Visiting Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

(n/a)

"McCabe has given us a wise and timely book that applies cutting edge thinking from perceptual psychology and from the analysis of complex natural systems to many contemporary social problems. The work is both fascinating in its presentation and important in its implications." - Harry Heft, Professor, Psychology Department, Denison University

"Reality, we generally think, is a simple thing, and yet, different people constantly come up with conflicting and often troublesome views. Viki McCabe offers an important, thoughtful and thought-provoking perspective on why this happens and what we might do about it. Enhance your reality, and give it a read!" - David P. Barash, Professor, Psychology Department, University of Washington, author of Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature.

"A wonderful read that clarifies the role of perception, information and complex systems in understanding and dealing with world problems." - Reuben M. Baron, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist, Department of Psychology, The University of Connecticut

"Viki McCabe breaks boundaries by writing a book that expands our awareness of complex systems on which our health and survival depend. She directs us to trust the intelligence of our senses as a path away from illusory theories and the damage that they wreak. Rarely is a book so compelling and significant in its message as well as its structure. People of all professions need to hear and heed this book's message." - Louise Chawla, Professor, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado

"How do we know the world? A conventionally obvious answer is we break it down into component parts and produce theories to explain their mechanisms. McCabe's bold and captivating book maintains that this answer is dead wrong. Drawing from exhilarating diverse examples, from natural disasters to the Wall Street crash, from face recognition to fractal patterns, from cognitive science to criminology, McCabe argues that our analytic reason and mental abstractions not only obscure the greater part of our creaturely capacities-our direct perceptions and intuitions--but have contributed to the social and ecological emergencies we confront today. Written with wit and urgent clarity, Coming to Our Senses is at once a well-supported thesis and a welcome voice in the wilderness. Natalie Melas, Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature, Cornell University, and author of All the Difference in the World: Postcoloniality and the Ends of Comparison

"McCabe offers rich observations [... and] provides chilling illustrations [that] scientific theories are closer to direct perception." -Arlene Walker-Andrews, Science Magazine

"This beautifully written, persuasively documented book seems to call for a sequel in which McCabe would show how our culture might look if we began to take seriously the task of imitating nature's processes instead of imposing our own." --American Scholar

"One of the great strengths of McCabe's book is the synthesis of research from fields as diverse as cognitive psychology, perceptual psychology, physics, mathematics, neuroscience, complex systems, evolutionary biology, developmental systems theory, and movement science, among others. One of McCabe's strengths as a writer is making this diverse body of knowledge accessible to expert and layperson alike by illustrating concepts by means of vignettes. In addition, McCabe has a knack for explaining a complex concept in a down-to-earth way without compromising or misrepresenting the science. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the research presented, the radical (yet likely correct) argument being presented, the critical and far-reaching implications of that thesis, and McCabe's strengths as a writer, Coming to Our Senses: Perceiving Complexity to Avoid Catastrophes is worth reading by experts and laypeople alike." --Jeffrey B. Wagman, PsycCRITIQUES

"Coming To Our Senses is an important book that delivers its promised message on the importance of 'perceiving complexity to avoid catastrophes' quite well. The book is very well written: the author weaves a complex web of skillfully interconnected tales in which the recurrent theme is that failure to perceive complexity leads to disasters on a multitude of levels and circumstances. The book serves as a warning for practitioners, scientists, and lay people on the use and misuse of knowledge. I find the book entertaining and very well-written." --Ittay Weiss, Mathematical Association of America