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Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 268 ratings · 33 reviews

The celebrated author explores new ways to view ourselves and the society we live in, and gives us fresh answers to such enduring questions as how to think for ourselves and understand what we know.

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Published October 14th 1987 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 1986)

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Apr 04, 2012 Venus added it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, socieology

من زمان زیادی را صرف تأمل در این باره می‌کنم که ما در نظر مردمان پس از خود چگونه جلوه خواهیم کرد.
این دلبستگی بیهوده‌ای نیست، بلکه تلاشی است سنجیده برای تقویت قدرت آن... «چشم دیگر» که می‌توانیم برای داوری درباره خود به کار بگیریم. هر کسی که تاریخ بخواند می‌داند که باورهای پر شور و قدرتمند یک قرن معمولاً در قرن بعد پوچ و غیرعادی جلوه می‌کند. هیچ دوره‌ای از تاریخ نیست که در نظر ما همان‌گونه باشد که قاعدتاً در نظر مردمی که در آن می‌زیسته‌اند بوده است. آنچه ما، در هر عصری، از سر می‌گذرانیم تأثیر احس...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, philosophy, social-theory

I wonder what I would have made of this series of lectures if I had listened to them when they were given in 1985 – at a time when I was one of the young people Lessing refers to here, one assured of certain certainties. My best guess is that I would have rejected her as a reactionary. Now virtually everything she says seems to be self-evidently the case.

When we are young we believe we can change the world – we look about ourselves and see that the world is dysfunctional and we believe that we c...more I wonder what I would have made of this series of lectures if I had listened to them when they were given in 1985 – at a time when I was one of the young people Lessing refers to here, one assured of certain certainties. My best guess is that I would have rejected her as a reactionary. Now virtually everything she says seems to be self-evidently the case.

When we are young we believe we can change the world – we look about ourselves and see that the world is dysfunctional and we believe that we can be agents of change, agents that will make everything be all right. Lessing does sometimes patronise those who still believe this, but it is a bitter kind of patronising, one born of her having been there before and knowing that the kind of change the young often seek is all too often to do with naivety than fresh insight.

Perhaps the thing that resonated most with me in this series of lectures was the idea that yesterday’s subversive idea is today’s orthodoxy and will inevitably become tomorrow’s reactionary nonsense. We often cling to the hope that we can leave a permanent mark on the universe, but everything about us is temporary and destined to perish. I heard someone say that the most horrible thing about the prospect of living for 100 years isn’t so much that everyone you know will be dead, but that all of the ideas that you were brought up believing as the cornerstones of your very being will probably have so altered as to be unrecognisable. We are all born to become anachronisms if only we live long enough, possibly even drooling in a corner in some hideous nursing home watching whatever will pass for television having effectively died mentally a decade or more before.

I’m making these talks sound much more negative than they actually are – the point of them, I think, is to stress the bad news first before offering some chance at hope. The bad news is that we humans are social animals and far too ready to be swept along by group think. She makes some lovely points around psychological experiments that have been conducted over the years and that show we are all too likely to act in ways that are morally objectionable. We are far too quick at behave like prisoners or prison guards if assigned either of those roles, far too quick to turn up the voltage if instructed to do so despite the nightmare inducing screams coming from the further room. When we are young we think we will be different. Then we ignore the errors and traps we, as a species, invariably fall into. We never pay attention when told that if we are teachers we will treat boys differently to how we treat girls, that we will treat people of colour differently (in both cases, that is, less favourably) than we will treat white people. We can know the statistics, but still not believe we are capable of such discrimination.

The world is populated by people who will do whatever they can to get you to think in the same narrow, shallow and simpleminded way they do. Avoiding thinking like everyone else is a constant struggle the vast majority of us give up fighting. However, if you do plan to be different you should learn from those who were different that came before you and recognise that their fate could so easily be your fate – people like Socrates, Jesus, Martin Luther King.

