Mitch Olson

The key to polyself & identity-based therapies is building relationship with one's selves or what IFS calls “parts”. This is a non-trivial process because you have to reify them into existence. This book bizarrely bypasses the nuances of this critical step.

I first read this book 30 years & loved it. The basic premise of the book is the comparison of the culture & values & practices of modern humankind, which he calls the “takers” (as in the orientation to take things) vs the pre-agrarian hunter-gathers who he calls the “leavers”. Its an interesting comparison of cultures and on modern-day culture which leaves you feeling like we lost something important of our humanity along the way. But this time through I got a bit bored of the preachy tone & slowness & lack of actionable advice. I've still given it 4 stars which is more than it deserves in 2023 I think but congrats to the author on its overall conception & narrative which is good.

A guy builds an audience. Someone suggests he writes a book to extract the most money possible from that asset. He looks for an angle to write that book from. This is it. More exploration than authentic or educational. Give it a wide berth. Feels exploitative.

Fluffy

So slow and highly diluted of plot or meaning.