Mindfulness, 25th anniversary edition

by Ellen J. Langer

Overview

Ellen J. Langer, Harvard professor of psychology, determines that the mindless following of routine and other automatic behaviors lead to much error, pain and a predetermined course of life. In this thought-provoking book, her research has been "translated" for the lay reader. With anecdotes and metaphors, Langer explains how the mindless--as opposed to the mindful--develop mindsets of categories, associations, habits of thought born of repetition in childhood and throughout schooling. To be mindful, she notes, stressing process over outcome, allows free rein to intuition and creativity, and opens us to new information and perspectives.

Langer discusses the negative impact of mindsets on business and social relations, showing special concern for the elderly, who often suffer from learned helplessness and lack of options. Encouraging the application of mindfulness to health, the author affirms that placebos and alternative, mind-based therapies can help patients and addicts move from unhealthy to healthy contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738218007
Publisher:	Da Capo Press
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Series:	A Merloyd Lawrence Book
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	65,563
File size:	535 KB

About the Author

Ellen Langer Ph.D. , Professor of Psychology at Harvard University,. is the author The Psychology of Control, Mindfulness, The Power of Mindful Learning, On Becoming an Artist and Counterclockwise. Here work has been translated into a dozen languages.She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous awards including the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest of the American Psychological Association..

Table of Contents

Preface to the 25th Anniversary Edition

1. Introduction

PART ONE: Mindlessness

2. When the Lights’ On and Nobody’s Home
Trapped by Categories
Automatic Behavior
Acting from a Single Perspective

3. The Roots of Mindlessness
The Mindless “Expert”
The Sacrilegious Poodle
Mindlessness and the Unconscious
Belief in Limited Resources
Entropy and Linear Time as Limiting Mindsets
Education for Outcome
The Power of Context

4. The Costs of Mindlessness
A Narrow Self-Image
Unintended Cruelty
Loss of Control
Learned Helplessness
Stunted Potential

PART TWO: Mindfulness

5. The Nature of Mindfulness
Creating New Categories
Welcoming New Information
More Than One View
Control Over Context: The Birdman of Alcatraz
Process Before Outcome
Mindfulness East and West

6. Mindful Aging
Control and Survival
Reversing Memory Loss
Outgrowing Mindsets
Stretching the Limits of Age
Growth in Age
Putting Age in Context: An Experiment

7. Creative Uncertainty
Mindfulness and Intuition
Creativity and Conditional Learning
Distinctions and Analogies

8. Mindfulness on the Job
Welcoming the Glitch
Second Wind
Innovation
The Power of Uncertainty for Managers
Burnout and Control

9. Decreasing Prejudice by Increasing Discrimination
A Patient by Any Other Name
The Painted Cast
Mindfully Different
Disabling Mindsets
Discrimination Without Prejudice

10. Minding Matters: Mindfulness and Health
Dualism: A Dangerous Mindset
The Body in Context
Addiction in Context
The Traditional Placebo: Fooling the Mind
The Active Placebo: Enlisting the Mind

Epilogue: Beyond Mindfulness

Editorial Reviews

“Stretches our minds in startling new directions.”

— Howard Gardner

“Ellen Langer has succeeded in writing a book that, in one bite, manages to be scientifically interesting, immensely practical, and dramatically absorbing. It is about the mindsets that lead human beings—even the smartest of them—to become stupid and ‘mindless.’ Its power as drama in demonstrating that mindlessness leads not only to the banality of dullness, but to a giving up of life itself. In a series of fascinating research studies, Dr. Langer demonstrates that the young can be made more creative, the man in charge made more effective, and the elderly kept from giving in to and dying of their age.”

— Jerome Bruner, author of Actual Minds, Possible Worlds

“One simply can’t finish this book and not see the world in the same way.”

— Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School

"A provocative, engaging essay on the relation between our mindstates and our actions, by an astute and irrepressible social scientist who obviously  enjoys playing with bold ideas."

— Jerome Kagan, Harvard University

“A landmark work of social psychology.”

— Booklist

"Langer. . . .has shown us the power of mindfulness."

— Psychology Today

"Extremely provocative. . . . This book cannot be read mindlessly."

— Robert Abelson, Yale University

Female First, 1/18/15
“Mindfulness is the book which changed it all.”

Blogging on Business (UK), 3/14/15
“More relevant now than ever before.”

From the Publisher