This is an important, if somewhat defensive book. I would have been much more interested to read more about Kanzi's day to day behavior and to see some actual scientific data instead of the story of the investigator's scientific publishing woes. Nevertheless, this book should be read widely and it's message that we humans are not as unique as we like to think needs careful consideration by all scientists and the general population.

This wonderful book by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin forces the reader to reevaluate what it means to be human. Kanzi is a remarkable ape that has revolutionized our understanding of how our closest relatives think, how our common ancestors may have evolved, and why we may not be as different as once supposed. Roger and Sue's collaboration is very readable and conveys the excitement of Sue's scientific research and Kanzi's remarkable talents

Lewin's thesis is elegantly simple, far-reaching, and possibly inarguable: therapists have enormous potential to heal (and conversely, to destroy) and so must attend to the hard work of compassion, a "passion" which "depends upon being able to keep in mind an image of possible ways of being whole while meeting parts," and "is not about guilt but rather about self-examination and self-animation." Lewin defines it lucidly, variously and fully; his examples are well-chosen, thoughtfully presented, and interesting. He's obviously thought about this for years, and developed an embracing yet flexible stance. A polite rant against "our current infatuation with science and technology" seemed misplaced, though he included it in order to lobby for increased respect for nature. He's also opposed to pharmacological 'fixes' in favor of the obvious - though unaffordable for many - benefits of good long-term psychotherapy. He skewers brief therapies - convinvingly. Essays on evil, and contemporary problems such as homelessness and drugs' misuse are included. A humane and challenging approach; it requires of therapists soul-searching effort and personal transformation.

As a psychiatrist and psychotherapist myself I found Roger A. Lewin's book "Creative Collaboration in Psychotherapy" one of the most useful I have read about this topic. It is particularly illuminating of the depth and nature of serious psychopathology such as severe personality and "borderline psychotic" disorders. Dr. Lewin's chapter on Feeling Mocked was one of the most unique and apt depictions of the origins of early interpersonal disturbance that I have read--it clearly and accurately describes a phenomenon that I have seen many times in the office with highly disturbed patients but which I have never been able to understand this completely before. And having had extensive training in many different psychodynamic psychotherapeutic approaches, that speakes to the significance of Dr. Lewin's contribution. This book is well worth reading by anyone who works psychotherapeutically with the emotionally disturbed.

This is one of the most useful books written about bordeline personality disorder. The authors' humanistic approach to treating this severe personality disorder is commandable. This book describes in details the problems and difficulties that faces the patient in his/her daily life: "The aloness versus losing the self in fusion, the misuse of trasitional objects, the concreteness of mental functioning and much more...It also demonstrates the importance of Winnicott's holding notion to the patient's growth. And how holding renders the losing and fusing dangers more manageable". Not only that the authors demonstrate a great deal of understanding. But, they also assert that while comparisons and contrasts are for the sake of the client, a clinician should not lose sight of the uniqueness of each patient. This is a must read for the professional working with seriously disturbed patients.

Easy to read overview of key concepts in the origination of modern humans. The molecular biology and archeology supporting the out-of-Africa hypothesis versus the multiregional hypothesis are introduced. As well, the origins of human art and creativity and human language are discussed.

For tracing the evolution of the species, man, down from remote antiquity, this book has few peers. Richard has a flair for synthesis and obtaining and presenting the big picture, no doubt about that. He and others can even point to skeletal evidence of the first speech. We lack, however, any indication of how the fine mind and sensitive soul of the individual, Richard Leakey, arose from the unconscious and obedient tissue in which it finds itself, or what explanation is to be found there of the appreciation of origins. The Greeks said, "Know thyself", and Linnaeus took up the challenge by calling man sapiens, because he must be wise indeed who could know himself. The Leakeys inherited and espoused the challenge. More answers, Richard!

These authors have woven together a masterpiece that brings forth the importance of the new science of complexity in an understandable and practical way. They take us beyond where Margaret Wheatley invited us to ventured years ago, and support the importance of relationships as the basic unit of change.   While the book is intended for business readers, it has application to therapists and anyone who is interested in genuine relationships, mutual respect and creative emergence of new ideas.

