- Arbinger Institute. 2006. The anatomy of peace: resolving the heart of conflict.
[Along with the companion book below, this is a really engaging story introducing the underlying mechanisms for war, peace, and more. Certainly compatible with the core of the Buddhist teachings.]
- Arbinger Institute. 2010. Leadership and self-deception: getting out of the box, Expanded 2nd ed.
- Kidder, Rushworth M. 2010. Good kids, tough choices: how parents can help their children do the right thing. [This discusses many important points about complex moral issues and moral courage (not just moral literacy) through real examples. Many stories are available at the Institute for Global Ethics.]
- Bain, Ken. 2004. What the best college teachers do. [This really explores what the title promises. Those who understand the message of this book must be already doing at least some of the things discussed in the book. But unfortunately, over 90% of college teachers would not get it.]
- Neill, Alexander Sutherland. 1960. Summerhill: a radical approach to child rearing. [Although the author/school/book has been criticized on various accounts (as can be found in Hart 1970), most of the criticisms are based on misunderstanding. The author points out that if educators force students to do things against the students' will, the students will not only fail to learn but also develop resistance to the learning process itself. Analogous phenomena happen across our life span, e.g., forceful parenting resulting in insecure attachment...]
- Siegel, Ronald D. 2010. The mindfulness solution: everyday practices for everyday problemss. [Excellent introduction. But the amazing thing is that basically all the main points in the book had already been laid by the Buddha some 2500 years ago.]
- Holt, John Caldwell. 1976. Instead of education: ways to help people do things better. [Although dated and with some limitations, I found the author's observation extremely sharp and his opinion really honest.]
- Weissbourd, Richard. 2009. The Parents We Mean to Be: How well-intentioned adults undermine children's moral and emotional development. [Later chapters are not as strong (e.g., I would rather turn to Kohn's No Contest on sports issues in Ch. 7). However, I share that the author's point that the most essential aspect of parenting is moral capacity and actions (not just moral literacy). In addition, I agree with the author's arugument about self-centered happiness and self-esteem as problematic.]
- Moffitt, Phillip. 2008. Dancing with life: Buddist insights for finding meaning and joy in the face of suffering. [An excellent introduction of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings in an accessible and non-religious manner, potentially useful for many readers.]
- Zinn, Howard. 2003. A people's history of the United States: 1492-present. [Why do we repeat the same problems, e.g., wars and bad economy, over and over? Even though the book doesn't provide an answer, it prominently addresses the question.]
- Price, Weston A. 2006. Nutrition and physical degeneration, 7th ed. [The original edition published in 1939. Although some aspects of the book is dated, the author convincingly discusses how "primitive" people were free from cavities and maintained relatively good health while "modern" people fare much worse.]
- Wilkinson, Richard G. 2005. The impact of inequality: how to make sick societies healthier. [Traces the role of inequality for health and psychosocial problems. Proposes an interesting link between competition and cooperation in connection to societal constraints.]
- Smuts, Jan Christiaan. 1961. Holism and evolution (originally published in 1926; various other editions available). [In this book (1926), Smuts coined the word "holism" (and thus "holistic" as well ) He previews many of the current complex systems ideas. For example, he emphasizes "creativity," which encompasses "emergence," and discusses "personality" (integration of mind and body) leading to morality, mindfulness, and spirituality. I'm not sympathetic to his political position, though.]
- Kohn, Alfie. [Makes excellent arguments in many areas, challenging common but incorrect assumptions.]
- 1992. No contest: the case against competition, Rev. ed.
- 1993. Punished by rewards: the trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A's, praise, and other bribes.
- 2005. Unconditional parenting: moving from rewards and punishments to love and reason.
- 1990. The brighter side of human nature: altruism and empathy in everyday life
- Grolnick, Wendy S. 2003. The psychology of parental control: how well-meant parenting backfires. [Distinguishes "in control" or "structure" (good) and "controlling" (bad); many excellent points about parenting, also in line with Alfie Kohn's arguments.]
- Robertson, Brian C. 2003. Day care deception: what the child care establishment isn't telling us. [Exposes the entanglement among academics, media, business, and government regarding day care thrives despite most parents' wish.]
- Varela, Francisco J., Thompson, Evan, and Rosch, Eleanor. 1991. The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience. [An amazingly deep observation, connecting cognitive science (and other fields) with the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness meditation. The book critically examines many major Western thinkers. Another book of his (with Maturana) "The Tree of Knoledge" explores similar ideas (less mindfulness meditation) in an easier way.]
- Hoffman, Martin L. 2000. Empathy and moral development: implications for caring and justice. [To my surprise, this became my "discipline" book (i.e., for parenting). It discusses how empathy can be the main source of moral development through disciplinary actions. The author is concerned about society if such a process would not be in place. Unfortunately, we may be living in such society.]
- Karen, Robert. 1998. Becoming attached: first relationships and how they shape our capacity to love [An excellent introduction to child-caregiver attachment, with a lot of background and contextual information. Also available as a hardback with a slightly different title (1994).]
- Siegel, Daniel J. 1999. The developing mind: toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. [A great integration of research related to child-caregiver attachment through a complex systems perspective.]
- Freeman, Walter J. 2000. How brains make up their minds. [An eye-opening integration of neuroscience into intentionality and socio-cultural development based on complex systems ideas; it proposes "unlearning" (through trances, rituals, and sleep) as a core of human development.]
- Karr-Morse, Robin and Wiley, Meredith S. 1997. Ghosts from the nursery: tracing the roots of violence. [A really good summary of what is wrong with child rearing in this country. While many parenting books are so procedural and shallow, this reviews more meaningful principles for child rearing and fixing society. Some quotes: "Perhaps we need a little child to lead us. Perhaps our real challenge is to hold the face and the needs of the baby like a template over all of the decisions we make." "while we have put great effort toward protecting ourselves from external dangers, the greater threat is from internal deterioration of the soft tissue at our nation's core"]
- Toft, Klaus. 2005. Killers in Eden. [An amazing story about the interaction between killer whales and whalers in Australia; PBS link; another info page]
- Callahan, David. 2004. The cheating culture: why more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. [Sickening array of cheating examples. Some very good suggestions, but I will most likely pursue a somewhat different approach. Chapter 1 available on-line]
- Suzuki, David. 2003. The sacred balance. [A mind-opening TV series. Many examples of complex systems.]
- Warren, Elizabeth and Tyagi, Amelia Warren. 2003. The two-income trap: why middle-class mothers and fathers are going broke. [A very good analysis of the "middle-class" crisis. Their analysis will be especially relevant as the real estate bubble is destined to burst.]
Last modified: February 4, 2012