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No Two Alike: Human nature and human individuality by Judith Rich Harris Norton Reviewed by RITA CARTER This review first appeared in The Daily Mail WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? It’s not your upbringing that makes you what you are, nor your genes. Rather it’s the things that happen to you - often very tiny, random things. Hence even identical twins, raised together, may develop entirely different personalities simply because, as Harris puts it: “a neuron zigs rather than zags, one twin has a better position in the uterus, one twin falls down the stairs or contracts a virus…” Harris’s theory also accounts for how these little blips send personalities off on their different trajectories. The human brain, she contends, has three distinct systems: the “relationship system”, which work’s out who’s who in society, the “socialisation system” which works out what’s what, and the “status system” which works out what the person him/herself is like. The book describes how these systems interact to ensure that every human being is unique. SO WHAT'S NEW? No Two Alike follows Harris’s previous book, The Nurture Assumption, which challenged the old idea that children are moulded mainly by their home environment. She dissected mountains of studies to show that children’s characters are shaped more by their interactions with their peers than with their parents. The book got a big spin from the fact that it came from Harris – a disabled housewife on a mission - rather than an established academic with a grant. She was widely celebrated as a feisty little David who took on the Goliaths of academia at their own game, and triumphed. No Two Alike continues this heroic theme. “The little lady from New Jersey”, as Harris calls herself, is endlessly vanquishing academic heavyweights who seek to dismiss her work. Apart from being an outsider, their animosity, she suggests, is because her idea is shockingly, and subversively, original.. But is it? Harris claims to be offering an entirely new theory of personality. In fact it is new only in that it gives more weight than is usual to a certain type of environmental influence – small, random events. However, the potentially massive effect of such blips is already well recognised by brain scientists. They know only too well how a blood clot the size of a pinhead or even a single moment of terrible fear can utterly transform a person. The only places unenlightened by this are a few unswept corners of social science departments. The people Harris is battling with here are not Goliaths but dinosaurs. HOW READER-FRIENDLY IS IT? Harris presents the book as a sort of science-thriller, with herself as a detective probing the mystery of human individualism. The first few chapters deal with what she calls “red herrings” – the culprits, such as genes and family, which are usually held to account for our idiosyncrasies. The idea is to keep you hanging on for the denouement, but is more likely to have you jumping off before you get to the point. BOFFIN RATING Harris has none of the normal qualifications for writing such a book. In order to make sure it is taken seriously she has therefore worked far harder at it than you might expect of a person who has already secured readers’ confidence by a string of letters after their name and a fancy job description. If she says she has been through the figures, believe me, she has. © Rita Carter 2007 - www.ritacarter.co.uk |
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