How different are you prepared to be? How will you know when you’ve given up the struggle to be yourself? You see, conformity has rewards – so many rewards that a reasonable rule of thumb is that if you can feel yourself being rewarded your first guess should be to consider that you have probably sold out.

The lesson here isn’t so much to become an individual – that is merely a consequence of the real lesson, which is to be reflective. That is to be reflective of your own behaviour and of the behaviour of those around you. Not necessarily judgemental (though, it is probably impossible to avoid that particularly all-too-human little trap) but reflective and, if you can possibly manage it, forgiving – of yourself as much as of others.

There is a nice line at the end of this to the effect that so much of what is valued in modern society is about techniques and technologies – and by definition these are temporary and transitory skills and abilities. How many video player repairmen are making a living today? But the sad fact is that perhaps the questions that aren’t temporary, the great philosophical questions, that they have possibly never been further from being answered because we have either lost all faith in the answers or we have accepted some hideously simpleminded ‘solution’ to the unbearable complexity of life. It is hard not to feel some sympathy for those who find and cling to simple answers, particularly when the complex answers are not really answers at all.

If this series of lectures does one thing, and one thing exceptionally well, it does get you thinking about the dank cells we lock ourselves away in. It is a good thing to be reminded regularly that mind-forged manacles are no less restricting than those forged in iron.
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Sep 22, 2010 Abbi Dion added it

[On Irony]
Well--the pleasures of irony, one sometimes has to think, are the only consolation when contemplating the human story…

[On the Comfort of the Group and the Odiousness of the Group]
It means that if you are a member of a close-knit community, you know you differ from this community's ideas at the risk of being seen as a no-goodnik, a criminal, an evil-doer. This is an absolutely automatic process…But there is always the minority who do not, and it seems to me that our future, the future o...more

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Oct 12, 2010 tamarack rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

lessing's massey lectures (read by herself) and the added tracks of dramatized readings of her work made for some really good radio listening (these are archives of CBC's ideas from the mid-80s). lessing in an ex-communist from south africa, and her younger years spent in activist circles greatly colours her writings here. the topic is vaguely the myth of individuality, or the reality of group-think, and lessing's commentary is not too shy of scathing at times. i do not know if it is a generatio...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

A clear-sighted, well-argued plea for individuality of thought in an age of mass emotions and social conditioning.

Doris Lessing has faith in the power of writers to stay detached from these mass emotions and "enable us to see ourselves as others see us." I like the image she gives of writers as a collective organism, constantly evolving but always providing this same crucial function of detached examination of the human condition.

There are some fascinating passages on the way mass emotions are c...more A clear-sighted, well-argued plea for individuality of thought in an age of mass emotions and social conditioning.

Doris Lessing has faith in the power of writers to stay detached from these mass emotions and "enable us to see ourselves as others see us." I like the image she gives of writers as a collective organism, constantly evolving but always providing this same crucial function of detached examination of the human condition.

There are some fascinating passages on the way mass emotions are constructed by governments and leaders, for example pointing out how often "blood" is invoked when calling people to war or revolution - this, she says, is a harking back to our long ancestral history of ritual sacrifice, cleansing through blood. Also the constant projection of an Enemy to rally people together.

It's refreshing to hear Lessing's account of how often majority opinion has been completely wrong, and the most seemingly unchangeable opinions have changed completely - for example the white minority in the Rhodesia of her childhood thought that their racist regime would last forever, but it didn't. Also in World War Two, Britons revered friendly, pipe-smoking Uncle Joe Stalin, their ally against Hitler, but then a couple of years later he was their worst enemy (I remember my grandmother talking about this as well).

There are lots of fascinating psychological experiments showing how much we will do to agree with authority or with the group - only a small minority (she puts it at 10%) is usually prepared to go against the group opinion, often at great individual cost. She says that all of us are, to some degree, brainwashed by the society we live in, and that "There is nothing much we can do about this except to remember that it is so."

