A while ago, I wrote a post called "The Ultimate Form of Storytelling" about how according to much research, our unconscious mind is in control of what we do and the role of the conscious is simply to narrate the actions into a cohesive story (more or less). Today, I found an article in the New York Times titled "The Amygdala Made Me Do It" (the amygdalae are groups of nuclei in the brain that play a large role in emotional emotional reactions), that discusses the explosion of many books that argue similar things.
The author cleverly titles them "Can't-Help-Yourself-Books" in contrast to the ever-popular self-help books. Books such as "Imagine: How Creativity Works," "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business," "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior" all fall into this category, and have been topping best seller lists recently. All these books make an effort to demonstrate that most all of the time, we're not actually in charge of what we're doing. From there , some argue we can change through various ways - for example, just developing new habits because it's actually almost impossible to just stop a habit. They work to show how we can re-wire our brains so that everything we do that we don't have control over goes more in our favor.
But, the author asks, "Why now?" What has us suddenly deciding we would rather read about how difficult it will be to change but that we can change a little if we really try, and not super-motivational self help books? The author suggests that it stems from a new attempt to "scientize" how we think about the brain, using the new technology that has allowed brain scans and other such research tools.
But what he doesn't address is why we are suddenly interested in that idea? Why are these books successful? There are a lot of new fields that have not become immediately popular like this neuroscience (sort of, I hate to call it that, it's a little less legitimate than neuroscience) has, there is no reason that people would want to read three or four books on the subject just because it's true. There are a lot of true things out there. Why have we turned to Can't-Help-Yourself Books rather than Self-Help Books? Is it just because one has scientific research? I would say that the appeal of Can't-Help-Yourself Books is the ability to absolve oneself from guilt and to not feel so bad about continuing to give in to the temptation of cookies and chocolate, but at the same time, many of these books lead to the suggestion that there really is no such thing as free will. Are we ready to accept this?
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