The Mechanism of Mind / New Think

Thinking is the skill which makes all other human accomplishments possible. Man, as Ayn Rand has pointed out, “cannot dig a ditch—or build a cyclotron—without a knowledge of his aim and of the means to achieve it. To remain alive, he must think.” In light of this fact, one might suppose that the theory and practice of thinking would be the primary concern of educators and of those who seek to advance human knowledge. But such is not the case. Though systematic treatments of the subject date back at least as far as 1916 (when Hazlitt’s Thinking As A Science was originally published), it is only in the last few years that any very substantial number of writers have directed their attention to the field and begun to make solid contributions. One might say that books on thinking are few in number and marginal in quality.

Exciting exceptions to this “rule of the few and the marginal,” however, are Cambridge University psychologist and physician Edward de Bono’s two important books on thinking published in the last five years, New Think and The Mechanism of Mind.

The Mechanism of Mind, though it is the more recent of the two, is also the more basic and should be read first. In this book, de Bono concerns himself with the mind itself—more specifically with its nature as a physical system with a mechanical way of working. Because the brain, qua physical system, is what it is, because it possesses identity, it can only interact with the rest of the world in certain specific ways. And, as de Bono points out, some of these ways leave something to be desired as means to our cognitive ends. Do you ever notice a difficulty in sticking to the subject? Find yourself moving, by process of association, to another idea only tangentially related to the original one? Struggle to follow a perfectly logical course of thought, free from associational digressions? De Bono argues that, for physical reasons, the mind finds it equally easy to move from idea to idea by either associational or functional paths. Do you ever find yourself going over the same mental territory again and again in search of a solution to a new kind of problem? De Bono argues that, for physical reasons, the mind tends to fall into a rut and maintain a constant perspective, even in the face of problems which demand a fresh one.

Knowing such facts about our minds can make us more aware of our own limitations and make it possible for us to take these limitations into account in the volitional control of our thinking. De Bono regards logic as an example of such a taking-into-account of the physical limitations of the mind. By specifying the nature of those connections between ideas which serve our cognitive purposes, we can avoid the natural tendency of the brain to follow associational connections as indiscriminately as it follows functional ones. So we invent logic as a means of taking into account one limitation of the mind. In response to another limitation, the tendency of the mind to retain old perspectives even in the face of new problems, we invent lateral thinking, a systematic approach to the generation of new ideas.

Or, rather, de Bono invents lateral thinking. For this is the subject of his earlier book, New Think. With the account of the brain and of cognition presented in The Mechanism of Mind as a frame-of-reference, New Think elaborates the techniques which can be used to create new ideas—new theories in the sciences, new inventions in the technical fields, new styles and subjects in the arts. De Bono begins by explaining how we come by the concepts and theories we already have, then identifies the methods of breaking free from those concepts and theories to find new ones for new purposes.

One of the most refreshing aspects of both these works is the extent to which de Bono makes his arguments and conclusions concretely real. His theory of the mind’s physical operation in The Mechanism of Mind is amply illustrated with simple physical models; his explanation of concept and theory formation in New Think is elaborated with the aid of drawings; and his explanation of the methodology of lateral thinking is seeded with examples from scientific history. De Bono is convinced that thinking is something real human beings have to do in the real world for real reasons, and he takes care to present his theoretical and practical speculations on thinking with an eye to the concrete nature of the reality to which they apply.

Reviewed by Jeff Riggenbach / Psychology / The Mechanism of Mind, (275 pages, indexed) BFL Price $5.95 / New Think, (156 pages) BFL Price $5.95