She goes on: "It seems to me that we are being governed by waves of mass emotion, and while they last it is not possible to ask cool, serious questions. One simply has to shut up and wait, everything passes." This reminds me of living in New York through 9/11 and the hugely irrational responses to it. In that time, there were certain things you simply couldn't say.

Lessing gives several examples of this group thinking, from classic psychological experiments (such as the one where people are divided into prisoners and warders, and the warders quickly become sadistic and authoritarian) to the world of literature, where certain writers are praised by everyone, then suddenly fall out of fashion (Lessing herself wrote a couple of novels under a pseudonym to see if they got the same reaction as her other work, and of course they were rejected by her two regular publishers and ignored by the critics).

This book was written in 1987, before the arrival of technologies like the internet. The methods of control and manipulation are surely stronger now than in 1987, but so are the possibilities for resistance. It's easier now to find the information that undercuts official propaganda, or to publish your own individual views, or to connect with other people who dissent from the majority opinion. Not following the herd is a challenge at any time, but, as Lessing says, it's vital:

"Of course, there are original minds, people who do take their own line, who do not fall victim to the need to say, or do, what everyone else does. But they are few. Very few. On them depends the health, the vitality of all our institutions."(less)

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Feb 02, 2009 Abeer Hoque rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-recommend

This is my second Doris Lessing book and this time, a collection of 5 plainly spoken, clarion, revolutionary essays about how we think. Not for a second romantic or rose coloured, but never far from compassion or progress or hope. Ms. Lessing urges acceptance of our "animal" ways, and such internalisation of our brutal groupthink instincts that we grow our societies and ourselves in ways that we've not been able to. I love how she elevates the social sciences as essential tools for understanding...more

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Aug 14, 2009 Laura added it

Shelves: reading-in-my-40s

I read this today while waiting for LS to get out of surgery. I purchased it by accident and I know I read it 20 years ago but I don't remember anything about it.

This volume is 5 lectures Lessing gave in 1985 for Canadian Broadcasting. The year seems appropriate for that was the year I transferred from Amherst to Mount Holyoke, where I discovered Lessing. It is also the middle of the Reagan-Thatcher decade and the essays are heavily evocative of this period.

But Lessing's message is even more pe...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lessing was born during WWI and was a young adult during WWII. She was an award winning author and thinker though she ended her formal education at 13. The book contains lectures she delivered in the 80's. Lessing argues that never before in history have we known more about human behavior and group dynamics and yet we do nothing with this knowledge. She argues that people are subjected to constant appeals to their desire to belong to the group and that only about 10% are able to withstand this p...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Jennifer Rolfe added it

In this book written in 1987 for the Massey lectures Lessing addresses directly the prime questions before us all: how to think for ourselves, how to understand what we know, how to pick a path in a world deluged with opinions and information, how to look at our society and ourselves with fresh eyes. Although this was written 26 years ago this is still relevant today. We do need to analyze where/how we gain our information to make decisions. It is a challenge still.

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Apr 20, 2008 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my 4th Doris Lessing book. I keep running across her name in other literature as in "Of course Doris Lessing said it better" or "In the groundbreaking novel by Doris Lessing". So I pick up another Doris Lessing.

Perhaps this is another one of those authors, like Plath, if read in her time is compelling and exciting. Perhaps I'm just too shallow to get it. Maybe it has all been said so many times in so many different ways that loss of freshness and overexposure have made her novels less......more

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Mar 27, 2013 Ki Seung rated it 4 of 5 stars

A pleasure to read. Some of the same lines of argument fiercely argued (and rather poorly) by one Ayn Rand; while Rand concluded a materialistic logic for her philosophy, Lessing argues for a different tact, arguing for an introspection on the concepts of freedom and individuality. There are some similarities in their histories and backgrounds that they share, but it's quite interesting to see how their thoughts have diverged from each other.

