Many will recall that Zohar (along with Marshall, her husband) was the author of
The Quantum Self (1990). Now this increasingly popular author argues that our most pressing and fundamental social problems can also be best understood by an understanding of "quantum reality." Her argument, to oversimplify just a little, is that societies in the past have been either too individualistic or too collectivistic because we have been stuck in a mechanistic (boos for Newton), either/or sort of mentality. In quantum reality (we're talking good physics now), this does not happen because everything has both particle ("I") qualities and wave ("We") qualities. Shouldn't society follow reality? Wouldn't we be better thinking that our universe is one of many (each with its own Big Bang), and that everything is directed to the high state of consciousness (Us at the Top) by the nature of quantum reality itself? For these and other extraordinary claims, Zohar offers a series of highly speculative scientific arguments from the realm of theoretical physics. As before, Zohar's knowledge of physics appears to be sophisticated, but her argument would appear weak even in an undergraduate class in philosophy (Zohar owns such a degree from MIT). Buy one copy, put it on the New Age shelf, and hope no one wants to call it philosophy
or science.
Stuart Whitwell
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
In the high-spirited Up my Mother's Flagpole (1974), Zohar characterized her early life as a process of individuation and alienation. Then, after marrying, she used the metaphors of physics, which she had studied at MIT, to redefine life as relationship (The Quantum Self, 1989). Here, Zohar (Science & Culture/Oxford) and psychiatrist Marshall extend these concepts to a vision of a new vast and inclusive society. Zohar and Marshall challenge the traditional Western dualities of mind and nature, spirit and matter, self and other, by liberally interpreting quantum physics as a theory that explains the fundamental operations of nature or reality as holistic, pluralistic, and integrative. The resemblance between the structure of the universe and the structure of the mind, they claim, enables individuals to conceptualize reality as it is pictured in quantum physics. They want to extend these qualities of the universe, shared with the human mind, as described by quantum physics, to the organization of social life. With charming hand-drawn diagrams and lucid explanations of classical physics, quantum physics, neurobiology and molecular biology, Zohar and Marshall develop models, analogies, and metaphors for the even more elusive ``physics of the mind'' and the ``science of consciousness.'' Their goal is a mutually creative relationship among mind, society, nature, a ``both/and'' form of thought rather than ``either/or,'' psychologies, families, and governments based on the principles of quantum physics, peacefully evolving. However, without concrete examples to illustrate such theories, this quirky work remains abstract and speculative. Zohar and Marshall offer the general reader a better introduction to contemporary science than to social philosophy while stretching the limit of fashionable interdisciplinary discussion. --
Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
