Lucifer Effect by Zimbardo
The premise of this book is captivating, and I read it almost immediately after seeing Dr. Zimbardo on the Daily Show, where I learned of it. The first 2/3rds of this book are fascinating, particularly the account of the Stanford Prison Experiment and subsequent experiments regarding the human capacity for evil. I greatly admire Zimbardo, but the book is not what I expected.
The first 66% of the book is psychological, and it seems to me that the last 33% is more historical and political. I started to lose interest during the analysis of Abu Ghraib because it was just repeating the concepts we had learned earlier in the book, and was no longer new and intriguing. The book was just way too long, period, to cover the same themes – deindividuization, dehumanization, etc., etc. I wanted more from this book than it delivered, but it was still worth reading.
For those willing to consider the bad as well as the good aspects of human nature, a must-read..
Facing Death Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross devoted her life to death and dying and achieved worldwide fame in the process. Through her strong commitment to the subject, she has done much to de-stigmatize dying and to draw attention to the treatment of the terminally ill.
Her story is a remarkable one. Born in Zurich in 1926 as a 2-pound triplet, she studied medicine in defiance of her parents’ wishes and struggled for recognition as a psychiatrist in the United States. In 1969 she achieved international fame through her work with terminally ill patients in Chicago and her book ‘On Death and Dying’. This initial success was followed by countless workshops and lecture tours around the world and the establishment of a healing center in Virginia, which was destroyed by arsonists in 1994. Since that time, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross suffered a series of strokes and lived secluded in the desert outside Phoenix, Arizona.
This remarkably intimate film was made when Kübler-Ross awaited her own death – on the verge of the transition she researched so passionately. Conversations with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in Arizona form the core of the film. She looks back on her life, describes her childhood and her work, and explains how she herself faces aging and impending death. Interviews with her sisters, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival material provide a comprehensive look into the life and work of this extraordinary woman.
