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Title: The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment

Author: Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, Robert M. Pressman

Narrator: Karen White

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-31-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 98 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

In this compelling book, the authors present an innovative therapeutic model for understanding and treating adults from emotionally abusive or neglectful families - families the authors call narcissistic. Narcissistic families have a parental system that is, for whatever reason (job stress, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, physical disability, lack of parenting skills, self-centered immaturity), primarily involved in getting its own needs met. The children in such narcissistic family systems try to earn love, attention, and approval by satisfying their parents' needs, thus never developing the ability to recognize their own needs or create strategies for getting them met. By outlining the theoretical framework of their model and using dozens of illustrative clinical examples, the authors clearly illuminate specific practice guidelines for treating these individuals.

About the authors: Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman is a therapist, consultant, and trainer. She is known for her work with dysfunctional families, particularly with survivors of incest. Robert M. Pressman is the editor-in-chief and president of the Joint Commission for the Development of the Treatment and Statistical Manual for Behavioral and Mental Disorders.

Members Reviews:

Very Helpful

Would you listen to The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment again? Why?

yes, i could relate to many of the stories and see my own situation and the book helped me to accept my own (Lack Of) relationship with my parents.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the variety of examples and the way in which they were told.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

i was more at peace after reading this book and more able to let go of the "fantasy" of family that i had carried with me for so many years...thinking it could be "fixed" if only i could "fix it"... i am more prepared to just "let it be."

Any additional comments?

i would recommend this book to anyone who has has emotionally abusive parent (s)

this book is a fortune

Would you listen to The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment again? Why?

YES,there are so much to learn about the human being behavior & the unconscious motivations for that behavior in this book.

What about Karen Whites performance did you like?

clarity of her voice

Any additional comments?

great book for the social workers & clinical therapists and the psychologists

Wow.

... I had no idea that there were others who could, not only understand what I went through as a child... & even now, but who could put it words & explain the actual issues. I'm overwhelmed with the hope that I'm not alone & I am so grateful to know that there is help! This book is a God send to my family! Thank you!!

Absolutely the WORST narration I have ever heard!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I am visually impaired and can not "read" this book-if you can, avoid the torture of the narration and do it!

I am four chapters into the book and find the information interesting. I want desperately to continue listening but find the narration absolutely painful to listen to. I read the posted reviews before I bought the book and a reviewer wrote a great deal about the poor narration.

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Title: Who's in Charge?

Subtitle: Free Will and the Science of the Brain

Author: Michael S. Gazzaniga

Narrator: Pete Larkin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 551 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions.

A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical laws therefore govern our behavior and even our conscious selves. Free will is meaningless, goes the mantra; we live in a determined world.

Not so, argues the renowned neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga in this thoughtful, provocative book based on his Gifford Lectures - one of the foremost lecture series in the world dealing with religion, science, and philosophy. Who's in Charge? proposes that the mind, which is somehow generated by the physical processes of the brain, constrains the brain just as cars are constrained by the traffic they create. Writing with what Steven Pinker has called his trademark wit and lack of pretension, Gazzaniga shows how determinism immeasurably weakens our views of human responsibility; it allows a murderer to argue, in effect, It wasnt me who did it - it was my brain. Gazzaniga convincingly argues that even given the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable human reality: We are responsible agents who should be held accountable for our actions, because responsibility is found in how people interact, not in brains.

An extraordinary book that ranges across neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and the law with a light touch but profound implications, Whos in Charge? is a lasting contribution from one of the leading thinkers of our time.

Critic Reviews:

"A fascinating affirmation of our essential humanity." (Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

Use Your Credit On "Who's In Charge"

For those who want to make a quick decision, just read the above headline. For those who would like to thoroughly research this book before committing, go to the FREE "Brain Science Podcast" and listen to episode # 82. (In fact, if you are at all interested in the Mind/Brain, I strongly suggest you subscribe to this Audible sponsored podcast. It led me to this wonderful world of audiobooks.)

For those in between, here is my take on it. Dr. Gazzaniga is the father of research into split brain patients (this procedure for epilepsy has been replaced by less damaging ones, so there will be little research in the future). His work seems to have heavily influenced our present understanding of the brain, and a lot of that understanding is presented in this work. While I thought I knew quite a bit for a layman, there was not one part of this book that I could skip through, all of it was engaging, even the familiar parts. While there are other books I could recommend that specialize in certain areas, "Who's In Charge" covers most of the current popular topics, such as Self, Consciousness, Free Will, and Morality and touches on Chaos Theory and Emergence. To me, there were no low points here. nor is anything too complicated for the unitiated.

