'A fascinating, funny, disconcerting and lucid book.' Helen Dunmore Perhaps your brain seems to stumble when faced with the 13 times table, or persistently fails to master parallel parking. But you're in control of it, right? Sorry. Think again. Dotted with popular explanations of the latest research and fascinating real-life examples, psychologist Cordelia Fine tours the less salubrious side of human psychology. She shows that the human brain is in fact stubborn, emotional and deceitful, teaching you everything you always wanted to know about the brain - and plenty you probably didn't.
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"'Fine sets out to demonstrate that the human brain is vainglorious and stubborn. She succeeds brilliantly.' Mail on Sunday 'In breezy demotic, Fine offers an entertaining tour of current thinking' Telegraph 'This is one of the most interesting and amusing accounts of how we think we think - I think.' Alexander McCall Smith 'A fascinating, funny, disconcerting and lucid book... by the end you'll realise that your brain can (and does) run rings around you.' Helen Dunmore 'Consistently well-written and meticulously researched' Alain de Botton The Sunday Times 'Fine, a cognitive neuroscientist with a sharp sense of humour and an intelligent sense of reality, slaps an Asbo on the hundred billion grey cells that - literally - have shifty, ruthless, self-serving minds of their own.' The Times 'Clear, accessible writing makes her a science writer to watch' Metro 'Fine wears her learning lightly, blending facts with humorous observations. The result is a fascinating insight into how our minds work.' Psychologies 'A witty survey of psychology experiments demonstrating the depths of our suggestibility, the irrationality of our reasoning and the limits of free will.' Focus"
About the Author
Cordelia Fine received a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London. She is now a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Melbourne University.
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First Sentence
Do you feel that you can trust your own brain? Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Do you feel that you can trust your own brain? Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Cordelia Fine's "A Mind of its Own" reminds me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink"--it is filled with surprising and counterintuitive observations about how the brain really works. Fine's thesis is that our brains do a fine job of deluding us--making us think that we are smart, attractive, above average, considerate, unbiased and blissfully free of the shortcomings and moral defects that plague other people. It's a good thing, too--as Fine points out in one striking paragraph, "there is a category of people who get unusually close to the truth about themselves and the world. . . . They are the clinically depressed." Ignorance really is bliss!
With a witty style, Fine reviews the psychological experiments that show that our moods and judgments can be dramatically influenced by external factors like beautiful weather or by what someone just said or did to us. Our brains make up lots of excuses after the fact to explain what we did and why, or to shift blame to others, all in an effort to make it seem that we are good people who are in control of our lives. We end up being bigoted, pigheaded, immoral and emotional, even when we think we are none of those things. On the whole, it's not a very flattering picture, although Fine does point to some encouraging studies suggesting that some of the brain's worst excesses (e.g., bigotry) can be curbed by careful attention to our thoughts--of course, in other contexts, focused thought can make things worse.
This book is full of lots of "aha!" moments, but it's not a self-help guide. The message sometimes seems to be "you're not really in conrol here--try to enjoy the ride!"
That said, I draw one very important conclusion from this entertaining book: avoid spending time with scientists who are conducting psychology experiments. These people are apparently always testing things other than what they pretend to be testing, and your brain will invariably come out of the experiment looking rather shoddy and ill-mannered. ("Not my brain!" you may protest, in which case you definitely need to read Chapter 1 of Fine's book.)
With a witty style, Fine reviews the psychological experiments that show that our moods and judgments can be dramatically influenced by external factors like beautiful weather or by what someone just said or did to us. Our brains make up lots of excuses after the fact to explain what we did and why, or to shift blame to others, all in an effort to make it seem that we are good people who are in control of our lives. We end up being bigoted, pigheaded, immoral and emotional, even when we think we are none of those things. On the whole, it's not a very flattering picture, although Fine does point to some encouraging studies suggesting that some of the brain's worst excesses (e.g., bigotry) can be curbed by careful attention to our thoughts--of course, in other contexts, focused thought can make things worse.
