Multimind - A New Way of Looking at Human Behavior

Ornstein, Robert

ISBN 10: 0395411076 / ISBN 13: 9780395411070

Published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1986

About this Item

206pp, in dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 007933

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Multimind - A New Way of Looking at Human Behavior
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395411076
• ISBN 13: 9780395411070
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Psychology

About this title

Synopsis

Elaborates a new concept of how the human mind works, on the paradigm of a "mental operating system" composed of diverse separate components with special functions, and discusses split personality and other forms of psychosis in terms of the new concept

Reviews

The author of The Psychology of Consciousness here defines the human mind as a "bastard hybrid system." Each of us has many "small minds" that simultaneously process feelings, fantasies, ideas, fixed routines, interpersonal responses and bodily skills. While Ornstein's "multimind" theory is more descriptive than explanatory, it offers a welcome alternative to trendy computer models, split-brain theories and Freudianism. Multimind helps explain why our emotions and attitudes are easily swayed, the difficulty of ever really knowing oneself or another person, and how mental shortcuts we rely on to make snap judgments can harden prejudices. Ornstein faults the narrowness of IQ tests by stressing the varied abilities that make up intelligence. He cites studies of hypnosis and multiple personality in support of the view tht several minds can coexist in one person. It's worth heeding his axiom, "Whatever enters consciousness is greatly overemphasized."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.