The Way We Are

Top-grade material, worthy of at least one more star which I don't feel qualified to give. It's fascinating material, informative, well presented, I'm just not sure who he's trying to reach or even what he's trying to express. If pressed for a guess I'd say he's presenting evidence for the existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a distinctly diagnosable and treatable medical condition, and his target audience is other medical practitioners. Should you, dear reader, count yourself as such, I might urge you to bump this book's place in your to-read list up by a position or three.

For the rest of us: I just can't recommend this except to the most diehard of all-things-neuro fans. Putnam's basic argument throughout the book is the nonexistence of af Self, upon which there's pretty much universal consensus among neuroscientists and contemplative practitioners. He interweaves his defense with informative and genuinely riveting history of psychology, of different movements and personalities throughout time, of how we've arrived where we are. I'll confess to having loved each of these histories: Putnam offers compassionate and insightful perspectives on people and practices we now recoil from; such is the risk of hindsight. (Should there still be humans in the 22nd century they will rightly condemn us for what we do today). Putnam's personal recollections are especially engaging. He's a good writer, with an important message—no, many important messages—there's just too much material in this book, with too many tangents and side threads for a lay reader.