This book is full of lots of "aha!" moments, but it's not a self-help guide. The message sometimes seems to be "you're not really in conrol here--try to enjoy the ride!"
That said, I draw one very important conclusion from this entertaining book: avoid spending time with scientists who are conducting psychology experiments. These people are apparently always testing things other than what they pretend to be testing, and your brain will invariably come out of the experiment looking rather shoddy and ill-mannered. ("Not my brain!" you may protest, in which case you definitely need to read Chapter 1 of Fine's book.)
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By Nicky Smith
Format:Hardcover
Suitable for the general reader rather than the expert (though it does provide a useful list of references), this is a light and entertaining account of findings from social psychological research on the topic of self-deception. We are told in largely non-technical language how numerous cleverly designed experiments have thrown light on the mental biases and distortions that beset our personal and social beliefs - how "vanity shields us from unpalatable truths about ourselves", how "irrationality clouds our judgment", how "emotions add a gloss of their own, colouring and confusing our opinions", and so forth. Although we can not altogether escape from these "deceptions of our wayward brains", the author concludes that knowledge of their mode of operation will help us guard against them, as will constant efforts to check the evidence on which our views are based.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By A. Goff
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book. It brings together a wealth of academic research into the way our brains work and, in particular, how we can't rely on them, and I found this fascinating and in the case of some chapters genuinely helpful and illuminating. But what sets the book apart is the fact that this material is presented so clearly and readably. And it's often very funny!
This book was strongly recommended to me by a friend, who obviously thought I needed to read it, and I'm very glad I have now read it. I in turn recommended it to a friend who is a consultant psychiatrist, and in fact he'd already read it and thought it was very good too. So it works for a top brain-doctor and for a complete layman like me. Exceptional.
This book was strongly recommended to me by a friend, who obviously thought I needed to read it, and I'm very glad I have now read it. I in turn recommended it to a friend who is a consultant psychiatrist, and in fact he'd already read it and thought it was very good too. So it works for a top brain-doctor and for a complete layman like me. Exceptional.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Clever and Informative; Provoking
I picked up this book in a moment of idleness while visiting a friend. What a little treasure Cordelia Fine's book turned out to be. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Veronica Guy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not at all funny
The sub-title of this book is extremely accurate. It shows that although we may consider ourselves to be logical, consistent, open-minded and not at all bigoted - most of us fail... Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2010 by A W Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
Excellent book. Written in a lighthearted manner, with many accounts of psychological experiments and their conclusions. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2008 by Arvinder Virk
3.0 out of 5 stars
Important but superficial
This is a really important and little understood issue. It is also fascinating. The implications are huge; think of the courts, the media, the democratic process. Read more
Published on 7 May 2008 by Mike Swain
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent style
Excellent popsci writing and editing -- couldn't put it down. Other popsci writers should observe and learn.
Published on 12 Oct 2007 by foxx2
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, very readable and thought-provoking
This is an excellent book. Cordelia Fine gathers together the results of a wide variety of psychology experiments and uses them to gather together a convincing explanation of how... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2007 by Mr. Stuart Bruce
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing and thought provoking book.
This is an awesome book. It details how the brain (unconsciously) deceives itself and how susceptible we are to factors we are just unaware of. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2007 by C. J. R. Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth checking out
This book was thrown up as a recommendation by Amazon based on previous purchases - yes, advertising does work! Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2007 by JA Foxton
5.0 out of 5 stars
"How the Mind Works" - the latest version **
In "Consciousness Explained", philosopher Daniel C. Dennett proposed a Multiple Drafts Model for human consciousness. Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2006 by Stephen A. Haines
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun and informative read
This is a very good book - it is detailed in its use of the research literature, and the themes for each chapter are well-structured, and informative for everyone. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2006 by pauljam
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