A good book and self help guide to help focus you on your path. Lots of ideas and tips.

Very good insight on why we crave this and meditation. I found the book to be very informative and interesting. Know I understand better why I crave certain things and possible ways to not lean into these cravings. I would recommend this book for anyone that wonders how the mind thinks. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

THE CRAVING MIND by Judson Brewer deals with a high interest topic for our students and faculty. Just recently, we were circulating a New York Times article which dealt with addiction ("Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs with Smartphones?"). Brewer is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has studied addictions (Trigger. Behavior. Reward.) for two decades in addition to pioneering work on mindfulness. He subtitles the text "From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits." Chapters cover the dopamine hit and discuss various addictions (to technology, ourselves, distraction, etc.), concentration, flow, and resilience. Published by Yale University Press, this scholarly work is completely indexed and filled with references. It includes a Mindfulness Personality Type survey also available online through the University of Massachusetts. Much to ponder here. And it fits well with the recent FAN speaker (Family Action Network) Adam Alter, who wrote Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked.

Live links in post:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/health/teenagers-drugs-smartphones.html
http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/research/behavioral-tendencies-questionnaire/

I enjoyed reading this book. However, it didn't live up to my expectations when I read the title. I expected practical advice on how to overcome addictions. I was also a little surprised that it was based on Buddhist teaching, I didn't get that from the description. But if you keep these things in mind and you know what to expect, you can enjoy this book.

I really liked the first half where Brewer explains different types of addiction. he also presents many studies conducted by him and others on how addictions work, what happens in the brain of an addict and how these processes are similar or even the same that happen when other things happen that we wouldn't consider "unhealthy" or "an addiction". It was very interesting to read about his studies about the effects of meditation. There are also many figures included that illustrate his explanations.

In the second half of the book the focus shifted from the studies and the theoretical background towards his personal experience with mediation and how he developed his mindfulness training. It was still interesting, however, I would have preferred to learn about more about what mindfulness actually is and how it works. This part of the book reads more like his biography than anything else. It was also hard for me to see the connection between his personal experience and why he thought that mindfulness training would cure addictions. I don't think that the examples were well-chosen. In addition, I was also a little confused why he analysed a novel (Walden Two) to give advice on how to overcome addictions... Brewer's style was easily accessible. At some points I found his explanations and models too simple or superficial.

I would have preferred that Brewer hadn't mixed his personal story with literary interpretation, studies and Buddhism. He should have either elaborated on the connections between all this or focused on one or two of these things. Perhaps it would have been better if he had included some examples from his mindfulness training.

As I said in the beginning, I still enjoyed reading the book, especially the first half. It was nice to learn about what happens in the brain during meditation and how our mind tends to wander and what one can do about it. I also didn't know a lot about Buddhism, so I learned some new things about that religion, too. If you're interested in these two topics, I would recommend this book to you.

But if you're looking for help to cure your addiction, I would not recomment this book to you.