I intuitively agree with [a:Arthur Koestler|17219|Arthur Koestler|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s organization of psychological, individual and sociological units into 'holons' which appear unified from one direction and distributed into separate pieces from the other.

I also agree with his summation that the integrative tendencies of man have, though necessary, produced far more upset in this world than the self-assertive tendencies of individuals.

The book is dated, so there are debatable assumptions that stem from eurocentrism, the continued existeance of the cold-war focus, and the idea that man's flows are an operational flaw can be 'fixed.' with some kind of technique or technology. While these may colour his conclusions they do not lessen the use of the intermediate model of behavior he constructs for descriptive (and not prescriptive) purposes. ( )

Mind...blown. Definitely a little dated, but still an amazing interdisciplinary work that takes an in depth look at the human condition as well as speculating at humanity's future. Though coloured by the heightened fear of nuclear armageddon which was prevalent at the time, this does not devalue the disconcerting logic of the chilling theorism on display in the book's third part. ( )

The Lay-Person’s: this book is incredible. It is fascinating, thought provoking, intriguing, and – from a perspective at the end of 2015 – the most frightening thing I have ever read.
I will admit that the content is dated; that the idea of mass psychopharmaceuticals (potentially in the drinking water) has a definite 1960’s feel. But removing suggestions that would have been perfectly natural during the 1960s counter-culture revolution, the rest is eye opening to say the least.
Most reviewers agree that the first ¾ of this book is solid. The research is fabulous; it is presented in a reader-friendly manner. I am not sure if I agree with the basic premise that the problems human beings face are related to the physical speed of our brain growth – but an hypothesis is simply an unproven idea; with this in mind, it is a plausible argument as presented in this book.
The part that had me reevaluating the way I see humanity was the end (just before the “cure” of mass doses of LSD). At this point, with the help of many other authors, Koestler predicts our current societal situations. Koestler explains why Trump has followers, why so many people want to carry guns everywhere they go, the flood of refugees around the world, Russian aggression in the Crimea, even the root causes of terrorism. I do not believe I would have been so moved by this book 10 years ago. Today though – it is a frightening reality check – and it does not look good for our species. ( )

Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine is offered as a somewhat downbeat counterpart to his immediately previous book The Act of Creation, which I have not read. It is, however, startlingly similar to Gregory Bateson's Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. Although Bateson is putatively the more scientifically highbrow of the two authors, Koestler covers almost all of the ground that Bateson does with respect to systems theory, morphogenesis, and evolution, but provides much additional reflection on psychology and politics. Also, Koestler's style is more accessible. Where Bateson offers a generalization of Russell's theory of logical types to discuss interrelationships among systems, Koestler uses the hoarier and more approachable nomenclature of hierarchy. Koestler is also considerate enough to provide a few paragraphs of review at the end of each chapter.

In this book, the author sets out to antagonize the mechanistic paradigm of science, and in particular its expression in psychology's behaviorist school and its progeny. He offers in contrast his theory of "Open Hierarchical Systems" (O.H.S.), which he also codifies in an appendix. He also discusses the importance of what he calls paedomorphosis (163 ff), which commends itself particularly to the attention of those who recognize the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child. There is even a convenient iconic encoding of the O.H.S. concepts: "the tree, the candle and the helmsman,... the two faces of Janus ... and the mathematical symbol of the infinite" (220-1).

The final section of the book is certainly the most provocative. In some ways, it is rather dated, having been written in the throes of the Cold War. But the predicaments that Koestler tries to address -- the age-old patterns of human societies regressing into repressive ignorance and tribal conflicts superseding human identity, along with the anxieties of today's "air-conditioned nightmare" (327) and the approach of human populations and power to a vertical asymptote (the latterly-dubbed "singularity") -- have hardly been resolved. He suggests that these may be symptoms of defective neuroanatomy, and rather than allowing our species to be scrapped so that some other post-primate might develop a more coordinated brain and more enduring societies, he proposes that humans should develop and apply the psychopharmacopoeia needed to produce homo sapiens from homo maniacus (339).

In that conclusion, he ends up pitting himself against Aldous Huxley, but the conflict between their respective pharmacological futurisms is not nearly as clear-cut as Koestler seems to make it out to be. "The psycho-pharmacist cannot add to the faculties of the brain -- but he can, at best eliminate obstructions and blockages which impede their proper use," writes Koestler (335). I'm not sure that Huxley would disagree. Koestler dismisses "mystic insights" as being alien to the human psychic constitution, rather than the product of its proper exercise. I suppose Koestler would be disappointed to find that 21st-century psychiatry has indeed greatly developed psychopharmacology, but with an emphasis on individual pathologies still rooted in a mechanistic behaviorism in organicist drag.

In any case, I enjoyed this book at least as much on a second reading, even as it has become more dated. It made an excellent sequel to my re-read of the Bateson volume, and the next title in this eccentric curriculum will be a jump forward to Jeremy Narby's The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.

Koestler begins by disparaging the idiocy of Behaviorist psychology, which views humans as nothing more than large rats or pigeons, condemned to mechanically responding to stimuli unthinkingly. He then looks at evolution in general, and then at the evolution of the brain. Through it all he utilizes a new theory of his devising centered on "holons," which are simultaneously parts and wholes. ( )