Counter Clockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility

This challenging and insightful book will likely transform the way you view medicine and help you change from a passive recipient to an active and informed participant in the care of your own health. Definitely worth reading. Warning: if you have already read Dr. Langer's previous works such as Mindfulness, the general message of this book may be a little redundant. Still, it never hurts to be reminded of good advice (and to be fair, Dr. Langer has never before taken her message about the benefits of a mindful life and applied it to the field of medicine to such an extensive degree).

Michael Hogan, National University of Ireland, Galway: [email protected] This review is based on my reading of all 4 of Ellen Langer's books, which I was inspired to read after meeting Ellen in Harvard recently. -- Ellen Langer is one of the most vivacious women I have ever met. Upon arriving to meet her in Harvard's William James Hall, I was actually extremely ill, but mindlessly ignoring the symptoms. The painful and yet irrelevant swelling in my right leg and the weak and feverish state that led me to sleep through a very stimulating lecture by Daniel Dennett, was in fact a serious blood infection that would later result in my hospitalization. Little did I know that my conversation with Ellen Langer would be the thing that completely transformed my hospital experience from a potentially stressful, painful nuisance into a very interesting and rewarding experience. And notwithstanding the fact that I could hardly talk, in our short walk from Ellen's office to the Harvard clinic (where Ellen was going to get a cut in her hand seen to, the cause of which she transformed into a very interesting story) we designed three experiments and I experienced firsthand, in vivo, decades of research on social and developmental psychology, and on mindfulness, creativity and decision-making. To understand the transformative power of Ellen Langer's perspective, and to better understand her creative action, I believe it is useful to experience firsthand her version of mindfulness -- the act of noticing new things -- which is actually very easy to practice, if for no other reason than it energizes and engages us and opens us to new possibilities. Further, it is useful to consider the way Langer applies her version of mindfulness to understanding of social psychology and developmental psychology phenomena, and science generally. Her thought, as laid out in her four books on mindfulness and in her many empirical papers, represents a veritable stream of understanding that liberates one from a constrained, passive, rigid view of reality, possibility, and human potential. Noticing new things Ellen and I both teach social psychology. A critical reading of social psychology reveals much to us about the conditions under which people impose rigid, stereotyped views upon themselves and other people, and the conditions under which behavior is a rigid function of contextual control [1]. What is often so startling to students who first discover social psychology research is just how rigid, stereotypical, and limited our worldviews and our behaviors often are. Nevertheless, every year, one or two students in my first year social psychology class approach with great excitement and tell me how inspired they are to discover all these human limitations so carefully catalogued by social psychologists. Awareness of the conditions shaping rigid, stereotyped thinking and action, they tell me, has actually liberated them. Some report feeling more open to

This book is great read for anyone, regardless of their age, gender or familiarity with cognitive psychology. It is eye-opening and clever, and takes such a refreshing angle on the process of "aging." I would highly recommend it, especially as a gift for someone you know who may be having anxiety about getting older... (good Father's Day present?)

In Counterclockwise, Ellen Langer provides a revolutionary perspective on the topics of health and aging. Langer grabs your attention with eloquent philosophical anecdotes, and then drives her main point home with (very accessible) explanations of shocking scientific studies. No matter who you are (student, doctor, regular dude), this book will change the way you think about health and medicine. It's a great read.

Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility is a mind expanding, enthralling book with implications for living a mindful, happy life. Dr. Langer's experiment of the 1959's living environment is enough to say to us how much we can control in our lives and how much control we give away in many ways because of our often mindless living. The book is a page-turner with its abundance of experimental examples and the very poignant stories of life in nursing homes and excerpts from Dr. Langer's own life experiences. She has made psychological experimental science very accessible to readers and in doing so it compels us to examine the way we live and the choices we make. A very compelling challenge done so well and so empathetically.