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George Lakoff
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The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain Hardcover – May 29, 2008

by George Lakoff (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 207 ratings
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A New York Times best-selling author explains how the physical nature of the brain affects people's political decisions, suggesting that changing one's mind is just as much a physical process as it is a psychological function. By the author of Don't Think of an Elephant! 60,000 first printing.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Viking Adult
  4. Publication date
    May 29, 2008
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0670019275
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0670019274
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lakoff (Don't Think of an Elephant) harnesses cognitive science to rally progressive politicians and voters by positing that conservatives have framed the debate on vital issues more effectively than liberals. According to his research, conservatives comprehend that most brain functioning is grounded not in logical reasoning but in emotionalism—as a result, huge portions of the citizenry accept the Republican framing of the war in Iraq and supporting the troops rather than liberal appeals and phrasing of the occupation in Iraq and squandering tax money. George W. Bush won the presidency by concocting a redemption narrative, persuading tens of millions of voters that his past moral and business shortcomings should be viewed as a prelude to pulling himself up, rather than as disqualifying behavior. While sections of the book employ technical scientific terminology, the author masterfully makes his research comprehensible to nonspecialists. His conclusion—that if citizens and policy-makers better understand brain functioning, hope exists to ameliorate global warming and other societal disasters in the making—will be of vital importance and interest to all readers. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Rockridge Institute, a think tank in Berkeley. He is author of Don’t Think of an Elephant!, Moral Politics, Whose Freedom?, and coauthor of Thinking Points: A Progressive’s Handbook, as well as many books and articles on cognitive science and linguistics.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Adult (May 29, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670019275
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670019274
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 207 ratings

About the author

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George Lakoff

George Lakoff

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George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972. He previously taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan. He graduated from MIT in 1962 (in Mathematics and Literature) and received his PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University in 1966. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Don't Think of an Elephant!, among other works, and is America’s leading expert on the framing of political ideas.

George Lakoff updates may be followed on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Find these links, a complete bibliography, and more at http://georgelakoff.com

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
207 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

rocker
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible insigt into why liberals fail
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2011
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George Lakoff provides not only an exquisite understanding into why liberals consistently fail to convince the public to pursue progressive value on a national level, but provides recipes on how to change the "old enlightenment" thinking of liberals to stand up to the cultural narrative of the father-figure and authoritative conservative mind. This should be the textbook for liberals who are trying to change the system. Democrats for example, consistently compromise their position by getting trapped by conservative framing. Even if you skip the parts about brain circuitry and neuronal synapses, you'll get the message. My personal take - Democrats, and liberals/progressives in general, are falling further behind societies need for positive change, even as we speak. Wasteful wars, tragic declines in America's health due to a greedy and fragmented healthcare system, and joblessness, all of these cannot be turned around by those who stubbornly cling to old, ineffective approaches. In trying to understand the current mess of American society and how Republicans literally get away with murder, this is the best insight I've had in years. I just wish I had discovered it when it was published in 2008. However, it's never too late to learn how to focus and strengthen the liberal message for change. Btw - I'm not a typical book reviewer - this one just hit me hard.
8 people found this helpful
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J. H. I.
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Brilliant - A Must-Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2011
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Lakoff brilliantly elucidates the murky reality of an intermingling between cognitive programming and the manipulations the human mind is prone to from those wily enough to take advantage of it. In this empowering work, we learn about the vulnerabilities of our automatic mental processes, and the influence of the subconscious on our judgements of reality, and our assessments of what actions to take to address that reality. He pin-points the disconnect between perceiving a problem, and having the mental fortitude to acknowledge it and enact a solution. He really gets to the fundamental fabric of our current climate of political discourse and what has been shaping it, and how we can reclaim it, and our minds. The book hits on several important truths that had me exclaiming "Yes! It all makes so much sense now!" Reading this book has been a thrilling experience, and I enthusiastically encourage others to read it as well. The information in this book has the power to transform the way we experience the world, and to shape our society. Could you ask for a more profoundly relevant book than that? All I can say is... read it!!!!
2 people found this helpful
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David Swan
4.0 out of 5 stars Creating a Progressive Frame of Empathy
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2008
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This is the fourth book by George Lakoff that I've read and as always he has a great message for liberals. `The Political Mind' focuses on the misguided belief held by liberals that most voters are rational actors making voting decisions based on logic and self interest. In this world the roll of liberal leadership is to present ideas using empirical evidence and logical arguments banking on the belief that if voters only knew the true facts they would undoubtedly vote Democrat. Conservatives, on the other hand, target emotions and effectively create frames on which to hang their ideas. Despite Liberals faith in the rational voter, emotion and framing has been crushing logic until it's taken two endless military conflicts and what looks to be a total collapse of the American financial system to swing the pendulum. One need look no further than climate change and evolution to see that logic and evidence frequently fly right out the window.

Mr. Lakoff's proposal is that liberals need to create a complete narrative, or frame, in order to sell progressive ideals. The author is encouraging liberals to take a holistic view of politics rather than address each issue piecemeal. A progressive frame would be built around empathy as opposed to the conservative frame of authority, obedience and discipline. Mr. Lakoff writes, "To get the public to adopt progressive moral position you have to activate progressive moral thought in them by openly - and constantly - stressing morality, not just the interest of demographic groups" In the past progressives have been unwittingly promoting the conservative frame by using their language with phrases like `tax burden' and `war on terror'.

