Wiser: The Scientific Roots of Wisdom, Compassion, and What Makes Us Good

by Dilip Jeste, Scott LaFee

From the field's pioneer, an exploration of the neurobiology and psychology of wisdom : what science says it is and how to nurture it within yourself―at any stage of your life.

What exactly does it mean to be "wise?" And is it possible to grow and even accelerate its unfolding?

For over two decades, Dr. Dilip Jeste has led the search for the biological and cognitive roots of wisdom. What's emerged from his work is that wisdom is a very real and deeply multilayered set of traits.


Across many cultures and centuries, he's found that wise people are compassionate and empathetic, aware of their gifts and blind spots, open-minded, resolute and calm amid uncertainty, altruistic decision-makers who learn from their experiences, able to see from many perspectives and "altitudes," and often blessed with a sense of adventure and humor.

"The modern rise in suicides, opioid abuse, loneliness, and internet addiction is damaging people’s health and destroying the social fabric," Dr. Jeste reflects. But we all have the ability to nurture and grow every facet of wisdom to face these challenges and others more effectively.

If you seek to be a wiser person―with your family, at work, and in your community―this book will show you how, with the researcher who's launched and advanced this exciting new path to our highest human potential.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Self Help

336 pages, Hardcover

Published November 3, 2020

About the author

Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. is a geriatric neuropsychiatrist and public speaker, who specializes in successful aging as well as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in older adults. Jeste is Past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. This is a wide-ranging, scientific (or least research-based) tour of wisdom. It cover a lot of ground and written in a very friendly style. Readers can become a little wiser from reading this, but I'm not sure that's the primary goal of the book. Recommended for those in a no-nonsense approach to the topic.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

[Paul Bard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 10 summarises each chapters tips, directives, and exercises in a digestible form.

It's based in solid science and fairly helpful depending on where you're at.

I can't help but think that in such a very long book only people with considerable skill in these areas will bother to read it. Where's the book on wisdom for fools, that's short, has pictures, music, and cartoons? Where's the book for kids?

But chapter 10 is a good workaday summary for people to remind themselves of what they may need to restart, anyway.

[Laura Gibbons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going lie, I'm not sure about this book. Parts of it were really interesting, parts were extreemly dull and some questionable as to whether not it's a tiny bit ableist. The author seems to have a bit of a bias around medicating for mental illnesses. It's not as though he says not to, but particularly when discussing ADHD medications the information given was misleading. I was hoping he would go on to talk about more than just how student use Ritalin to get better grades but he didn't. He pretty much just said it has bad side effects and questioned the morality of a medicine that makes people smarter. I feel this is misleading and unbalanced, he didn't discuss at all how when ADHD medications are used correctly for those with ADHD it returns their brains to baseline, doesn't enhance them over other people and that someone with ADHD taking medication has a 13 year additional number of years to live extra than someone who has ADHD and who doesn't take medication. I felt like it focused a lot on people who misuse medication and doing so develop addiction, or on people who take this drug recreationally when they don't need to be i.e. they don't have ADHD. Considering how up to date this book is with regards to having info about COVID, I'd have expected a better overarching view. I also feel as though he misses the point entirely when discussing happiness levels in different countries and doesn't really go into detail about the wider social issues. The problem is when we start to try to quantify something subjective like wisdom using science and studies, the people investigating it and studying it have their own biases. I feel as though anything that western medicine tries to define that is subjective, usually falls short and gives only one version. The same way the IQ test doesn't assess other factors of intelligence, I don't feel like wisdom can be assessed and defined in the way the author tries to. There also was a general feeling that you are unable to be wise if you have an illness that effects your brains ability to regulate emotions. Which is a lot of mental illnesses. But actually from having my own loved experiences and knowing others in the community with similar mental disabilities they are often more wise than the population. You have a lot of time to reflect when you're unwell, and I just feel like this book missed the mark a bit.

[Zoë Routh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook version. A very thorough, easy to listen to/ read book on the awesome topic of wisdom. The upshot: wisdom is a combination of pro-social behaviours including compassion, emotional self regulation, decision-making, self awareness, open to new experiences, openness to changing one’s opinion.

I did laugh a little when all the recommended activities to develop wisdom were straight out of life coaching 101: meditation, mindfulness, journaling, reflection on your emotions and thoughts, loving kindness meditation, reading fiction /watching movies.

Still, a great book highlighting a lot of research into the efficacy of these practices. The authors also refer to a free assessment you can take that gauges your own current rate of wisdom.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but the subtitle is misleading.

Dilip doesn't really reveal the "scientific roots" of wisdom. Instead, this book is more about the "scientific study" of wisdom.

It goes into how wisdom can be defined, measured and developed from the viewpoint of science.

Unfortunately, reading this book won't make you wiser but it does give clues as to how you can be!

[Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My therapist assigned me this book (not sure what to make of that 😐). I found many of the “discoveries” to fall into the “duh - we didn’t need a peer reviewed study to tell us that.” (Like wisdom is correlated with age.) I did find breaking down the amorphous concept of wisdom into concrete principles helpful, and there are some good tips on daily practices to increase wisdom. I didn’t need a whole book on this subject, but I also wasn’t mad that I read it.

[Tonya Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I want it under my skin and to roll around in it. Reading fiction, though suggested, isn’t nearly half as exciting as this stuff!

[Duck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes on two related but universal questions: What is wisdom and how does one become wise(r)? Philosophers have long pondered, but it's science that is coming up with answers. Jeste and LaFee do a fine job of parsing the science of wisdom, which has a biological basis, and explaining the research that shows wisdom can be consciously developed and accelerated. It's not just a case of living long enough to know better.
A solid, informative, thoughtful read--and the science, though complicated, is easy to understand.

[Cara L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

[Sara Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

在中文書目出現前，先記錄心得。
這本書雖然以「智慧」為切入視角，顯得跟其他神經科學的書不太一樣，但其實這本書把智慧的組成成分解構，逐一分析人的各種特質與腦部的關聯時，反而讀起來像一本基礎的、入門的神經科學與感知的介紹書。
如果以前有看過類似主題的書，這本書顯得太單薄、重複性太高，完全可以略過；如果要透過這本書作為第一次了解神經科學與感知的入門書籍，我會推薦！

[DonutKnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biggest takeaway at the end: loneliness is growing epidemic that kills. Becoming wiser can reduce the risk of loneliness in the pursuit of things that expand your brain and life experiences. 💪

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. Clearly delivered audiobook narration by UK voice actor Roger May. Really interesting content supported by lots of studies and examples. Chapters divided up the content well but I needed some hooks/mnemonics or frequent repetition of the main concepts in sequence to get them really clear in my head. Probably worth another listen in my case.

[Lyndsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy it. But it wasn’t what I was expecting.