A new self-published book titled MIND: PSYCHOLOGY, THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW YOUR MIND WORKS is being promoted as a guide to the field's most important discoveries, including material its promoters say is left out of standard school textbooks. The 362-page, fully illustrated volume, measuring 7.5 by 9 inches, is listed for sale on Amazon and was highlighted in a blog post on the Bookstock Festival website.
The book's description frames its central argument around the idea that experience physically shapes the brain. It cites the release of adrenaline, cortisol and neurotransmitters in response to words, Hollywood horror movies, anxiety-producing thoughts and the shrieking of girls at the Salem witch trials. It also presents the claim that learning "hardwires" the brain for language, emotion, culture and sex, and that mind control is an everyday occurrence rather than an exceptional one.
The listing organizes the book into ten sections. These cover the origins of genius, which the publisher argues comes from the mind rather than the brain, along with the so-called Mind Code and the claim that the mind is programmed by its environment. Further sections address the nature versus nurture controversy, the origin of the individual, DNA and biological programs, the organization of knowledge into cognition and creativity, personality, and what intelligence really is. A closing section lists what it describes as 25 general principles applicable to a wide range of psychological experiences.
The description draws on quotations from several figures. It includes a line from the broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, described as the Dean of news, stating that "the obscure we see eventually, the completely obvious, it seems, takes longer." It also quotes Margaret Mead on the individuality of each person, and Michelangelo on the effort required to achieve mastery, which the listing presents as a reminder that talent is built through work. A section titled Cogito, ergo, cogito cogito plays on René Descartes' famous phrase, arguing that the ability to think has created the illusion that we do think, and it invites readers to test themselves.
The publisher's description also draws a comparison between psychology and physics, describing a "General Theory of Relativity" for the discipline and suggesting that understanding how the mind works could give people the potential to control their own minds, much as Einstein's understanding of the atom gave humanity the potential to control the atom. The text states that the field is far behind in that understanding. The examples it chooses range from kamikaze pilots and suicide bombers to celebrity, sex, tank-killing dogs and sacred cows, and a central section examines how the greatest minds in history made their discoveries, presented in their own words.
The listing is a promotional summary and does not include independent review, peer-reviewed citations or expert commentary on the book's claims. It provides no information about the author's academic affiliation or credentials, and the assertions about the brain and mind are not attributed in the material to specific studies, datasets or institutions. Readers seeking to verify the work's claims would need to consult the original research the book cites, which the listing does not identify.