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Dec 27, 2011 Ryan Greer rated it 2 of 5 stars

The title grabbed me but I was disappointed with the outcome. I would recommend this book to a high school audience, Lessing does have a creative way of encouraging people to think for themselves, but David Foster Wallace´s book This Is Water is a much much better summation of her points.

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Jun 27, 2011 meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finally someone says it -- we're ALL capable of doing really, really bad things in the name of large ideas/ideals. What then? Figure out how to recognize this human tendency and be actively, consciously, humbly on-guard against it. She's so much smarter than nearly anyone else.

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Sep 02, 2009 Leif Schenstead-Harris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not as good as I'd hoped. Though I kept reminding myself that it's from over 20 years ago, I still became frustrated often with Lessing's opinions, given forcefully as certainties. Nevertheless, an interesting window into her prose, at the very least, and possibly much more.

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Mar 23, 2013 Camesh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Even though dated , Lessing's book is an interesting and brief read on the perceptions of society and our role in it - deliberate or otherwise. I enjoyed a number of thoughts. A good overview to the roles of psychology, sociology, and individualist thinking.

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Jan 13, 2009 Ilze rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nobel laureate, Lessing, can bore you to tears! How I managed to finish this book, I don't know. She writes in a completely inaccessible way.

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Dec 25, 2008 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars

A little dry in the begining, but an interesting view on social ideas and how they work out in society and groups. Quick and interesting read.

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Aug 03, 2010 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This series of five lectures by Doris Lessing were informative and inspiring to read. I would have loved to heard the words spoken.

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Aug 26, 2011 Jude Brigley rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved it! I love the writing of Lessing. This was a stimulating and thought-provoking read.

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Nov 29, 2009 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Clear and compelling.
One book I would recommend for everyone.

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Mar 06, 2013 Rhonda Hankins added it

short 'n sweet with thoughtful ideas throughout

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May 25, 2009 Michael sinkofcabbages rated it 2 of 5 stars

wast of time

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Nov 09, 2012 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

re-re-reading this great book...from the 80s and both about her exp w communism(1950s) ...and w the left in Thatcher-ite Britain...It is great to read this moment, thinking about propaganda and group think...she begins w a story about a bull sentensed for murder by farmers in S Africa, then of a tree sentenced for treason in France after WWII..Her arguments are so well laid out and the writing is nice and spare!

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Mar 05, 2012 Angela added it

Shelves: essays, nonfiction

Rereading for the first time since college

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Jul 16, 2008 Em rated it 4 of 5 stars

i've had this on my shelf forever and although it was written pre soviet union fall, i find myself bookmarking so many passages of the text. it especially connects to the propaganda and persuasion class i'm currently teaching... will offer lots of illustrations and scenarios we can read and discuss where group think has come into play.

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Apr 06, 2012 Treynolds rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an older book, published in 1919, which, to me, makes it all the more relevant to read today.
Much of what Lessing discusses is based on repetitive social patterns. Her writing is concise and eloquent, neither sappy or drenched in theory. I quite enjoyed the book.

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Sep 07, 2011 Gabrielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics

This is a very heavy book. I actually read it twice, it is short enough. Lots to think about. Would have liked to belong to a group and get in some great discussions about her theories.

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Feb 24, 2011 Amyem added it

Shelves: own

Some of Lessing's non-fiction, which I found somewhat hard to follow.

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Sep 14, 2010 kissmyshades rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, british-uk, criticism, non-fiction

Nothing wrong with it but it really was just stating the obvious and doing so in a really sanctimonious way.

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Sep 10, 2008 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: smart people

Shelves: have-read

She's a very smart woman. Crone wisdom has been too much ignored in our culture.

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About Doris Lessing

Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Oliv...more Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.

During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.

In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.

In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).(less)

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“Often the mass emotions are those which seem the noblest, best and most beautiful. And yet, inside a year, five years, a decade, five decades, people will be asking, "How could you have believed that?" because events will have taken place that will have banished the said mass emotions to the dustbin of history.” — 3 people liked it

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