Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Way the Brain Buys

12/28/11. The psychology of shopping. We have come a long way since Vance Packard wrote "The Hidden Persuaders" in 1957.

http://www.economist.com/node/12792420

Antonio Damsio: The Quest to Understand Consciousness

Going Pogo

12/28/11. The life and times of Walt Kelly's Pogo.

"On the first Earth Day, in 1970, a cartoon poster appeared at rallies in all 50 states. It showed a rueful opossum picking up papers, bottles, cans, wrappers—the detritus of modern life. Superimposed on the image were the words WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US..."

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_4_urb-walt-kelly.html

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Essaying Epstein

12/22/11.

"Books of essays don’t sell, an editor once told me, so don’t send me one. Joseph Epstein, who considers the label “essayist” an honorific and who himself has been one of the editors of the annual series, The Best American Essays, has compared the essayist’s place in the realm of literature to a seat at the children’s table at the family holiday dinner. Not to get too snooty about it, as Joe Epstein might say, the essay deserves a better seat than that, maybe even one at the high table..."

http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1171

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Twice-Victimized of Sexual Assault

12/12/11.

Jane Brody:

"Nearly every woman I know can recall one or more instances in which she was sexually assaulted, harassed, threatened, inappropriately touched or even raped..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/health/the-twice-victimized-of-sexual-assault.html?_r=1&ref=health

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My Holiday Book Recommendations

12/6/11. Some of my recent favorite books:

Darlymple, Theodore. "Life at the Bottom. The Worldview that Makes the Underclass."

Epstein, Joseph. "Gossip."

Gazzanaga, Michael. "Who's in Charge?  Free Will and the Science of the Brain."

Kagan, Jerome. "The Temperamental Thread. How Genes, Culture, Time and Luck Make Us Who We Are."

Markel, Howard. "An Anatomy of Addiction. Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle of Cocaine."

The Myth of Multiple Personality Disorder

12/6/11. How can so many people be so wrong?  Easy. Science is filled with beliefs masquerading as facts.


http://io9.com/5865263/whats-the-truth-behind-multiple-personality-disorder?tag=psychology

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

On Thomas Sowell

12/6/11. Economist Thomas Sowell is a national treasure. His book "Conflict of Visions" is my favorite.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/thomas-sowell-peerless-nerd/

Theodore Dalrymple: Barbarians on the Thames

12/6/11. A postmortem of the British riots. 

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_4_otbie-british-riots.html

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl RIP

12/6/11. Of her many books, I enjoyed her study of Anna Freud, the youngest of Sigmund Freud's six children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/us/elisabeth-young-bruehl-65-dies-probed-roots-of-ideology-and-bias.html?_r=1&hpw

NYT: 100 Notable Books of 2011

12/6/11. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/review/index.html

What is your favorite book(s) from last year?

Book Review: "Gossip," by Joseph Epstein