1st Edition
Healing the Reason-Emotion Split Scarecrows, Tin Woodmen, and the Wizard
Healing the Reason-Emotion Split draws on research from experimental psychology and neuroscience to dispel the myth that reason should be heralded above emotion.
Arguing that reason and emotion mutually benefit our decision-making abilities, the book explores the idea that understanding this relationship could have long-term advantages for our management of society’s biggest problems. Levine reviews how reason and emotion operated in historical movements such as the Enlightenment, Romanticism and 1960s' counterculture, to conclude that a successful society would restore human connection and foster compassion in economics and politics by equally utilizing reason and emotion.
Integrating discussion on classic and contemporary neurological studies and using allegory, the book lays out the potential for societal change through compassion, and would be of interest to psychologists concerned with social implications of their fields, philosophy students, social activists, and religious leaders.
1. Minds to Match Our Challenges
2. What Does Neuroscience Tell Us?
3. What Does Psychology Tell Us?
4. The Ruling Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow Rebellion
5. Where is the Wizard?
6. The Compassionate Revolution
Biography
Daniel S. Levine is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA, and a Fellow and former President of the International Neural Network Society.
"This book offers a delightful and light read, as well as one that provides clarifying discussions of mental processes and core aspects of the human condition that are deadly serious. How individuals do, or do not, balance their cognitive and emotional processes will determine whether or not they focus attention on predictively relevant events in the world, and carry out decisions and actions to realize valued goals. Levine illustrates these general themes with examples from such varied topics as recent presidential politics, avian and primate intelligence, cognitive dissonance, climate change, what makes different jobs interesting or boring, and … last but not least … baseball! His lively text drew me into each chapter right away, and held my attention in admiration." — Stephen Grossberg, Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, USA
"Levine’s very timely book reveals an extreme originality of thought applied to interdisciplinary research, where his scientific expertise dialogues with social and human sciences, art and spirituality. It exemplifies how an imaginative mix of tradition and innovation constitutes a meaningful contribution to the necessary changing of the world, reactivating true comprehensive intellectual potency to decisively help the universal human quest for wisdom and compassion."—Ana Maria Coutinho Aleksandrowicz, Psychoanalyst and Co-founder of 4F – Freud’s Forwarders Foundation and Formation, Brazil
"In Healing the Reason-Emotion Split Levine gives readers a rare gift: science with a heart. He more than explains, he exemplifies, his thesis. The seeming chasm between reason and emotion is an illusion. Only by appealing to both, he argues persuasively, do we have a fighting chance of improving our society and world." — Ralph Mecklenburger, Rabbi Emeritus at Beth El Congregation, Fort Worth, USA
"Healing the Reason-Emotion Split is an important contribution to the most urgent enterprise of our time: building a more caring and connected partnership-oriented world. It provides a holistic understanding of human behaviors and societies – and how to change them in positive ways. Reminding us that we humans need, and yearn for, meaning and community, and that reason and emotion are actually partners rather than opposites, this fascinating, highly accessible book shows that we can create a more equitable and sustainable world." — Riane Eisler, President, Center for Partnership Studies, USA
