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J Child Fam Stud (2013) 22:582584 DOI 10.1007/s10826-012-9645-6
BOOK REVIEW
Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Random House, New York, 2012, 371 pp
S. E. James
Published online: 14 August 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Charles Duhigg has written an intelligent and fascinating book that is sure to peak the interest of anyone who has ever had a bad habit. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business goes far beyond how habits affect us in our personal lives and provides insight into how individuals and companies as diverse as sports gures to corporations succeed or fail, based on nothing more than habits.
The book contains nine chapters, divided into three parts. Part 1 looks at the habits of individuals, Part 2 at the habits of successful organizations and Part 3 at the habits of societies. The appendix is a helpful guide to using the ideas presented in the book.
Chapter 1 focuses on the story of a man named Eugene who was stricken with viral encephalitis and the extensive work of a memory scientist, Larry Squire, whose research included understanding the subconscious mechanisms that impact our many choices each day, choices that seem to be the product of thoughts but are actually inuenced by urges that we dont even recognize. Squire had been fortunate enough to work with a group of doctors that studied Henry Molaison, perhaps one of the most famous patients in medical history. H. M., as he was known throughout his life, had suffered from seizure disorders since the age of seven, and in desperation had agreed to brain surgery in 1953 at the age of 27. From then until his death in 2008,H. M. had no memory of anything that occurred after the surgery, but retained the memories from before the surgery. Squires studies of Eugene showed similarities to H. M.s case, and he began conducting experiments focused on the
formation of patterns within the deepest parts of the brain, including the basal ganglia. Internalizing patterns and acting on them, it seems, comes from the part of the brain that requires very little intelligent thought. Actions that we perform without even thinking...