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A review by theangrylawngnome
A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives by Cordelia Fine
3.0
Bluntly, this one was a mixed bag. The stories and examples were amusing, though they did start to get to be a bit too much by the end of the book. I suppose what bothered me most was that there's seemingly no place for any actual thing such as objectivity according to her beliefs. We can do things to rein in the worst excesses of our "butler" (the unconscious), but as best I can tell per Fine we can never fully break free from it. I suppose I could have lived with that, if she had stopped there, perhaps concluding that all cognition should be treated as having "proceed with caution" signs, and all unconscious behaviors as at least occassionally subjected to a rigorous examination.
Unfortunately, she does not confine herself in such a way. In fact, she seems to out and out disregard the above when it is inconvenient, or perhaps wishes to push a certain agenda. As in, she'll make claims like such and such was a "well-designed psychology experiment," of course when it conformed what I took to be her beliefs. Could an experiment be "well-designed" if it did NOT confirm a closely held belief? And, anyway, how can she be so glibly confident in her ability to separate wheat from chaff in the first place? We're never told, or actually, what we're told is that this is exactly what we should NOT be doing.
So, what can I say? By turns this one was amusing, though-provoking, irritating, hypocritical, preachy and at times downright arrogant. I don't regret reading it, and in fact learned more than I thought I would. Some of her examples were silly, but they also put things in terms a layman could understand. But... I still can't imagine I'll pick anything up by her again. My teeth can only take so much grinding in the face of hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, she does not confine herself in such a way. In fact, she seems to out and out disregard the above when it is inconvenient, or perhaps wishes to push a certain agenda. As in, she'll make claims like such and such was a "well-designed psychology experiment," of course when it conformed what I took to be her beliefs. Could an experiment be "well-designed" if it did NOT confirm a closely held belief? And, anyway, how can she be so glibly confident in her ability to separate wheat from chaff in the first place? We're never told, or actually, what we're told is that this is exactly what we should NOT be doing.
So, what can I say? By turns this one was amusing, though-provoking, irritating, hypocritical, preachy and at times downright arrogant. I don't regret reading it, and in fact learned more than I thought I would. Some of her examples were silly, but they also put things in terms a layman could understand. But... I still can't imagine I'll pick anything up by her again. My teeth can only take so much grinding in the face of hypocrisy.