I have read over two dozens books on complexity science and its applications to organizations of all types. Clearly, The Soul At Work is the best of those books. If you already know something about complexity science and its business applications and want to learn more or simply want to get started on the subject, this is the book you should read. Here's why. First, the authors are very fine writers. They also seem to have had outstanding editing. The book is by far the best written of any that I have read on this subject, and is among the best written of any business books I have read as well. This quality particularly shows up in clarifying ideas that can be hard to grasp (complexity science), explaining very interesting examples, and connecting the ideas to the examples in very useful ways. Second, most of the examples are fresh, so you will learn something new by reading these cases. Most business books choose the same examples over and over (do IBM and Coca-Cola seem familiar?), and it gets a little tiring for the reader. The one example in The Soul at Work that I was familiar with was Verifone, and the authors developed lots of new material there that substantially added to my understanding. Third, the cases have a lot of variety in them (as to type of organization, size of organization, the people profiled, the cultural background of the organization, and so forth) which provides a multidimensional perspective that is very helpful. Fourth, the authors successfully contrast their ideas with the humanistic approach to management and the engineering approach, which is a useful backdrop for understanding what they have to say. Anyone who does prefer the humanistic approach will like this book, and will get many new ideas for employing that direction. Fifth, and most importantly, the central theme of the book rings very true to me based on my over 30 years of consulting experience with organizations of all kinds. Trust-based relationships are an essential element of how organizations become more effective. Improve the trust, and any organization works better. The main reason is that trust helps overcome the stalls of poor communication, procrastination, bureaucracy, tradition, disbelief, and avoiding unattractiveness. Although others have made this point, The Soul at Work makes the point better. If you think about the new electronically-connected world, you can see that its main limitation is establishing trust before we can each feel comfortable extending ourselves and our connections in new directions. If you only read one business book this year, this is my recommendation. It's the best business book I have read since The Living Company by Arie de Geus.

This is the best business book I have read since Arie de Geus's, The Living Company. THE SOUL AT WORK is beautifully written, delightfully edited, and full of useful advice for how to benefit from complexity science in your organization. Many books on this subject are very turgid, focus mostly on explaining complexity science, and have few examples and little specific advice. If you only want to read one book on complexity science, this is the one for you. If you like a humanist approach to management (people come first), this is also a book you'll be glad you read. The authors do a very nice job of comparing the humanistic tradition in management and complexity science as bases for putting human relationships in the forefront of what needs to be accomplished. I especially enjoyed the many case histories of organizations applying complexity science, which included the thorns along with the roses. Only one case was familiar to me, that of Vodafone, and that one included a lot of material that I had not read or heard before. Obviously, a lot of careful research went into the work. The conclusion, that trust is essential, is one that other authors of books on complexity science agree with. I think the basis of that conclusion is explained better in this book. If I may expand on what the authors wrote, the reason that trust is so important is that it serves as a mediator to overcome the many sources of stalled progress in organizations. For example, trust helps straighten out miscommunications by encouraging dialogue rather than misinterpretation of motives, reduces misconceptions by increasing communications, softens the repugance that the ugly and repulsive can inspire (hiding us from what we need to focus on), assists in overcoming mindless following of traditional ways, inspires people to overcome procrastination, makes people open to new ideas which allows them to overcome disbelief about the new, and encourages flexible solutions that are normally stifled by bureaucratic processes. I hope the authors will write a sequel that has detailed directions about how to surpass the state of the art in using complexity science in organizations. I would read that book as well. I strongly urge you to read this book because its basic conclusions are very important for the type of virtual communications-driven organizations that will be everywhere in the future. You'll feel better about the new technology if you see, hear and feel how human relationships become even more important in this context. If you have friends or family members who are overwhelmed by the rate of change today, you should share this book with them as well.

I am a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara majoring in molecular biology and interested in evolution from a molecular point of view. Roger Lewin's book is an excellent introduction to how the techniques of molecular biology are being applied to ecology to expand our understanding of evolution. The book addresses several interesting topics and gives a history how some very important procedures for analyzing proteins and DNA (such as amino acid and DNA sequencing, hybridization, RFLPs, restriction enzyme mapping, etc.) are helping to answer many important questions. The book begins with an introduction into why a molecular approach to solving ecological problems was necessary, centering on some of the dead end arguments of strictly using morphology to construct "evolutionary trees". Lewin details how molecular techniques can be powerful and provide great insights into the debate over homology and analogy in ways that were not possible more than perhaps twenty years ago, but he also discusses the limitations of these techniques. The molecular "evolutionary clock" has a whole chapter devoted to the history of its development, and to the ways it's is being used today to shed light on old mysteries where it seemed as though morphology had offered all that it could. Sometimes the results of the molecular tests Lewin describes contrast sharply with what biologists have believed in the past about when species diverged (including man from what are now the great apes) to the taxonomic organization of whole groups of organisms. Over all I think this book is fascinating, informative and a great book for those who want to learn more about the information molecular analysis is providing to aid in our understanding of life on earth. I highly recommend it. I believe this book is appropriate for high school and college as perhaps a very interesting supplement to a textbook.

