Intuition: Its Powers and Perils

Rating:
Summary: excellent ! fascinating !
Review: This is an excellent book and if it was possible to give more then 5 stars I would. With the methods of scientific psychology and with many many superb examples it shows in a very subtle way the positives and negatives of intuition. If it showed only the positives or only the negatives I think it would be less good and this is what this makes this book so special. The examples are so vivid that somethings you would need thousands of words to understand, you LIVE with one example.It stands out with its fascinating sanity and soberness on such a slippery ground.

But in a way that cannot change my rating, Prof. Myers makes ,though only a few times among thosands of examples, shallow interpretations I think, . This made me think that although I totally agree that we despirately despirately need scientific psychology we also need psychoanalytical in-depth analysis / interpretation.But totally agreeing with Prof Myers that we need sound statistical data , emprical facts before we start interpretation. A wonderful joining of scientific psychology and psychoanalytical depth !!

Plus I think there is something slightly wrong with statistics which is the factor of hope. If I were cancer I think the minute percent that recovered would be far more important for me then the big percentage of deaths.In fact it is the things that are not statistically "high percentage " that seperates us from eachother; I believe most of us have some properties that we are significantly away from the "statistically significant" (an otherwise very average person maybe a brilliant poet, artist, spotrtsman, engineer etc)and this is the MOST important thing that gives information about him / her.

And also I believe we need to differentiate "intuition" as mentioned in the book to many different things like instinct, inspiration, common sense, accumulated and therefore automated experience etc. (maybe awareness too) and must treat them as totally different things and must not even try to put them under the same name.