Customer Reviews

Mind Shapes: Understanding the Differences in Thinking and Communication

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Kahn05 & Radcliffe

MIND SHAPES-Understanding the Difference Between Thinking and Communication

By Alan R. Kahn, MD, and Kris Austen Radcliffe

(Feb 6, 2005)

***** Five Stars for advancing personality theory, applications & research ideas.

Jung's practical view of personality and profession serves as the launch pad for the Human Dimensions Model. Those familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) will be interested in the Post-Jungian innovations of the Human Dimensions Model (HDM) devised by Kahn and Radcliffe. Stimulated by the works of Walter Lowen, Merlin Donald, Richard Dawkins and others, the authors show how concepts of evolution, the meme, and right- vs. left-brain processing can determine how we work and play. The advanced reader will welcome the opportunity to explore the hypotheses proposed in this text. As a professional person, I personally found Dr. Kahn's workshops and classes very stimulating and enlightening. I strongly recommend the text for the advanced applications, the research potential, and the challenge to go beyond current personality theory.

Ernest M. Weiler, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Communication Sciences & Disorders

University of Cincinnati

Our world becomes more complex and dangerous every day. Access to information, understanding, and communication are essential for dealing with this. While we have developed new techniques and technologies to help us with this, the human brain is the same as it was 20.000 years ago. It created the modern world by specializing, but in doing so, individual humans developed very different ways of thinking. Too often we fail to understand how differently we think and how different our capabilities, and weaknesses are. This is dangerous because it creates conflicts and often gives individuals the idea that they know better than those with better knowledge or that they can do things better than those more qualified. We also often fail to recognize the shortcomings of those who fill important positions.

"Mind Shapes" give us a much needed understanding of the unique ways different personality types think. If this knowledge were broadly understood, governments would operate more efficiently and constructively; organizations would function better; we as individuals would get along better with others, and we would better understand ourselves. The gains would be tremendous. Just one example, people would demand that nations be governed by people who understood and were qualified to deal with the business of government and the world rather than those whose talents focus on achieving positions of power. This is an important book and should be widely read--for the good of all of us.

Having attended Alan's class on this subject in 1987, and reading Lowen's and Kent's book as part of this class, this book was a welcome return to the realm of how people process information differently. I am generally familiar with several "type indicator" models mostly based on Jung's concepts (MBTI, FIRO etc.) and this model seems to take it beyond that by attaching brain processes to behavior. The model is signficantly refined and improved over the past 15 years, and should provide a great resource for the researcher and for the casual reader. If you like to understand how different people think and are confounded by the chaos created by different personalities coming together, this book will prove to be a invaluable resource. When is the next book, Alan?

Vijay K. Iyer, Ph. D.; M.B.A.

Director, Corporate Business Development,

Respironics, Inc.