I have a few issues with Mr. Lakoff's books. The first is that his books are often so similar to prior books that they seem like just rehashes. If you've read the fantastic book `Moral Politics' you pretty much get most of what's presented in `The Political Mind'. Another problem is that the author tries desperately hard to categorize conservatives and liberals into strict father and nurturing parent. I would argue that this simplification as a model fails as often as it succeeds and the author tries way too hard to try and shoehorn each group into their category. The idea that conservatives crave authority and obedience fails when you consider the conservative purported belief in smaller decentralized government. President Clinton was twice elected but conservatives had zero respect for his position of as leader and consistently accused him of overreaching his authority.

Within the same paragraph the author blasts his own argument apart when he refers to Bob Dole seeing the government as the meddling strict father interfering in the lives of his grown children and then switches immediately to Dubya Bush's claim that, as a wartime president, he can wiretap citizens at will is the case. In the later case the nation is the Family, the president is the Parent and the Citizens are the Family members. So how can Conservatives see the government as both the meddlesome parent AND the protective parent? If conservatives are so much about authority why would they stress deregulation and smaller government while turning a blind eye to Bush's power grab. My belief is that it has less to do with strict father and nurturing parent and more to do with conservatives treating politics like a contact sport. It's the Vince Lombardi philosophy that `winning isn't everything, it's the only thing'.

`The Political Mind' often reads like a textbook and that's not necessarily a criticism since it is an instruction manual on selling ideas. My only concern is that we might see increasingly sophisticated psychological warfare employed on voters from both sides targeting the very core of human thought. It's scary to think that rational thought can so easily be usurped by clever marketing.
5 people found this helpful
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William A. Barrett
5.0 out of 5 stars An answer to What's the Matter with Kansas...
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2014
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Prof. Lakoff has studied how our brain chooses certain responses to political and moral issues. And that depends much on how the issue is framed - what words are used, and how they are used. For example, a majority of the public appears to reject killing a fetus if less than 3 months old, yet also supports Roe v. Wade, which legalizes just that. It all depends on how the issue is stated. We use a primitive rapid-response system embedded since childhood, which largely stems from whether we were raised in a strict-father or a nurturing father-mother family. Or something in between.
We may think our decisions are rooted in logic, scientific studies, and the like, but Lakoff suggests that this is not how most voters respond to issues.
His work has been deployed by both progressives and conservatives in political campaigns, as a way of attracting voters one way or the other.
10 people found this helpful
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ralf gelcich
5.0 out of 5 stars da leggere
Reviewed in Italy on July 31, 2018
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assolutamente da leggere anche se schierato politicamente ,fa capire bene i meccanismi profondi della comunicazione tra politica e cittadino e i suoi tranelli
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andy jaunzems
5.0 out of 5 stars Just barely started - I often have 3 or 4 ...
Reviewed in Canada on March 27, 2016
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Just barely started - I often have 3 or 4 books going but aside from a tendency to be long-winded, I'm a fan of Lakoff's analyses.
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Álvaro González
4.0 out of 5 stars The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics
Reviewed in Spain on March 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
Fully recommended to all those who study or like political communication and framing. Easy to understand and well explained.

Muy recomendado para todos aquellos que estudien o les guste la comunicación política y el framing. Fácil de entender y bien explicado.
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JSC
2.0 out of 5 stars Beaucoup de reddite
Reviewed in France on December 14, 2013
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On y apprend des choses, grâce à des concepts + exemples originaux mais au final on retombe souvent sur des choses dites précédemment dans le livre. Lakoff rabache un peu trop à mon goût.
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iuy6237
4.0 out of 5 stars 認知科学の視点からの政治についての考察
Reviewed in Japan on August 5, 2010
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　G. Lakoffは、言語学者、認知科学者として世界的に知られていますが、最近は政治に関する本がよく出ています。本書もその一つと言えます。副題に"A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics"とあるように、認知科学の視点から政治について考察している内容です。したがって扱う内容は政治に関するものが主であり、本書に Metaphors We Live by や Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind のようなことばを中心とした認知言語学的な考察を主に求めることは出来ません。

　政治については詳しくわかりませんが、認知科学の視点からの考察は興味深く、知的好奇心を刺激されます。特にオバマ大統領の育った環境やものの考え方や視点は知りませんでした。日本では初の黒人アメリカ合衆国大統領ということで話題になりましたが、そんなことよりも実はそのものの考え方や視点が重要だと本書で考えさせられました。これによって、オバマ大統領の目指している核廃絶への動きやアメリカでの健康保険の問題などの理解が深まるでしょう。

　認知科学からの考察ということで、レイコフのこれまでの研究を知った上で読むほうが消化できると思います。しかし認知科学だけに興味がある人には本書はお勧めできません。やはり政治が主に扱われているので、政治と認知科学の両方に興味がある人にお勧めできる一冊です。

　ペーパーバックということで書き込みづらいので星４にしました。
3 people found this helpful
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