Wiseman offers a nice collection of interesting studies which may be useful in everyday live. However, when it comes to theory it is basically unsound.
Wiseman promotes strongly the as-if principle, an idea going back on old W James. According to Schachter, he put it that way (p 143):
“Experiencing an emotion is a 2-step process. First, an event or thought causes your body to jump in action.…mehrWiseman offers a nice collection of interesting studies which may be useful in everyday live. However, when it comes to theory it is basically unsound.
Wiseman promotes strongly the as-if principle, an idea going back on old W James. According to Schachter, he put it that way (p 143): “Experiencing an emotion is a 2-step process. First, an event or thought causes your body to jump in action. Second, you then look around and try to work out what caused your body to act in this way.”
Behavior causes emotion, or, as James put it (p 18): “You see the bear, your body behaves by starting to run, and your brain decides I'm afraid.”
Well, to put it positive, reading the book is fun. Since there is a gorilla hidden all the way. However it seems that Wiseman didn't spot it. If you want to study several aspects of the mereological fallacy, this book in deed is a rich reading.
You can put the bear-thing the other way round: How can you make your brain think of a bear? Well, make your body run like hell, then your brain looks for a reason, thus its quite possible that the picture of a bear will pop up in your brain. Did you spot the gorilla?
Yes, as-if works. I initially wasn't motivated to read the book. So I decided to act as-if. I took a seat, opened the book and acted as-if I was reading, all the way. And the magic did happen: I'd read the book, voila!
Well, you may use the as-if principle as a therapeutic tool, but you should be aware that it is a complete conceptual nonsense. It's actually more the Nike principle that works: Just do it!
