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The age of magical overthinking : notes on modern irrationality

Montell, Amanda2024
Books
Utilising the linguistic insights of 'Wordslut' and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet. 'Magical thinking' can be broadly defined as the belief that one's internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in this book, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
Author:
Imprint:
London : Thorsons, 2024.
Collation:
257 pages ; 23 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780008701116 (hbk. :)
Dewey class:
153.42153.42 MONT153.42 MON
Language:
English
BRN:
2689347
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