Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  The Coddling of the American Mind :  How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas  Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure     by Greg Lukianoff and       Jonathan Haidt Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton The Coddling of the American Mind : How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, published in 2019, explores the cultural and psychological shifts that have led to increased fragility among young people, particularly on college campuses. The authors argue that well-meaning but misguided practices in parenting, education, and societal norms have contributed to a generation less equipped to handle adversity and engage in open dialogue.   The Three Great Untruths   Central to the book are the "Three Great Untruths" that Lukianoff and Haidt identify as pervasive and harmful beliefs:   1. The Untruth of Fragility : "What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker." ...

    The Social Fabric of Scientific Trust:  A Review of Naomi Oreskes' Why Trust Science ?   Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton   Recently, I have reconsidered a problem that emerged early in my career as a psychologist. By the time I was in graduate school, I began to hear clergy and other evangelicals attacking my profession. My graduate work was at the University of Missouri, was during the 1970s. The issue of psychology and Christianity was not discussed in my classes. Psychology is a science. We learned how to conduct experiments before we learned how to apply principles to the assessment and treatment of people struggling with various problems in living.   I soon learned from clergy and church friends of the low esteem they accorded my profession. Oreskes’ book offers some helpful thoughts on the general issue of trusting science and scientists. Her examples include psychology so, I found her ideas particularly helpful and think others interested in t...

  Sapiens A Brief History of   Humankind By   Yuvai Noah Harari Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Sapiens has been reviewed many times since its international debut. So, I’ll just provide a summary and some thoughts from my perspective as a psychologist. Despite its long reach—all of human history—it’s a relatively quick read because Harari is an engaging writer with a sense of humor and a knack for telling stories that create vivid images of our species wandering about on various continental stages for some 200,000 years. He reviews world history from a global perspective beginning with evolution. There’s not a lot new here for those of us who read similar works. Nevertheless, there were things I did not know and so I am grateful for those tidbits, which may only amount to “wow” trivia if I can remember them. _______________ His subtitle, A Brief History ,” provides the clue for what to expect. Harari takes us through history from the specula...

WHITE TRASH The 400-Year Untold History    of Class in America Author: Nancy Isenberg 2016 Viking Isenberg states her purpose on page 2 of White Trash : “…by reevaluating the American historical experience in class terms, I expose what is too often ignored about American identity.” She adds a second aim. “I also want to make it possible to better appreciate the gnawing contradictions still present in modern American society.” Her major theme appears to be a persistent lack of equality since the early English settlements gained a foothold in America: “How does a culture that prizes equality of opportunity explain, or indeed accommodate, its persistently marginalized people?” She encourages Americans to “recognize the existence of our underclass.” And offers us a question to answer: “The puzzle of how white trash embodied this tension is one of the key questions the book presumes to answer.” As we might expect of from a history profess...