Product Description

"Vital Lies, Simple Truths" is a penetrating analysis of the ways in which we deceive ourselves. Daniel Goleman draws on evidence of all kinds - from brain function to social dynamics - to reveal how we must distort our most intimate relationships and our day-to-day lives by burying painful insights and memories. This self-deception is our means of psychological self-preservation, the currency of survival in which society transacts. But although self-deception is sometimes benighn, it can also be dangerous and life-diminishing. This important book both illuminates and raises challenging questions about a subject central to our psychological existence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99278 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Good, but not great
This book seems to be a competent reworking of ground which has been broadly familiar since the 1960s. The author makes persuasively the case that, both individually and in groups, we are prone to blind spots as part of our psychological defence mechanisms. He draws intelligently on modern research and the book offers a number of amusing and memorable anecdotes to back its central contention. Goleman writes well and lucidly; the book is easy going. But it does not appear to me to contain anything of significance which is new. In short, a useful introduction to those new to the subject of blind spots and their dangers, but no more than that.

Eye opening...
I really enjoyed the easy reading pace of this book. Mind expanding, entertaining, and sometimes shocking. Although there may be no new ideas presented for those familiar to the subject, everyone else can gain some stunning insight into thier own and other people's behavior. Personally I think this is one of the best books I've ever read, not just because of the subject content, but becuase it's written so that anyone can pick it up.

Very Good, Easy Read, Not Mind Blowing
As I started this book,which is really divided into two main parts - self and collective deceptions - I was most excited about its psychological delving into illusion, and how self-deception takes a hold of our personal lives. In fact, another reviewer here gave the book a lower star rating, which I took issue with, and was wired up to prove wrong. But, then as the book unfolded, especially as it switched from the psychological to the sociological, I felt the same, that the material was nothing I would not have encountered through other media outlets, especially in the age we are living today - almost 25 years after the book was first written - which is far more informationally savy, and heavily laden in consipiracy and cynicism. However, where this book really excels, is in the first half, in its revisiting of the roots of Psychoanalysis. Freud is not as fashionable as Jung today I would argue, but I became fascinated by Goleman's retake on Freuds early theories of the mind from the perspective of his thesis. I also feel it is far harder to be honest with your own self-deceptions - which cost more personally and financially too in terms of psychoanalysis - than to look at sociological group comfort zones, however interesting nonetheless!! This is where the book excels. Thanks Dan.