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Title: Strangers to Ourselves

Subtitle: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

Author: Timothy D. Wilson

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-21-11

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 222 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us. This is not your psychoanalyst's unconscious. The adaptive unconscious that empirical psychology has revealed, and that Wilson describes, is much more than a repository of primative drives and conflict-ridden memories. It is a set of pervasive, sophisticated mental processes that size up our worlds, set goals, and initiate action, all while we are consciously thinking about something else. If we don't know ourselves -- our potentials, feelings, or motives -- it is most often, Wilson tells us, because we have developed a plausible story about ourselves that is out of touch with our adaptive unconscious. Citing evidence that too much introspection can actually do damage, Wilson makes the case for better ways of discovering our unconscious selves. If you want to know who you are or what you feel or what you're like, Wilson advises, pay attention to what you actually do and what other people think about you. Showing us an unconscious more powerful that Freud's, and even more pervasive in our daily life, Strangers to Ourselves marks a revolution in how we know ourselves. The book is published by Harvard University Press.

Critic Reviews:

"[Wilson's] book is what popular psychology ought to be (and rarely is): thoughtful, beautifully written, and full of unexpected insights." (Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker)

Members Reviews:

Interesting, engaging, entertaining, informative

Dont pick up Timothy Wilsons Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious thinking it might be a self-help book. It is really a serious consideration of the unconscious mind readily available to the general reader. Similarly, this is a departure from the psychoanalytical approach to the unconscious although Wilson does speak to that point of view. Rather, this book will open the readers eyes to current empirical understanding of the unconscious and seeks to answer the question, how might we access the knowledge contained there? The short answer is that we cant (yet?) tap into the unconscious. However, Wilson provides a number ways that we might access that knowledge indirectly. The book is interesting, engaging, and informative. At least take a few minutes to thumb through a few pages or sign-up for a sample. You just might find it more entertaining and helpful than you envisioned. The reading of Joe Barrett is very good.

know thyself!

If you aren't terrified to learn you may have little clue as to why you do much of what you do, you will likely enjoy and glean a lot from this serious, but understandable study of human nature and interactions.

eye opening book

listened to book two times back to back because it is very helpful. life application of content is pure gold.

must read. blink was inspired by this.

read this because Gladwell apparently read this and wrote Blink. he missed the mark. this is the rest of the story.

Great research report.

I learned about my personal biases and how to spot them. It's an interesting material to listen to in your free time.

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Title: An Anthropologist on Mars

Subtitle: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Author: Oliver Sacks

Narrator: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-11-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 789 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

To these seven narratives of neurological disorder, Dr. Sacks brings the same humanity, poetic observation, and infectious sense of wonder that are apparent in his best sellers Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. These men, women, and one extraordinary child emerge as brilliantly adaptive personalities, whose conditions have not so much debilitated them as ushered them into another reality.

PLEASE NOTE: Some changes have been made to the original manuscript with the permission of Oliver Sacks.

Critic Reviews:

"True to his past work, he offers compelling stories told with the cognizance of a clinician and the heart and compassion of a poet." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

SACKS IS AN ABSOLUTE JOY !!

. The jaw dropping stories in this book mated to Sack`s insight, sensitivity, and remarkable articulation are a balm for the soul and candy for the mind. His humanity and his remarkable ability to communicate the experiences of his patients and his own insight make him unique and unforgetable.

The underlying premise for all these cases which sacks brings to light- is the unusual and unforeseen positive path the disabilities of these patients and disabilities in general can (after breaking through) engender.

I am similar to those stories enclosed-in a way. 10 yrs ago I stepped out of the shower heard a crack and have been in terrible crippling disabling pain ever since. I went from being a very fit,strong and super active father of 2 very small boys to being bedridden and writhing in pain.. Things are marginally better now,but the point is- I started using audible books at the start because I couldnt do anything else-including tv. Audible books not only helped me endure the isolation, pain and loss of a way of life-it replaced my physical world with a mental one (generalization)-one in which I'm now relatively happy. This totally unexpected and unforeseen journey from one state of being to another positive state, is part of what is explored in this book. It is no exaggeration to say that audible books saved my life.

I'm not sure just where this book fits into his bibliography, I've read them as I've come across them. and have pretty much enjoyed them all. The narrator (Jonathan Davis) who has done most if not all his books when sacks hasn't done the work himself is utterly perfect, getting the tone, timing and inflection just right.

