' in my sleeping, as it's rare that I wake up refreshed, and more often it's sort of a slow, resentful crawl into the world of the waking. I don't know if there was anything really revolutionary here (except perhaps the advantages of getting up to 10 hours a day), but seeing all those little snippets that you might of picked up here and there being put together to form a coherent picture gives me a much better understanding of sleep. And I think I've got a renewed commitment to regularly put in some quality sleep, as I think I've somehow been trying to sleep as little as possible.
( quotes )
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The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971)
by Abraham H. Maslow
407 pages
Penguin Arkana
This is a collection of papers that Maslow was editing into a book at the time of his death. Most of them were left basically as they were when they were published seperately, leading to a bit of a scattered reading experience. I knew of Maslow strictly from his needs hierarchy, explained dryly by various disinterested teachers, so it was interesting to read his thoughts first-hand. Maslow had the unique idea that, instead of studying the sick, as most psychologists and other doctors do, he would take a look at the healthiest, happiest, and most successful people, and see what they had in common, why they had succeeded where the vast majority of people fail realizing their potential. So most of this book is focused on self-actualization, specifically through a humanistic view.
I think I got a lot out of reading this book, but Maslow's style and personality sometimes annoys. A lot of this is 'educated guesswork' and just personal intuition and feeling, though I suppose as he had a PhD he needed to dress it up as science 'to be verified later'. So yeah, interesting thoughts, but I don't think I quite agree with the overall picture, or the entire vision Maslow paints.
( quotes )
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