Clearly written introduction to modern topics in biological evolution. Phenetics and cladistics are explained and contrasted. The advantages of classification based on molecular methods versus morphological methods are similarly considered. The neutral mutation random drift hypothesis and molecular evolutionary clocks are explained fairly comprehensively, yet at a level suitable for the general reader. The reader is introduced to the basis of molecular techniques, eg, RFLP, PCR, etc. Molecular anthropology, ie, the application of molecular methods to resolve issues of when and where modern humans arose is considered in detail. As well, the new field of obtaining DNA samples from long-dead animal remains is presented.

As the dust raised by the Sociobiology debate is settling, you may wish to catch up on why this issue became so contentious. And why Sociobiology will arise as one of the most original ideas in modern biology. This book is a fine introduction to how the mechanisms of the genes work Lewin's outstanding reputation can only be enhanced by this description of gene analysis and function. He explains many facets of gene research with superb illustrations and sidebar text describing the various analytical techniques molecular biologists use to explain life's diversity and history.

Why are there so many forms of life? Textbooks abound with evolutionary 'trees' purporting to explain how life evolved from simple cells, lacking even a primitive nucleus through the complex creatures around us today. Most of these diagrams are fallacious, burdening our understanding with the idea that evolution is 'progressive'. Lewin's account, laced with more realistic graphics, show that all forms of life that once existed, still do in parallel with our own companions on this planet. This book does a superior job relating how molecular biology has enabled researchers to update the picture of humanity's place in the structure of nature. Lewin builds his picture of the human role slowly and carefully, but at the conclusion, you will find he's performed the task to near perfection. His description of the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis, for example, leaves you better informed on this idea than any other popular account.

His writing in this account achieves a level rather more elevated than his other books. BONES OF CONTENTION, or his books co-authored with Richard Leakey are definitely easier reading. The level of information here, however, is also far greater than offered in his other books. This book clearly displays his move from New Scientist to Science in its prose. That's not a criticism, but some readers may find this book more daunting than his others. Nevertheless, the information offered here is worthy of any reader's scrutiny. If you want to know what your DNA is up to and how science has figured out how to describe it, this is the book to have.

This book covers in details the exciting discovery of Turkana boy, a nearly complete junvenile H. erectus skeleton. Although a little limited in scope (look for other books for a good overview of the current state of human evolution) it does a great job of detailing the discovery and its significance. Leakey also does a good job of trying to peer into the minds of these primitive hominids, examining their intellect, speech, compassion, etc. in the last several chapters and what makes us who we are. This book however is more of description of the discovery than anything else, as shown by the considerable amount of space dedicated to the descriptions of the area and the sequence of events leading to the discovery and excavation. Overall a good book with some good anthropology in it and also an exciting depiction of the discovery.

Richard Leakey introduced millions to the evolution of humanity in his first "Origins", but over the years it had inevitably become outdated. This book is less dramatic but far more complete scientifically, and is an essential read for anyone who wants to keep up with our past. Moreover, where the first book tended toward philosophical speculation, in this one he builds theory on facts; where before he focused on his own views with little discussion of other researchers, in this one he quotes them with the dilligence of a reporter. Where the first book was often gramatically infuriating, this one has the polished language and clearly stated logic that make learning complex concepts seem effortless.

Best of all, this time he takes us along on the adventure of discovery. Leakey is no closeted academic; he can find food and water as the ancient hunter-gatherers did, with no modern tools, in what looks to the untrained eye like a dry wasteland. He understands the politics of the illegal ivory trade as well as the interpretation of fossils. He was not stopped in either his explorations of human origins or his quest to save African wildlife by years of kidney failure, near-fatal pneumonia, death threats from poachers, or even the loss of his legs in a plane crash. He covers the science in full detail, yet the reader has a sense of immediacy one never gets from the academic literature. We are parties to acrimonious debate and feel the thrill of pouncing on the apparent error of a rival. We spend months in the bush, and are immersed in a lifelong search that yields, after innumerable frustrations, to the occasional astonishing discovery.

There are a few shortcomings; Leakey glosses over some of the points he made eloquently in the first book which turned out, in retrospect, to be radically incorrect. The photographs, critical to understanding the discussion, are grouped together and hard to relate to the appropriate text, and the critical diagrams of the human evolutionary tree are small and difficult to read. But overall, the theory is so cogently explained, and the narrative has such a sense of realism, that we feel we could do it ourselves, flying over the Great Rift, sifting through ancient sand and rock, pushing back the frontiers of time to discover ourselves.