This book enriched my mind and soul,altered my perspective and relieved the mind numbing effect of a shockingly dumbed down world- at least for a few hours. Now that's credit worthy!!

Dr. Sacks is Fascinating

Now I want to be a neurologist. Too bad my only qualifications are listening to Oliver Sacks' books... I would have been great!

Enlightening and Inspiring

I really like listening to Oliver Sack's books; the narrators help bring the anecdotes to life and present the drier explanations of neurological anatomy and science clearly (and allow me to drift a bit, without completely skipping material which is fascinating, but fairly difficult).

This book focuses on the inspiring abilities of several individuals to live with and positively leverage potentially debilitating neurological disorders.

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Title: Redirect

Subtitle: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change

Author: Timothy D. Wilson

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-14-11

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 204 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

Why might some sex education programs result in more teen pregnancies? Why did reading that self-help book make you feel less happy? What's the best way to recover from trauma? Can we actually improve our lives by redirecting our thinking?

We tell ourselves stories to make sense of the world. These stories ultimately determine if we will lead healthy, productive lives or get into trouble. Renowned psychologist Timothy Wilson proposes a radical new view: although these stories can be very hard to change, they can change - surprisingly quickly - if tweaked in the right way. He considers a broad range of problems, exposes failed attempts to solve them, and reframes them with new stories. Scientifically tested, his practical advice and simple techniques have been found to bring about real results including enhanced happiness, personal meaning, and social progress.

Critic Reviews:

"There are few academics who write with as much grace and wisdom as Timothy Wilson. Redirect is a masterpiece." (Malcolm Gladwell)

"May well be the single most important psychology book ever written." (Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University, author of Stumbling on Happiness)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: The Mindful Brain

Subtitle: The Neurobiology of Well-Being

Author: Daniel J. Siegel

Narrator: Daniel J. Siegel

Format: Original Recording

Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-07-11

Publisher: Sounds True

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 130 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

Does mindfulness practice improve your physical, social, and mental well-being? To what extent can your mind shape your brain? What does the latest research have to say about meditation and other awareness practices?

Now, with The Mindful Brain, Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a pioneer of the emerging field known as interpersonal neurobiology, answers these questions and more in this original adaptation to complement his breakthrough book.

Members Reviews:

You can train your brain

Would you listen to The Mindful Brain again? Why?

I heard this guy interviewed on the brain science podcast and followed the trail to listen to this book. I had always imagined that meditation was for people who were stressed out and needed to chill. Given that I am by nature pretty low stress, I never bothered with it. I gained some interesting insight here. Just as you might practice a tennis stroke to ingrain and master it, practicing meditation can be very empowering (in many ways). Have you ever tried it? Lie down and just focus on your breath. Empty your brain. Not easy, is it? If you're like most people you'll find that lots of thoughts start seeping in. Neurons that fire together wire together. The more you practice this, the better you get at it. This rings true for me. Years ago I was an Olympic athlete. I used to practice imagery to gain control of my mind in stressful and sometimes somewhat dangerous situations and also to practice and ingrain the rather technical motion of a ski jumping take-off. Initially I wasn't very good at it but with practice I dialed it in. I'd say that honing this skill was integral to my ultimate success in sport... and later in life as well. This relates to some other books I've read. One example being The Biology of Belief (great book). This book briefly explores the concept of "the director" - in a nutshell being introspective and conscious of the activity of your brain - your thoughts; "Isn't that interesting that I had that reaction". The author of The Mindful Brain (a scientist who by the way reads his own book here and conveys his passion for the subject matter) is exploring this concept in great detail. At times a little over my head but quite interesting ...

Nice, concise summation...

of Siegel's work in the field of neurology and how he has brought together ancient wisdom about meditation and mindfulness and modern science, using science to show why the ancient wisdom has been around so long. In short, he shows how mindful meditation, particularly the type practiced in many forms of Buddhism, restructures the brain in a positive fashion and how it can be used to better our lives in all personal and social situations. I would recommend approaching this book before Siegel's longer work, Mindsight, since most of what is covered here has already been presented in a much more expanded form in that (really excellent) volume.

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Title: Without Conscience

Subtitle: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Author: Robert D. Hare

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 850 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets. Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. Are psychopaths mad, or simply bad? How can they be recognized? And how can we protect ourselves? This book provides solid information and surprising insights for anyone seeking to understand this devastating condition.

