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Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler |
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THE AGE OF MAGICAL OVERTHINKING
Notes on Modern Irrationality
This blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.
Utilizing linguistic insights and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit "Cultish", Amanda Montell turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases.
"Magical thinking" is the belief that one's thoughts can affect events in the external world: 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.
Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, she delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the "Halo effect" cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the "Sunk Cost Fallacy" can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we've realized they're not serving us.
As she illuminates these concepts, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make sense of the senseless.
Her book cracks open a window in our minds, and lets a warm breeze in. It helps quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist, the author of "Wordslut", and "Cultish". Along with hosting the podcast "Sounds Like a Cult", her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and more. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles.
"Magical thinking" is the belief that one's thoughts can affect events in the external world: 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.
Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, she delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the "Halo effect" cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the "Sunk Cost Fallacy" can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we've realized they're not serving us.
As she illuminates these concepts, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make sense of the senseless.
Her book cracks open a window in our minds, and lets a warm breeze in. It helps quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist, the author of "Wordslut", and "Cultish". Along with hosting the podcast "Sounds Like a Cult", her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and more. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles.
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Book Published 2024-04-09 by One Signal |
Book Published 2024-04-09 by One Signal Publishers |