I found this book both enchanting and informative; not academic, but personal. This is probably the next best thing to sitting around a campfire on a dig, and listing to the shop talk about what's going on.

The reconstruction of social necessities from the fossil record is excellently done. The lesson regarding (the lack of) directed-ness in evolutionary trajectory should not be missed. The human evolutionary tree has become the evolutionary bush, with mostly dead branches. One might speculate on the fate of current primate relatives given the fate of Homo Neandertalensis, Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo Erectus, all existing when Homo Sapien emerged. Additionally, the example of persistent coevolution of related anatomic or ontogenetic phenotypic expressions such as lengthening childhood, larger mature female birth canals and expanding brain size represent evolutionary puzzles with more than a touch of mystery.

A big disappointment! Roger Lewin essentially provides a book report of the most significant controversies in paleoanthropological history with very little original insight. The result is a tedious review (especially the 78 pages discussing the KBS Tuft Controversy) of the seamy side of paleoanthropology. The recurrent theme is that of entrenched preconceptions - both professional and personnal - so dominating the actions of the foremost paleoanthropologists that they ignore the preponderence of evidence in favor of their own agendas. The book is replete with examples of the petty jealosies and egoism of the foremost names in paleoanthropology triumphing over a dedication for the search for the truth. With this book, Mr Lewin escapes the threat of becoming embroilled in the jealosies and controversies of other benchmark works as he provides nothing original to attack.

Lewin has undertaken a formidable task in relating the issues, personalities and technologies involved in tracing the path of human evolution. Dealing with such giants in the field of paleoanthropology as Mary and Richard Leakey, Don Johanson and others would be daunting to anyone lacking the confidence in his abilities. His aptitude is clear to the reader as he walks a tightrope in presenting the complex topics involved in this story. Nearly all the persona are still with us, and it's to Lewin's credit that he manages to compose this story without blackening anyone's reputation.

Tracing the line of our ancestors is becoming an increasingly involved process. From skimpy fossil records, scattered over remote locations around the globe, researchers are striving to understand which line depicts the path of our evolution and which branches have split off to expire without further contribution. Once the evidence lay with bones, how they were formed, changed, and contributed to resulting modern humans. Lewin recounts that the fossil record is no longer enough, and advanced technologies can tease out answers from the most subtle clue.

Lewin's account of Misia Landau's study of paleoanthropologists as perpetrators of "hero myths" is a splendid beginning. Because the basic issue is: "how did we become the way we are", then all the stories on human evolution begin at the end - today's human. The "big names" in the field each addressed this question with vigour. Each interpreted the evidence with force, but not always based on what the evidence warranted. It surely follows that "contention" is an inevitable result. There simply weren't enough fossils to realistically trace the human lineage.

Using Landau's ideas as a foundation, Lewin traces the history of thinking on human evolution through paleoanthropology's leading figures. From Raymond Dart's Taung Child through the Ramapithecus, Lewin depicts how many paths have been drawn of the human lineage by able workers. New evidence has forced constant revision. For years, the most notable revisionist was the Leakey family, Louis, Mary and Richard. The Leakey's finds kept urging the origins of humans into a remoter past. A very remote past. A past abruptly truncated by Don Johanson's find of Lucy, and by the introduction of new technologies.

Lewin takes us through the problems of dating fossils and tracing evolutionary paths with superior journalist's skill. Tracing elusive chemicals and microscopic tracks in rock crystals shouldn't make for heady reading. Lewin, following Landau, demonstrates how the science can be clouded by personalities and ambitions. The KBS Tuff chapters don't become mired in technology, but give the research a human, if not always pleasant, aspect. Lewin shows clearly how the controversies must be endured in order to present the clearest picture of how humanity evolved. This is a highly informative book, written from a fervent interest in the topic. You cannot help being drawn into the story.

This is science journalism near to its best, picking up the important themes in a way that educates even professionals in related fields (I'm a psychologist who writes about human evolution). Unlike anthropologists themselves -- probably the most fractious of academics I've ever met -- Lewin at least gives the appearance of trying to be fair to all the different positions. Of course he is politically correct and probably talks too much about the social context and people's motives but the main elements in the intellectual debates do come across. The discovery of Dart's australopithecene and its aftermath (traced forward for decades) was my favorite. A second favorite was the dethroning of ramapithecus when it was found that homanids only went back 5 million years rather than 15 million. Lucy's discovery is always good press and so is mitochondrial Eve. Too bad Lewin won't be treating us to a third edition in the near future for the field surely needs a good updating. Then I'd just love it if he turned his talents to my own area of research, the IQ controversy. But I doubt he would ever do that for that is much too dangerous territory for a liberal who wants to remain honest....