Critic Reviews:

"A fascinating, if terrifying, look at psychopaths.... Hare makes a strong case for the view that psychopaths are born, not made.... A chilling, eye-opening report - and a call to action." (

Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

When I gave up on books that supposedly would...

tell me how to avoid getting taken advantage of (like the moronic How To Deal With Difficult People) and the worse than useless In Sheep's Clothing), I decided to take a look at the opposite end of the problem--the manipulators themselves: a much better idea, as it turns out. Without Conscience provides a nicely developed portrait of the psychopath, people born without the ability to empathize and register normal human feelings, even though they can imitate them convincingly enough to con and abuse others. (There are an estimated 2 million psychopaths among us in the US, and they are not to be confused with their most extreme representative: the serial killer. Chances are you know or have known a psychopath.) The neurology represented in this book is a bit behind the current wisdom and for better information about the brain's role in psychopathy, one might read The Science Of Evil and The Tell-Tale Brain. Overall, Without Conscience is a very useful book for understanding the serious manipulator and how to deal with him/her.

Father of a certain school of thought

This book was written twenty years ago but the concepts are not dated. Hare developed the Hare Checklist for Psychopathy that has gained wider and wider acceptance as time has gone on. Your life has been touched by a psychopath/sociopath. The significance of that influence likely determines how interested you are in the subject. If your interest is high you must read this book as a seminal work on the subject. If your interest is somewhat lower, I would recommend the more recently written The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout.

Interesting and disturbing at once

The book is an astounding portrait of the psychopath, with lengthy descriptions of how they act, how they think, and how they see the world.

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Title: The Dyslexic Advantage

Subtitle: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain

Author: Fernette L. Eide, Brock l. Eide

Narrator: Paul Costanzo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 501 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

Dyslexia is almost always assumed to be an obstacle. And for one in five people who are dyslexic, it can be. Yet for millions of successful dyslexics - including astrophysicists, mystery novelists, and entrepreneurs - their dyslexic differences are the key to their success. In this paradigm-shifting book, neurolearning experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide describe exciting new brain science revealing that dyslexic people have unique brain structure and organization. While the differences are responsible for certain challenges with literacy and reading, the dyslexic brain also gives a predisposition to important skills and special talents.

While dyslexics typically struggle to decode the written word, they often also excel in areas such as mechanical reasoning (required for architects and surgeons); interconnected reasoning (artists and inventors); narrative reasoning (novelists and lawyers); and dynamic reasoning (scientists and business pioneers). With much-needed prescriptive advice for parents, educators, and dyslexics, The Dyslexic Advantage provides the first complete portrait of dyslexia. Supporting their claims with groundbreaking science and interviews with successful dyslexics and innovative teachers, the authors of this essential book show how the unique strengths of dyslexia can be captured for success at home, at school, and at work.

Members Reviews:

Has the system failed your child?

I once was called to the school to discuss my sons lack of impulse control with an indignant young overweight teacher. She droned on at me and my son for a while about ways to gain control of ones impulses until my son politely pointed out that she lacked that same impulse control because he could see her sneaking bites from candy bars she kept in her desk when she thought the kids were studying.

For every concerned parent who may be sitting at one of those small desks with your knees near your ears, this month for the parent/teacher meeting, wherein you are told your precious one, whom you KNOW is smart, exciting and articulate, is a 'problem' for the teacher. S/he may not be turning the homework in, could be looking out the window, and may not `follow directions' and certainly not attending to the teacher. S/he may, not be able to read, not be able to spell, may talk too much...

This book will bring a gust of vibrant fresh air to your soul. It is a must to read for any parent or caring person who sees a child struggling with the school systems.

I could not read well when I was in the first grade; I was put in the slow group. Back then, no one knew what dyslexia was. I drew and painted wonderful pink pigs and was told pigs weren't pink, but instead brown, rather like my teacher's personality. I stood in the corner a lot and got failing grades in `citizenship' because I liked to tell stories and my classmates loved to listen to me.

My twin daughters could not read until they were almost nine, but when they finally read, they read Shakespeare.

Do not let the dullards of the linear plodding, miasma; convince you that you have a lazy child or low IQ child or your little one needs drugs to get along with the school system. Don't spank and jawbone the precious one and don't take it personally that they are slower.

