Presence

 

Book, 2015

 

Premise - Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist from Harvard University and survivor of a traumatic brain injury, writes both about her personal experiences and her scientific research on the concept of "presence", or living presently within the moment. Living with "presence" can help us be bolder, more confident, and more powerful, as a defense against the imposter syndrome that many competent people struggle with in their personal and professional lives.

 

Review - I was recommended this book as an aid to fighting my way through graduate school, which is so frequently clouded by feelings of imposter syndrome and feeling incapable, despite our literal competency. With the title alone, I was intrigued by what I assumed would be a book about mindfulness, staying in the present moment, and calming anxiety. In some respects, this was what I got, but this was far more of a Industrial/Organizational Psychology text than expected - by that I mean the lens of the book was told through that of boosting job and school performance rather than an overall sense of well-being. I found the language to be incredibly capitalistic, productivity- and performance oriented, and more aimed at an audience of, say, business students than social workers like myself. While I found some of the concepts to be transferable to my own professional life, the traditional "success" mindset was wildly off-putting and distracted me from so much of the psychological message of the text. Even more mindfulness-oriented recommendations such as yoga and meditation were explained through a very Western, empirical mindset related to how the scientific evidence shows it improves performance. The other more spiritual or emotional benefits were ignored.

 

The book was very obviously written by a social psychologist. I took a social psychology class in college, and what distinguishes it from a more broad sociological approach is the very narrow methodology of controlled experiment after controlled experiment after controlled experiment. Social psychology is all about evening the playing field in a very experimental environment and manipulating very particular things to see how people generally respond. It tends to universalize people rather than see their natural differences in a real-world setting. And, therefore, I've become a bit wary of the social psychology approach as well for what I sometimes see as a lack of nuance. This book spent many, MANY pages describing its controlled experiments in profound detail, more than I cared to know. Though, at the same time, admittedly the evidence-based nature of the concept of "presence" did appeal to me. The psychological points made seemed less refutable and more trustworthy when backed up with science, even if I saw that science as being somewhat limited.

The overall takeaway of "presence," which I really do believe in, respect, and appreciate, is understanding the mind-body connection. I am in 100% agreement that the most powerful influence on the body is the mind, and the most powerful influence on the mind is the body, as they truly are one and the same. I felt as though this could have been explained in a lot less time and pages. The entirety of the book was based on the success of the author's Ted Talk and, truthfully, the Ted Talk alone may get the whole of the concept across already. If your body is in a powerful pose - your mind becomes more confident. Sit and stand up straight (like Wonder Woman), take control of your space, and find your personal power from within the body. The rest of the book just explains the experiments behind it, and also gives the author a lot of space for self-congratulatory words about how much her work has impacted her viewers and readers.

I'm bashing on this book but I have incredible respect for the author who survived a traumatic brain injury at nineteen, had to drop out of college, and found the courage and strength to finish her degree and ultimately become a professor at Harvard, despite a profound lack of confidence in her own intelligence after the accident. A lot of what she explains about imposter syndrome is that it shows up in people who are genuinely competent in what they feel they are an imposter for. What that means is standing in a "power pose" isn't going to magically give someone the competence - they have the competence already. Power posing is what eliminates the imposter sensation so the competence can shine through. It's a very motivational message that, as the readers of this book, we are hard workers and do have it within us to accomplish what we wish to. (42/100)

Quote - “You never figure out how to write a novel; you just learn how to write the novel that you’re on."

 

What to read for - Again, I am most appreciative of the explanation of the body-mind connection and how to manipulate your body to improve your power. I'm also a big yoga fan so I appreciated the acknowledgment of its benefits.

 

Written by Amy Cuddy

Published by Little, Brown & Co