Booklist
In this informative, entertaining, and well-researched book, Weiner explores why it is that people do irrational and compulsive things, sometimes against their better judgment. He intersperses his text with an imaginary conversation with Sigmund Freud, engaged in an advertising campaign to market his concept of the id, or Inner Dummy. The Freud device is meant to simplify the psychiatric concepts of id, ego, and superego, but Weiner does a fine job of that himself. The book is meant to explore the "underlying causes and nature of irrational, neurotic outlooks in a way that would be comprehensible to most of us." Weiner examines a range of irrational behavior, from that of President Clinton in the Monica Lewinski affair to the murderous activities of Slobodan Milosevic and Adolf Hitler. We all have some sort of personality disorder, some better managed or concealed than others, according to Weiner. He also examines treatments for personality disorders. Coauthor Hefter, a clinical psychiatrist, offers commentary at the end of each chapter.

Vanessa Bush

From Library Journal, Sept. 12, 1999
Drawing on evolutionary psychology theories, imaginary meetings with Sigmund Freudand a fictitious advertising agency, popular psychology writer Weiner weaves a logicaland understandable explanation of why apparently normal people sometimes behave ina totally irrational manner. His collaborator, psychiatrist Hefter (Northwestern MedicalSch.), gives a short academic-oriented commentary at the end of each chapter. Weinerbrings into play Freud's premise that the "id" is what causes people to commit foolish,irrational and even horrendous acts; he labels this part of the brain the "Inner Dummy." This refreshing book is both interesting and readable; the use of Freud as a literarydevice adds to the book';s uniqueness and value. Highly recommended for popularpsychology collections in public and academic libraries.

Elizabeth Goeters
Georgia Perimeter Coll., Dunwoody

I found Battling the Inner Dummy the most enlightening, amusing, hopefuland generally wonderful book on "psychology" and brain-science in the last decade. Infact, if anybody asked me for the one book they should read to catch upon our currentknowledge of why even the most intelligent among us frequently do incredibly stupidthings, I would unhesitatingly recommend this one. Weiner deserves five gold stars andfree drinks on the house . I think even I may have become a little less of a Dummy afterreading this delightful book.

Robert Anton Wilson
award-winning author of QuantumPsychology

What I found most appealing about Battling The Inner Dummy was theapplication of the most recent research in psychology and neuroscience. The limbiccapturing metaphor allows for an easy and applicable correlation between the functionof this not well understood area, and the irrational behaviors of abnormal people. Theidea follows the tradition of the most recent advance in theoretical biology, namely theselfish gene theory. The notion that what we have our head is a survival mechanism isdifficult to accept. However, when presented with the examples of the Inner dummyoperating in all of us, it is evident where the evolutionary strategy of self-preservation ispresent in our thinking patterns. This book is a must read for anyone interested inunderstanding why they do what they do, and where our inner dummies originate.

Kevin J. Mackenzie
Department of Psychology,
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

Battling the Inner Dummy, although not presented as such, is the bestmanagement manual I have ever read, not because it teaches managementtechniques, but because it reveals one's own positive and negative drives and offersinsights into those of others. As such, this book is a must for anyone who needs tohire, motivate, and manage people. Beyond the guidance it offers for distinguishing thepotential salesperson who can't stand rejection from the one who soldiers onproductively, or the power-mad corporate despot from the real leader, the book is fun to read. Bringing Sigmund Freud back from the grave as a consultant to a modern-dayadvertising agency is a delightful conceit that enables the reader to make distinctionsbetween academic psychology and practical psychology for application in everyday life. Battling the Inner Dummy is a winner."

Paul Saxton
CEO, General Housewares Corp.

Why is no Mensa meeting complete without some heavy-brained member orso bragging about what a stupid blunder he or she has just recently made? More to thepoint, why do you and I commit OUR occasional awkward, inconvenient, embarrassinggaffes? This witty, charming book is a fascinating and illuminating read!

Win Wenger
Ph.D., author of The Einstein Factor

REVIEW: A fresh, upbeat, extremely readable contribution to the originally Freudianproject of improving our living by making "the unconscious conscious" and taking the"psychopathology of everyday life" seriously. Weiner is a bright auto-didact who has great compassion for human foibles, uncommonly good common sense and a strong sense of humor. He is a Will Rogers of psychology who, in this delightful book, compassionately skewers pretentious theoretical and clinical ideas and demystifies psychological realities that effect us all. He considers a wide range of crucial issues, including nurturance, vengeance and sex, and an array of techniques designed to help, including talk therapy, self-help books, and psychopharmacology.Weiner sheds considerable light on the dark side, makes sense of the mistakes and lapses we fall into, and offers practical advice and encouragement in the ongoing fight to win more of our battles with our own Inner Dummies.

Michael A. Nagelbach
Ph.D. Psy.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist,
Professor, School of the Art Institute OfChicago,
Chicago School of Professional Psychology

An unpretentious, engaging, anecdotal, compassionate, disarming, enthusiastic presentation of many ways irrationality and self-defeating thoughts and behavior intrudeon ordinary lives. Mr. Weiner is a lively writer and excellent "teacher", introducing hisreaders to "limbic language" and "dummy concepts" that become playful yet profoundobservations about human functioning and a framework in which to consider thepowerful, albeit irrational, forces that threaten to overwhelm our rational capacities. Thewriting is straightforward, the motivation clear, the language and metaphors delightful,the compassion for human fragility heartfelt. I--Iis book represents a considerableachievement, a kind of landmark in the important endeavor to make potentially useful psychological knowledge more accessible and available to a wider range of people. Animportant primer on practical ways to understand, accept, and combat our own internal,irrational, maladaptive tendencies. Armed with this awareness - and doing battle all theway, Weiner persuasively argues that the road to more creative, rewarding, productiveliving in the present becomes more possible.

Ava Carn-Watkins
Ph.D., Assistant
Director Graduate Program in Counseling Psychology