books on the mind, consciousness, cognitive science…
June 8, 2008
Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker (Random House, 2008) is a new book that’s getting lots of reviews and sounds like it will go well with Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.
A “sneak peek” at the book is available.
Article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle (June 8, 2008)
Mind Hacks post, that links to Salon review (and it turns out that the Salon review also mentions Snoop)
Comments (0) - cognitive science,culture,new books,psychology
May 26, 2008
I saw this at the bookstore today, started reading and was already jotting things down within the first few pages, a sure sign of a good book: 
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling (Basic Books, 2008)
From the product description:
Does what’s on your desk reveal what’s on your mind? Do those pictures on your walls tell true tales about you? And is your favorite outfit about to give you away? For the last ten years psychologist Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves. By exploring our private worlds (desks, bedrooms, even our clothes and our cars), he shows not only how we showcase our personalities in unexpected—and unplanned—ways, but also how we create personality in the first place, communicate it others, and interpret the world around us. Gosling, one of the field’s most innovative researchers, dispatches teams of scientific snoops to poke around dorm rooms and offices, to see what can be learned about people simply from looking at their stuff. What he has discovered is astonishing: when it comes to the most essential components of our personalities—from friendliness to flexibility—the things we own and the way we arrange them often say more about us than even our most intimate conversations. If you know what to look for, you can figure out how reliable a new boyfriend is by peeking into his medicine cabinet or whether an employee is committed to her job by analyzing her cubicle. Bottom line: The insights we gain can boost our understanding of ourselves and sharpen our perceptions of others. Packed with original research and fascinating stories, Snoop is a captivating guidebook to our not-so-secret lives.
May 22, 2008
Lots of enticing new reviews at Metapsychology Online Reviews this week, including these:
April 1, 2008
What is Mental Disorder?: An essay in philosophy, science, and values (International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry) by Derek Bolton (Oxford University Press)
From the book description:
This new book by Derek Bolton tackles the problems involved in the definition and boundaries of mental disorder. It addresses two main questions regarding mental illness. Firstly, what is the basis of the standards or norms by which we judge that a person has a mental disorder – that the person’s mind is not working as it should, that their mental functioning is abnormal? Controversies about these questions have been dominated by the contrast between norms that are medical, scientific or natural, on the one hand, and social norms on the other. The norms that define mental disorder seem to belong to psychiatry, to be medical and scientific, but are they really social norms, hijacked and disguised by the medical profession?
Secondly, what is the validity of the distinction between mental disorder and order, between abnormal and normal mental functioning? To what extent, notwithstanding appearances, does mental disorder involve meaningful reactions and problem-solving? These responses may be to normal problems of living, or to not so normal problems – to severe psycho-social challenges. Is there after all order in mental disorder?