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Title: Civilization and Its Discontents

Author: Sigmund Freud

Narrator: Steven Crossley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-30-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 291 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

First published in 1930, Civilization and Its Discontents is one of the most influential works of pioneering psychologist Sigmund Freud. Focusing on the tension between the primitive drives of the individual and the demands of civilization for order and conformity, Freud draws upon his psychoanalytic theories to explain the fundamental structures, conflicts, and consequences of society. Written in the aftermath of World War I, Civilization and Its Discontents advances the idea that humans' instinctive desires---violent urges and sexual drives---create the need for law and structure, which, when implemented, create constant feelings of discontent. A seminal work in psychology, Civilization and Its Discontents has sparked debate since its publication and continues to be widely read today. This edition is the translation by James Strachey.

Members Reviews:

Don't conform

Individual freedom beaten down by societal confirmation is the key theme. Freud argues that the innate drive for sex and aggression dwells in all of us. This is a very approachable read for the non-academician from the great thinker Freud.

Atheistic Freud

This is Freud applying his psychological theories to the whole of civilization. He understands much about the human condition except that he only sees the shell of religion and has no belief in God whatsoever. Thus he is blind to the real power of the spiritual realm. He sees it only as an illusory extension of natural existence.

HIs ideas are valid only in that they play out in the real world as he describes. However, he fails to recognize those who are successful in applying power beyond this natural existence to overcome the effects of the Id. He also incorrectly describes the super ego as a natural extension of the mind and not as the human soul that is affected by heavenly influence.

He is so brilliant and yet he is so blind.

Overall A+

Was extremely insightful. May have to re listen again but it's a nice listening. Not too long either.

Provides a compelling nature of the self

At one time it was wrongly believed that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (i.e. the embryonic stages mirrors the development stages of the species). Similarly Freud thinks the phases that an individual goes through mirror the same phases that civilizations have gone through. Freud uses that theme to explain his psychoanalysis in describing individuals and the societies in which they live as mirror images of each other.

Yes, Freud does believe some weird things and he restates them in this book such as the early infant's whole world is the mother's breast and thus we end up fetishizing the breast when we grow up, our time in the womb means we always are looking to return to an abode of some kind, something about the anal fixation and how it never leaves us and unrepressed sex desires lead to our anxieties and other such things that sound weird to our modern ears. But those distractions don't necessarily mean that this book is not highly engaging and worth reading. I'll challenge you to read any recent biography because you''ll almost always see the author slip into Freudian speak (e.g.

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Title: The Believing Brain

Subtitle: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

Author: Michael Shermer

Narrator: Michael Shermer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-24-11

Publisher: Michael Shermer-John Wagner Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1071 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind

Publisher's Summary:

In this, his magnum opus, the worlds best known skeptic and critical thinker, Dr. Michael Shermerfounding publisher of Skeptic magazine and perennial monthly columnist (Skeptic) for Scientific Americanpresents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished. This book synthesizes Dr. Shermers 30 years of research to answer the question of how and why we believe what we do in all aspects of our lives, from our suspicions and superstitions to our politics, economics, and social beliefs.

In this book Dr. Shermer is interested in more than just why people believe weird things, or why people believe this or that claim, but in why people believe anything at all. His thesis is straightforward: We form our beliefs for a variety of subjective, personal, emotional, and psychological reasons in the context of environments created by family, friends, colleagues, culture, and society at large; after forming our beliefs, we then defend, justify, and rationalize them with a host of intellectual reasons, cogent arguments, and rational explanations. Beliefs come first, explanations for beliefs follow.

Dr. Shermer also explains the neuroscience behind our beliefs. The brain is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning. These meaningful patterns become beliefs. Once beliefs are formed, the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which adds an emotional boost of further confidence in the beliefs and thereby accelerates the process of reinforcing themand round and round the process goes in a positive feedback loop of belief confirmation. Dr. Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths and to insure that we are always right.

Critic Reviews:

The physicist Richard Feynman once said that the easiest person to fool is yourself, and as a result he argued that as a scientist one has to be especially careful to try and find out not only what is right about one's theories, but what might also be wrong with them. If we all followed this maxim of skepticism in everyday life, the world would probably be a better place. But we don't. In this book Michael Shermer lucidly describes why and how we are hard wired to 'want to believe'. With a narrative that gently flows from the personal to the profound, Shermer shares what he has learned after spending a lifetime pondering the relationship between beliefs and reality, and how to be prepared to tell the difference between the two. (Lawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, author of

Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science)

The Believing Brain is a tour de force integrating neuroscience and the social sciences to explain how irrational beliefs are formed and reinforced, while leaving us confident our ideas are valid. This is a must read for everyone who wonders why religious and political beliefs are so rigid and polarizedor why the other side is always wrong, but somehow doesn't see it. (Dr.