The Mature Mind by Harry Allen OverstreetMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
What kind of book is this?
This is an expository work of theoretical nature.
Rational & Why I read this book
My reasons were twofold: (1) 2021 is my year of ratio & will. I try to read various books on rationality, discipline, and the mind in general. (2) The topic of "maturity" is a highly relevant one in personal growth, a topic very dear to me.
The unity of the book — what is the book about as a whole?
Existing psychological insights at the time (conditioning, psychological age, arrested development, aptitude uniqueness, and the capacity of the adult brain to learn) are brought together into what the author calls the "maturity concept". Maturity refers to the growth of the mind. Just like the body needs to be fostered with nutritious food in order to grow, the mind needs certain input, certain impulses to mature. Otherwise, people end up with grown-up "child-minds". How to avoid that and the implications of these insights on society, education, politics, ... are explored.
The book's structure
The book has two parts.
In the first part, the author explains his maturity concept:
1. Psychological Foundations
2. Criteria of Maturity
3. Two old theories and a new one
4. Mature insights lost on immature minds
In the second part he elaborates on how this concept fits in with the "forces that shape us":
5. A heritage of contradictions
6. Applied maturity: a test case
7. Economics for human fulfillment
8. The play of politics on the mind
9. What we read, see, and hear
10. The home as a place for growing
11. Education: a question mark
12. Toward religious maturity
13. What we ourselves can do
One particular lesson
One passage from the book when he talks about the negative effects of radio on our maturity (remember, it is 1949): "One mark of the psychological growth of the human being, from infancy through childhood and into adulthood, is the lengthening of the attention span. The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks to follow through. ... Whatever other influences it may exert for our maturing, radio is on the side of lifelong immaturity in the constant invitation it offers us to develop hopscotch minds."
I wonder what he would have to say about social media and smartphones in today's world...
Judgement & Recommendations - Who should read this?
There is a reason this was a substantial best-seller that sold over 500,000 copies back in the 50s. What Overstreet writes is smart, concise and deeply needed to be heard by people; now — 70 years later — more than ever. I will have to give it a second, deeper reading, to get even more out of it. I will also look in Overstreet other books. I appoint this a 9 out of 10 (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) on my personal rating scale and recommend it to anyone who can get hold of a copy.
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