The Core Dump

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Posts tagged with ‘psychology’

Review: Glasshouse

Posted 3 months, 1 week ago

Glasshouse takes place in the post-singularity far future where people have the ability to change their bodies any way they like, back themselves up at will, and all the other post-singularity goodies.

The novel takes a while to get going, and at first it’s a bit hard to figure out what kind of drama Charles Stross can mine from an environment where, by definition, nothing bad can really happen.

Once the characters find themselves in the “Glasshouse” of the title, though, the action and the suspense become fast and furious, and Glasshouse settles in to become a creepy meditation on the psychology of memory and gender roles.

Once you have the ability to edit your memories, can you really trust yourself?

The ending feels a little bit abrupt and neat, but apart from that, Glasshouse features strong and interesting characters, impressive world-building, and tense action sequences.

Highly recommended.

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Review: The Sociopath Next Door

Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago

One in 25 Americans is a sociopath. This means, essentially, that they are incapable of feeling love or connectedness and exist in an emotional vacuum where the only thing that matters is to “win” over other people. The damage they cause the other 96% of the population is incalculable.

Martha Stout’s The Sociopath Next Door provides a chilling look into the minds of sociopaths as well as ways to recognize them and above all how to deal with them.

Stout uses exceptionally well written composites of case files from her years of experience as a practicing psychologist to drive home the damage sociopaths cause and how their victims have learned to cope.

The Sociopath Next Door is an important work, and one that deserves to be widely read.

Highly recommended.

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