The difficulty in reviewing anthologies, particularly when they're as wide ranging as this series, is capturing the flavour of each contribution. This was complicated by my finishing this a couple of weeks ago, after reading it over the space of a couple of weeks, and would have been better jotting notes contemporaneously.
Noteworthy contributions include the ever-rewarding Malcolm Gladwell (who is represented twice) on the failures of psychological sacred cows, in this case a damaging preoccupation with post-traumatic stress (nicely complemented by Jerome Groopman's critique of "critical incident stress debriefing" in the grief industry) and the cult of the personality test (complemented by Frederick Crews, an author new to me, who is as disenchanted with his topic, the shaky scientific evidence for Rorschach blots and their regular revival as a valid predictor of mental status).
Indeed many of the contributions centre around complementary themes - Natalie Angier discusses the conflict between faith and science, and criticises the scarcity of American scientists who are prepared to publically denounce faith-based concepts like attacks on evolution; and sceptic John Horgan contrasts his own belief-free attitude with that of his religious friends.
For me William Speed Weed wins the prize for most valuable essay about the number of bogus pseudo-scientific claims made to the average American in the average day, with an emphasis on how subtly and insidiously they're present and blindly accepted in almost every aspect of every day life, but every essay is an interesting, enlightening and worthwhile enterprise. - Alex
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