This book analyzes and offers strategies for overcoming polarized thinking across a broad range of subjects, such as culture, politics, biology, social relations, religion and the physical world. Tracing how cognition can lead to either/or thinking, it reveals the nature of binary world views. This kind of thinking is trapped in cortical binaries that result in emotional struggles and limited views rather than a wider perspective on life. It promotes awareness of what can be cognitive limitations involving the fear of openness to experience and the waging battles that might be avoided. A timely publication, this volume fosters understanding and clarity of thinking to key issues of our time, including political divisions, climate change, and spirituality. It will be relevant to personality, clinical, and social psychologists as well as professionals in psychiatry and social work.

Autorentext

Jan D. Sinnott, PHD, is a Professor of Psychology at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. She recently celebrated 45 years of teaching and research focused on adult lifespan development and particularly the development of Postformal Thought as a later stage of Piagetian operations. Her extensive writing lately has focused on postformal aspects of identity in a rapidly changing world (she is Editor of Springer's series by that name), political change and postformal thought, and the benefits of moving beyond binary thinking about the "wicked" problems of life that do not yield to binary analyses. Her research Lab is currently investigating the stress-reducing aspects of virtual reality of nature and cognitive abilities needed to process actual reality and virtual reality simultaneously.