The unconscious consequences of power
922396
When the Emperor was Divine has something important to say about an uncomfortable episode in American history.  Whether it meant to or not, it has something even more important to say about the relationship between the powerful and the powerless and about the distant reverberations of ill-considered judgments.  See more at [...]
539681
As corporate managers realise the power that they weild over those that they purport to serve either as shareholders of cutomers their behaviour becomes more and arrogant.  The narrowness of personal value and vision  that got them to where they are, raises no objection to more and more extreme action in defense of their power.  The elevation of consumption to culture that fueled their success leaves them frustrated and unfulfilled at the pinnacle. To give their success meaning, they begin building a new culture based on their shared experience of success through slavish obediance to superiors.  Underneath this culture, oppossition inevitably builds against not only the managers but, mistakenly, the systems of production from which they draw their power.  In the ensuing revolution, the best and the worst are lost together.
1733030
A well-researched anthropological study that demonstrates the crazy intense socialization process that helps to produce Wall Street's culture of crises. The links between how "smart" the employees come to believe they are, their culture of "overwork," their role as big shot global advisors to corporations, and their short-term incentives are all painstakingly shown to produce new business norms that threaten economic sustainability and increase inequality. An in-depth ethnographic investigation and a complex argument that are meant to be pieced together through close reading; the audible version does not do it justice.
1014547
I've always been interested in politics and power. I've read many philosophical treaties and dissertations, but this book provide an illuminating and shrewd analysis of what is power and how it works. It is an exceptional analysis of what it takes to get to power and how to keep it. The framework they define in the book can be applied to everything. Once you start thinking within that framework the world, not only politics, becomes much clearer. In the introduction the authors tell that their students call what they are explaining "A theory of everything". Well, that is an incredibly apt definition.

Please, read this book. It'll make your life better.
460963
David explains how the laws of human behaviour operate for the advantage of those few who truly understand their impact on human behaviour. I threw logic out the window as I became increasingly aware of the raw power of emotion to guide and direct our lives. I now have a feeling of being behind the wheel instead of being the passenger.
2804691
This is a fascinating and interesting book on how human make decisions. The human mind is like a black box - what goes in sometimes comes out unpredictable and irrational. This book bridges the disconnection between human rationality and the foolish decisions that may stems from it. I would highly recommend this book for those that want a glimpse of the inner working of a human mind and the driving force behind our decisions.
182795
This review is in reference to Michael Tourniers  Le Roi des Aulnes Or The Orge.

  Superficially, this novel contends with the issue of how destructive the consequences of depravity among a handful of people can become to so easily tear at the delicate fabric of civilization. But there is a subtle semiotic at work here; a belief in a collective intelligence in which all matter is intimately connected with the psyche within a symbolic fabric of meaning. What the reader witnesses in this novel is an intimate conversation between the heros soul and itself that extends from its primitive cast as a child to a deeply conscious and observant creature in search of itself. It is here where the material world meets up with the immaterial world in order to imbue it with meaning. It is psychoanalysis of a kind, not of the mind but of an element of both imaginative experience and of nature itself. More superficially, it is a story concerning wandering, suffering, self-discovery, death; a Sartrian ontological meandering; how the body connects to the world and an ultimate revelation of being. What the reader also witnesses is Mythology developing into literature.
  The main character (Abel Tiffauges), feeling a sense of special personal destiny and a sense of finality in terms of mans collective destiny, builds up hypothesis and reveries but grossly misinterprets the symbolic nature of events in relation to himself which appear all along to be true and accurate until, at once, they are revealed to be something quite different.
  The primordial given of individual freedom is thrown into crisis by a kind of ontological viscosity that imperils Tiffauges freedom as it sucks him down while his body unconsciously struggles to free itself. In order to reach into his own being, he must penetrate others (committed characters) from which he absorbs bits of meaning as he wanders in constant search of the next mentor to help guide him on his quest. Animals and children have innocence in common and this is what is craved most by the hero; this is what obsesses him. His being appears to be perpetually suspended in some kind of viscous netherworld in which it slowly develops and then, ultimately, is born whole, with total focus on its destiny which it swiftly carries out before death at which time he is sucked down into the viscous swamp; natures primordial womb. The viscous to which he repeatedly refers is that primordial material from which he emerged.
  The entire affair is an historical parable of existential despair; heavily symbolic and crammed with religious and mythical references. The reader definitely needs to have some background to understand Abels inverted viewpoint on the issues. It is strangely dialectical in terms of its constant balance between forces of evil and good, forces of rational and irrational, hardness and softness, bigness and smallness, maligness and benigness. (initially serving Evil, then serving good once his symbols suddenly take on the glare of complete comprehension when he realizes that the place he is at is the reflection of the most infernal of places, a concept that has been hinted at throughout the novel).
  This novel is not for the casual reader but only for those who are dedicated to great literature. The closest post war novel I can come to comparison is _The Last of The Just_ by Andre Schwarz-Bart.
2572572
The Palace of Dreams is a haunting allegory of power as a man from an influential family that is often at odds with the State finds himself working for the Palace of Dreams. There is danger, mystery, and a dark cloud hanging over his prominent family's head and Mark-Alem must navigate it all without losing his own.

The coolest thing to me was the concept of the Palace of Dreams. Although it is, on paper, a bureaucratic institution, it was created to sift through the dreams of everyone in the Ottoman Empire. Why? Because Allah will occasionally send warnings of impending disaster to Earth as a dream. Except He doesn't care who has that dream, so every dream has to be analyzed!

