Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life - Hardcover

Gallagher, Winifred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594202109 ISBN 13: 9781594202100

Publisher: Penguin Press, 2009

Synopsis

A revolutionary look at how what we pay attention to determines how we experience life

Acclaimed behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher's Rapt makes the radical argument that much of the quality of your life depends not on fame or fortune, beauty or brains, fate or coincidence, but on what you choose to pay attention to. Rapt introduces a diverse cast of characters, from researchers to artists to ranchers, to illustrate the art of living the interested life. As their stories show, by focusing on the most positive and productive elements of any situation, you can shape your inner experience and expand your world. By learning to focus, you can improve your concentration, broaden your inner horizons, and most important, feel what it means to be fully alive.

About this title

About the Author

Winifred Gallagher’s books include House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times. She lives in Manhattan, and Dubois, Wyoming.

Reviews

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Paul Bloom

Don't check your e-mail; stop Twittering, browsing, Facebooking, eating, drinking, listening to music and watching the children. Take seriously, if just for a few minutes, what Winifred Gallagher describes as the grand unifying theory of psychology: Your life is the sum of what you focus on. Then consider the main implication of this theory: The skillful management of attention is the key to happiness and fulfillment. Live the focused life.

Gallagher devotes much of this engaging book to reviewing the psychology and neuroscience of attention. A journalist and the author of several books about human psychology, including "House Thinking" (2006) and "The Power of Place" (1993), Gallagher blends the science nicely with examples of people whose disciplined attention has contributed to their success: Tiger Woods is extremely focused on golf; Mozart really grooved on music; and when Bill Clinton felt our pain, he did so with all his heart.

For the rest of us, the connections between attention and the good life are more complex. Happy people have the adaptive trait of focusing on the bright side of life; the depressed do not. These traits emerge early. Gallagher summarizes some elegant research from scientists at the University of Oregon showing that children differ in their capacity to control their attention: Those who are blessed with a tight grip of their mental flashlight find it easier to concentrate on the positive emotions and pull away from anger, fear and frustration. But even if your child lacks these gifts, it's not hopeless -- certain exercises can improve the focusing power of 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds, and Gallagher makes a convincing case that adults also benefit from techniques that discipline our attention, such as cognitive theory and mindfulness meditation.

Such methods might be necessary to combat the pull of technological innovations, many of which sap our capacity for sustained focus. Gallagher notes that young people in America spend over six hours a day tethered to the electronic world, many of them engaged with more than one medium at a time. Spending an hour doing just one thing -- such as reading a book or practicing a musical instrument -- may soon be the equivalent of wearing spats. This would probably be a bad thing. As Gallagher puts it, if you grow up processing information at a superficial level, "when you're finally forced to confront intellectually demanding situations in high school or college, you may find that you've traded depth of knowledge for breadth and stunted your capacity for serious thought."

Like many proponents of unified theories, though, Gallagher tries to do too much. Just about every aspect of human life can be described in the language of attention. Do you give money to charity? You are "attending to the pursuit of virtue." Are you religious? You are "directing your attention to a deeper reality." To conclude, as Gallagher does, that attention is at the root of all good things is to muddle cause and effect. I can focus on golf with powerfully rapt attention for every waking minute; it won't turn me into Tiger Woods.

Also, your life is actually more than the sum of all that you attend to. We can be affected -- or as psychologists say, primed -- by factors that we are unaware of. A large body of psychological research shows that social and physical environments affect thoughts at an unconscious level. People are nicer, for instance, when they are outside a bakery with the smell of fresh bread in the air or after they have just found a dime in the slot of a pay phone. In addition, our happiness is affected by what we do, not just what we think. Successful therapy for depression isn't just a matter of shifting perspectives; it's getting the sufferer to change his or her behavior. Even something as superficial as coaxing a person to smile more can have real, positive effects.

The attentional puritans are right that we usually do best with total focus. But often it's more efficient, and more fun, to do two or more things at 80 percent capacity than one thing at full capacity. I listen to music in the gym, check my e-mail while I'm on hold, and walk and chew gum at the same time. And what's so wrong with any of that? Nobody should doubt the power of rapt attention, but there are benefits to a wandering mind. You can check your e-mail now.

Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Gallagher’s fascinating book, which analyzes the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, easily translates difficult concepts into layman’s terms. She includes contemporary and historical examples of men and women, including Mozart and Tiger Woods, whose ability to concentrate led to their successes. Gallagher’s writing is engaging and accessible, and her suggestions for a more focused life range from the mystical (meditation) to the ordinary (separating oneself from distractions.) Critics did, however, have a couple of complaints: her focus on the conscious mind overlooks the subconscious and the veiled effect it can have on thoughts and feelings, and she sometimes tries too hard to relate all of life’s experiences back to her topic. However, readers who choose to concentrate on Rapt will not be disappointed.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

Gallagher (The Power of Place, Working on God) couples personal ruminations and interviews with experts to explore the role of attention in defining consciousness, identity and the human experience: "who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love-is the sum of what you focus on." From paying attention to your inner dialogue (helping eliminate negative thought patterns) to bucking the myths of multi-tasking (says cognitive scientist David Meyer, "Einstein didn't invent the theory of relativity while multi-tasking at the Swiss patent office"), Gallagher draws practical conclusions from her examination of conscious ("top-down") and unconscious ("bottom-up") attention strategies. Though her claims to "a psychological version of... physicist's 'grand universal theory'" are a bit outsized, Gallagher takes illuminating forays into the evolution of the species and the global diaspora, looking for instance at how "Western individualism" emphasizes top-down focus while the Asian mentality encourages a broader, contextual perspective. A fascinating psycho-social look at human motivation and the power of focus, Gallagher's latest is worth paying attention to.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Although attention-deficit problems are much discussed, attention itself is not well understood. A writer who pays uncommon attention to such aspects of our lives as our definition of the self and the design of our dwellings, Gallagher has become adept at tracing the links between neuroscience and psychology, a skill essential to elucidating the study of attention and how it shapes our lives. In clear and lively language, Gallagher defines different types and styles of attention and explains how attention orders physical stimuli (all that our senses gather) and thoughts and feelings. Drawing on sources as far-flung as Darwin and This American Life, Gallagher describes the role attention plays in culture, relationships, creativity, work, and health. She explains why negative thoughts and feelings obsess and isolate us and how paying rapt attention to positive emotions and ideas “literally expands your world.” She also advocates attention training as an alternative to behavioral drugs. Gallagher reinvigorates our understanding of a crucial cognitive function in a fluent and fascinating blend of cutting-edge science and thoughtful guidelines for living an attentive life. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594202109
• ISBN 13: 9781594202100
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256