Vital Lies, Simple Truths The Psychology of Self-Deception
Rachel’s teaching style involves listening and asking questions. She enters a discussion having spent time on the assignment but with zero agenda: she’s interested in hearing people’s responses, playing with differences and similarities and enabling everyone to teach each other. One student described Rachel as “the one with the questions, not the answers.” The book author, Goleman, is a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence and leadership, as well as meditation. In this book he examines our proclivity for self-deception from many angles: personal, familial, social, political. Rachel taught this book decades ago in a college class on Evil that she had devised and has been applying its ideas ever since. She was fascinated and the students found it life-changing, as in “Now I get what’s going on!” It is not an easy read, but one that clarifies difficult concepts such as repression, anxiety and groupthink. Rachel's favorite chapter is called Secrets from the Self. Sign up today and order the book so you have it in time for the first session. The book is available at AbeBooks for under $10: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31492053287&searchurl=an%3Dgoleman%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dvital%2Blies%2Bsimple%2Btruths&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image1
Duration: 10 sessions. The Leader: Rachel Edelson, PhD., is a retired college English professor who created her own classes, to keep herself and the students engaged. She taught at Sacramento City College, in the Freshman Seminar Program at UC Davis and was Volunteer Clinical Faculty in the Dept of Psychiatry at UCD where she was awarded Teacher of the Year. Six years ago she received her PhD in Transformative Studies, a thrillingly transdisciplinary program, from the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. She currently leads two film discussion groups, one online and one in Berkeley at Belmont Village.