my mind on books

The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain by James Fallon (Current, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

“The last scan in the pile was strikingly odd. In fact it looked exactly like the most abnormal of the scans I had just been writing about, suggesting that the poor individual it belonged to was a psychopath—or at least shared an uncomfortable amount of traits with one….When I found out who the scan belonged to, I had to believe there was a mistake….But there had been no mistake. The scan was mine.”

For the first fifty-eight years of his life James Fallon was by all appearances a normal guy. A successful neuroscientist and medical school professor, he’d been raised in a loving, supportive family, married his high school sweetheart, and had three kids and lots of friends.

Then he learned a shocking truth that would not only disrupt his personal and professional life, but would lead him to question the very nature of his own identity.

The Psychopath Inside tells the fascinating story of Fallon’s reaction to the discovery that he has the brain of a psychopath. While researching serial murderers, he uncovered a distinct neurological pattern in their brain scans that helped explain their cold and violent behavior. A few months later he learned that he was descended from a family with a long line of murderers which confirmed that Fallon’s own brain pattern wasn’t a fluke.

As a scientist convinced that humans are shaped by their genetics, Fallon set out to reconcile the truth about his brain with everything he knew about the mind, behavior, and the influence of nature vs. nurture on our personalities. How could he, a successful scientist and a happy family man with no history of violence, be a psychopath? How much did his biology influence his behavior? Was he capable of some of the gruesome atrocities perpetrated by the serial killers he had studied?

Combining his personal experience with scientific analysis, Fallon shares his journey and the discoveries that ultimately led him to understand that, despite everything science can teach us, humans are even more complex than we can imagine.

Google Books preview:

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua Greene (Penguin Press, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

A pathbreaking neuroscientist reveals how our social instincts turn Me into Us, but turn Us against Them—and what we can do about it

Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us) and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern times have forced the world’s tribes into a shared space, resulting in epic clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground.

A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights the way forward. Greene compares the human brain to a dual-mode camera, with point-and-shoot automatic settings (“portrait,” “landscape”) as well as a manual mode. Our point-and-shoot settings are our emotions—efficient, automated programs honed by evolution, culture, and personal experience. The brain’s manual mode is its capacity for deliberate reasoning, which makes our thinking flexible. Point-and-shoot emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us. But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them. Our tribal emotions make us fight—sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words—often with life-and-death stakes.

An award-winning teacher and scientist, Greene directs Harvard University’s Moral Cognition Lab, which uses cutting-edge neuroscience and cognitive techniques to understand how people really make moral decisions. Combining insights from the lab with lessons from decades of social science and centuries of philosophy, the great question of Moral Tribes is this: How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong to Us?

Ultimately, Greene offers a set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives. Moral Tribes shows us when to trust our instincts, when to reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward.

A major achievement from a rising star in a new scientific field, Moral Tribes will refashion your deepest beliefs about how moral thinking works and how it can work better.

See also: Author’s homepage

1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think by Robert Arp (Atria, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

An elegant addition to the successful “1001” series—a comprehensive, chronological guide to the most important thoughts from the finest minds of the past 3,000 years.

From Democracy to Cultural Revolution, Courtly Love to Survival of the Fittest, and Kant’s Enlightenment to the Oedipus Complex, here are the big ideas that have revolutionized our world. 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think offers a wealth of stimulation and amusement for any reader with a curious mind, showing how once-radical propositions have become accepted truths.

Besides the great, eternal questions (how was the universe created and what is the place of humans within it? How should a person live? And how can we build a just society?), 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think also includes a host of hypotheses that are remarkable for their sheer audacity—from the concept of the transmigration of souls to parallel universes and the theoretical paradoxes of time travel. Discover the mathematical proof of the existence of life in other galaxies, and relearn inspiring ideas ranging from Gandhi’s theory of civil disobedience to Mary Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking advocacy of women’s rights.

Abounding with quotations and more than 900 full-color, gorgeous illustrations, this is both an in-depth history of ideas and a delightfully accessible popular reference.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s website

Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction ed. by John Brockman (Harper Perennial, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

Unlock your mind

From the bestselling authors of Thinking, Fast and Slow; The Black Swan; and Stumbling on Happiness comes a cutting-edge exploration of the mysteries of rational thought, decision-making, intuition, morality, willpower, problem-solving, prediction, forecasting, unconscious behavior, and beyond. Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org (“The world’s smartest website”—The Guardian), Thinking presents original ideas by today’s leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.

Daniel Kahneman on the power (and pitfalls) of human intuition and “unconscious” thinking • Daniel Gilbert on desire, prediction, and why getting what we want doesn’t always make us happy • Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the limitations of statistics in guiding decision-making • Vilayanur Ramachandran on the scientific underpinnings of human nature • Simon Baron-Cohen on the startling effects of testosterone on the brain • Daniel C. Dennett on decoding the architecture of the “normal” human mind • Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on mental disorders and the crucial developmental phase of adolescence • Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and Roy Baumeister on the science of morality, ethics, and the emerging synthesis of evolutionary and biological thinking • Gerd Gigerenzer on rationality and what informs our choices.

Go to Google Books preview

See also: Book at Edge.org

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley and David Kelley (Crown Business, 2013)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley, IDEO partner and the author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation, have written a powerful and compelling book on unleashing the creativity that lies within each and every one of us.

Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types.”  But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every  one of us is creative.  In an incredibly entertaining and inspiring narrative that draws on countless stories from their work at IDEO, the Stanford d.school, and with many of the world’s top companies, David and Tom Kelley identify the principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential in our work lives, and in our personal lives, and allow us to innovate in terms of how we approach and solve problems.  It is a book that will help each of us be more productive and successful in our lives and in our careers.

See also: Book website