~~Moved from GR~~

 

Subliminal

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

by Leonard Mlodinow

 

When I first saw this book, I knew I had to read it. Not only is it written by an author I've already had a positive experience with (The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives), but the book had one of the funniest cover designs I've seen all year. In black text on a green background, it says, "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior." In the spaces in between, in green only slightly lighter than the background, it says, "Psst: Hey There, Yes: You, Sexy. Buy This Book Now. You Know You Want It." I laughed when I saw it and obeyed--well, not to the point of buying it, but I did pick it up.

I dove in eagerly, only to be brought to an abrupt and unpleasant halt in the first chapter. There's nothing that irritates me more than bad science, and the misapplication of statistics is on my permanent hit list. One of Mlodinow's examples of the importance of the subconscious is (according to him) that we are more attracted to people who share our last name. As "evidence", he provides a chart of raw counts of husband-wife surnames over three states which indicates that a Jones is more likely to marry a Jones even though Smiths are more common. My problem? Well, this is a perfect example of Bad Statistics: he grabs a convenient weak correlation over a ridiculously tiny sample, ignores all potential confounding variables (e.g. names aren't uniformly distributed: even though the overall population of Jones are smaller, a Jones may be more likely to meet another Jones than a Smith; last names indicate ethnicity and nationality and we know people have strong homophilous preferences that have nothing to do with melodious surnames, etc, etc.), and then extrapolates an outrageously broad and demonstrably inaccurate causal conclusion (this data indicates that we are subconsciously attracted to people who share our names). I put the book down in disgust. 

And so the story ends, until one day, I ran across a version of the book on audio, read by none other than Mlodinow himself. I decided to give the book one more chance. I'm glad I did.

Subliminal isn't deep or world-changing, but it is an interesting and engaging exploration of some of the most eye-catching experiments in social psychology. If you've read a lot of books in this genre, then you're probably familiar with at least 3/4 of the experiments Mlodinow discusses, but his entertaining writing makes up for familiarity. Mlodinow has discovered how to make his writing personal: he throws in self-deprecating stories, from the time his mother immediately jumped from a night her son forgot to call to the conviction that he was dead and his roommate had hidden the body, to stories of his own childhood attempts to understand the science of dating, to stories of himself being a dad.

Mlondinow also does a great job in choosing a variety of the "sexiest" psychological experiments, from Cliff Nass's research on personification of computers and construction of group identities out of nothing at all to Bertrand and Mullainathan's racial discrimination field experiment. (They sent out identical resumes to companies, changing only the names of the applicants to traditionally white or traditionally African-American names.) Mlodinow's focus was on showing two things: first, that the "new science" of technologies such as the fMRI has allowed us to truly create a science of the subconscious (an assertion that has come under fire recently, by the way), and second, how our own subconscious biases shape our behaviour in ways that we are completely oblivious to. He discusses how and why we stereotype, how we arrive at snap decisions, how our own senses and preconceptions shape our beliefs, how we judge first and rationalize later, and how we systematically overestimate our abilities and misinterpret our own behaviour. I wasn't fond of all of the studies he used--he goes into a digression into some of the (in my opinion) rather dubious and oversensational work into understanding human sexuality--but he certainly has compiled an entertaining list of the landmark experiments of modern psychology. Overall, it's an enjoyable read and a survey of some of the standout experiments in social psychology and neuroscience--a great place to go for an introduction to a fascinating new field.

Opening Line:"I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather."   

 

 Real or not real; I finally finished Mockingjay? Thankfully real, because this just didn’t hold my attention like the fantastic and innovative HUNGER GAMES or leave me trying to catch my breathe like CATCHING FIRE did. In the end though I still loved Suzanne Collins violent, bloody and utterly defeated conclusion to this series, it just took a bit lot of effort to get through to it. We aren’t left hanging where the love triangle is concerned either, with Collins giving us a realistic and satisfactory glimpse twenty years into Katniss’ future and who she finds herself there with.

I have spent most of this summer of 2012 with D.H.Lawrence. It began with reading a book by Geoff Dyer Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence and went on to daily morning meditations with four to six pages of this book of the unconscious and four to six pages of his triple travelogue, D. H. Lawrence and Italy: Twilight in Italy; Sea and Sardinia; Etruscan Places which I am still enjoying a few pages of every morning before sitting down to write. But this particular book was of most importance to me in my study of Lawrence and it has proven, for the most part, a disappointment. It would have been hard for me as well to have been a man and to not have been a chauvinist in the 1920's. I am afraid his opinions and beliefs are riddled with this idea of man's superiority over women. He, at least, believed that man should have a higher purpose in order to keep his woman at his side. The so-called facts of Lawrence's ideas of the unconscious were for the most part discarded by me. I quickly began to be only interested in what he thought and believed in, of which elements, formed and made him the man he was. Concurrently I am also reading his Selected Letters by Boulton and Cambridge before plunging into the biographies by others and also some of the fiction he wrote. If nothing else, this book will help me further understand the things Lawrence has to say as I complete the reading of his letters to both friend and foe, and his fiction will be uncolored a bit with some of his now-known-by-me blacks and whites.

In these two books Lawrence often acted silly and taunting, especially in the second book of this collection. On the other hand his Selected Letters depict a very serious man, thoughtful and well-read. This latter piece of this two-part book was a mumble jumble of ideas and beliefs that today would seem out-of-date and archaic. But I do not hold this book against him. Lawrence was certainly brave and had the courage to fight back against his fearful detractors and despotic critics. During this time his books were banned and unpopular. He lived meagerly and relied on the generosity of others. He seemed almost desperate in his attempts to sound out his warring and his self-perceived-as-superior views. I garnered little from reading these two small books and almost wish I hadn't. His letters are remarkable though, but these thoughts are not. The unconscious is an important subject to me and my poetry. I have always maintained I have attempted (especially in my early work) to write from the unconscious to the unconscious. I was hoping to get some answers from Lawrence and perhaps some tips on how to better tap into this amazing source we all have inside us. Or how we can gainfully use this uncommon source to compose, in addition to such poetic lines as my own, She wore a tattered wiesenboden the color of a schooper.

Interesting ideas of Lawrence presented not as a scholarly text but as an intuitive process written only for fellow believers and not meant to persuade or change the non-believer at all, he said.

This is a really wonderful book. Clinical Psychology Professor, Danielle Knafo really understands art, creativity and the artist's life and her analysis of the connections between Psychoanalysis and Art is fascinating. There are also some great color photos of the artwork she is discussing in the middle of the book, so you can really connect with the images yourself. She also touches on dreams and the role they play in Psychoanalysis and Art, although she was a bit too Freudian for my taste. It also wasn't clear why she chose the artists she did - it would have been nice to have a better explanation of that. But overall, a really wonderful book and a huge gift to the world of Art and Psychotherapy.