The allegory is very clear as the relationship between Mark-Alem's family and the State is defined throughout the book. It's a frightening picture of the power and fury of a totalitarian state and what can happen just on somebody's word.

Ismail Kadare has been praised as one of the most important writers of our time and this book convinces me of the same. It's a quick read and a fascinating look at totalitarian regimes, power, and the consequences of both.
4286439
The problem with introverts is extroverts.  And vice versa.  But Susan Cain lends both parties an empathetic - and for introverts, an especially sympathetic - ear and hand.  Perhaps the deeper problem is that introverts feel and are made to feel like they have to change to become more extroverted in order to be genuine leadership material.  Her book Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking demonstrates that extroverts are not predestined to succeed or lead any more than anyone else.  It is also a disservice to label introverts as shy, hermit-like, sheepish, home-bodies, over-sensitive, or neurotic with an inferiority complex.

What matters most is relationships and connectedness, and the two personality types are equally yet uniquely capable of achieving both.  Using some old terminology stripped from the plethora of personality tests (Snyder's Self-Monitoring, the Jungian Myers-Briggs, Elaine Aron's Highly Sensitive Person , Allport's Ascendance/Submission) and embellishing with a newer nomenclature ("restorative niches", "free trait agreement"), Cain succeeds at proving that introverts are not antisocial or non-verbal.  They are otherwise-social and alternatively-verbal.  And since the world is not yet ready to accommodate them in the calmer, quieter ways they need, introverts must occasionally and temporarily alter their own styles without completely foresaking their own sanity and identity.

This is the handbook for those individuals who whisper, rather than proclaim, their directives and suggest, rather than shout, their plan of action.
4383884
I think the chart with levels of consciousness is worth the weight. Helped explain a lot; like that someone getting angry after they were completely unconcerned is actually a raise in consciousness and healing.
789174
Sometimes brief is more powerful. This book is a very useful reminder of the power of the of perception and a good book to keep on your desk or bedside table for a quick hit of wisdom in tough moments.
2252615
I found in this book important information on the power of the unconscious mind in the creation of new mathematics.

The author Jacques Hadamard's experience of suddenly getting a solution at the moment of waking from sleep and his testimony to the effectiveness of abandoning a problem and the resuming it later on aligns with my experience (on modest problems).

The inclusion of Henri Poincare's account of the sudden mathematical insight relating to fuchsian functions (that occurred to him just as he stepped on a bus) was evidence of the unconscious at work.

The book in effect discusses the four stages of thought (after Helmholtz and Poincare) of: Preparation (conscious work setting up the problem and trying to solve it); incubation (no conscious work on the problem) ; illumination (the fruits of incubation where an insight is received) and finally verification (consciously testing and verifying the insight).

The style of writing is a little hard to read but the contents repay the effort.
4692779
Like "The Prince", this book is about acquiring and obtaining power. The book takes the form of an entertaining narrative of one man's search for power. Along the way, he meets Caracalla, a CEO who teases and tantalises him with glimpses of the knowledge he seeks.
The book is very well structured and easy to read. It extracts the main principles of "The Prince" and divides them into the "Principles of Power". The book itself has very little resemblance to "The Prince" and I'm very impressed by Demack's insightful analysis of the original text. Some of the tenets of the book are controversial, but upon reflection they do make sense for someone seeking to acquire power.
The book has some very powerful lessons to offer and I believe it is applicable to many areas of life. The book is not just for power hungry moguls, it will almost certainly have some contribution to your day to day life.
845209
Samuel Bowles is a remarkable economist and this book is not properly a text book. Is a creative study on the importante to combine associativism and cooperation in the analysis of choice and individual behavior. It is not a book for people aiming to have the first lessons on microeconomics. Is a book to think on the new framework relation individual behavior, game theory, cooperative behaviour and evolutionary paths. All of this with brillant insights on the importanc of power in economics. Power is not embedded in rational decisions. Power make decisions seems to be rational.
For graduate studants with capacity of reflect on economics and society.
2292866
Most of the times we take power for granted. Dacher Kelter addresses this power paradox and gives a fresh perspective on power. Best thing about the book is principles mentioned are not assumptions/theories they are 'actionable'. We can start implementing the principles in our daily lives.

Very relevant to the modern day power dynamics. Very though provoking on how we can use power to succeed in our professional, personal lives and also to improve lives of people around us. Differentiating factor lies with all principles mentioned comes from  Dr. Keltner's many years of creative work in psychology, properly worked out research findings which can be implemented in modern lives.

A must read for anyone who wants to become a true leader.
798479
Trapped by the huge identity that dominates global superpower thinking, propaganda glares outwardly when authoritarians adopt positions that fake what we are obviously not. Power is one of the major concepts in which democratic Christianity becomes the temple of the undergod. The book was written long before the cultural Chernobyl that pulverizes spasmodic disintegration of superbug wipe out thinking such an obvious enemy of how nasty reality can become reflexivity of stump, stomp, snort, and stink.
4879064
Agree with his conclusions or not, Wilson's theory of the adaptive unconscious and that there are areas of the mind that are simply not able to be brought into consciousness is fascinating. His review of experiments performed in the field of social psychology leads one to question whether too much introspection is productive, how unconscious factors motivate our behaviour towards others, and whether our self-image is more truthful than how others perceive us.  And lastly, he provides methods that can help us become more ore person we would like to be