In this day and age of woke vs. tradition, I personally believe everyone should read books such as this, to gain new perspectives.

I feel like this book could have been a great thing, after the pandemic and working through out feelings after all that upheaval. Unfortunately, between referencing previous works and being mostly theoretical, while there are some really great bits in here, the whole concept is far off being adoptable as a methodology - but it's a great start, and there's something that everyone might be able to adopt depending on their ideas and needs.
But, as a panacea, right now?
I think it has a way to go, and is a lot of conceptual, or theoretical work. Which makes it harder to relate to without a lot of understanding of what it's based on.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

This is a book about metacognition, analyzing our patterns of thinking. Dr. Johnston considers himself a futurist and cultural psychiatrist. One of the aspects of the book I found interesting was when Dr. Johnston compared therapy sessions with individuals or couples to the therapeutic type of approach we might take to heal our society. His idea of using cultural Parts work to consider some of our current challenges, such as climate change or access to healthcare, was intriguing.

Unfortunately, much of the text was conceptual and hard to relate to. I would have appreciated more detailed examples of how this cultural Parts work might function. The author’s examples of how both the political Left and Right have valuable contributions and blind spots regarding various issues seemed a bit obvious to me, and didn’t go far enough to demonstrate how Cultural Maturity would allow us to resolve these issues.

If you enjoy abstract conversations and thinking about thinking, then you might really enjoy this. I found some of the ideas and insights interesting, but I was hoping for more concrete guidance.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

I cannot rate this book because I didn’t read much of it. After reading a few pages, I realized it was not what I was expecting to find in the book. So it was not of interest to me. Thus no rating and no review. Sorry, it just wasn’t anything of interest for me to continue reading it. Since a star rating is required, I had to give it just one star. I really didn’t want to give it any stars, since I didn’t read very much of it.

As a person who is interested in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, I find the topics of this book very interesting and thought-provoking. It may even be the most intriguing book I've read in the past year. The book, though written through an American lens, is widely relevant and extremely timely.

However, the book lacks readability. Charles Johnston has clearly devoted his life to this work and it is unfortunate that many people will not be able to engage with his ideas because the writing is too onerous to get through.

Even though I am fascinated with the subject matter, I find myself having to re-read paragraphs far too often. It is difficult to keep track of what points are being made and what questions are being answered.

This is my first time reading from this author and I am unfamiliar with his previous work (which is referenced frequently throughout the book). He uses a lot of his own terminology which, to his credit, he does try to provide context for as he writes. As someone new to his ideas and his unique terminology, I frequently have to re-read for context. All in all, it makes for a very disruptive reading experience.

Thank you to Netgalley and ICDPress for providing a digital edition of the book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I found this an interesting but flawed read. The author tries to be balanced but I’m not sure the presentation is. And I largely agree with his views. ThE book also relies too heavily on quoting his own earlier work.

I was excited to find Charles Johnston's latest tome, 'Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord'. Finally, some measured advice for the divided time we live in! I dove right in ready to learn. I waded through numerous references to Dr. Johnston's previous books. I wondered if it would be easier to follow this book if I had read the other books. Alas I will never know, because there were so many excerpts from those books that I feel certain he pulled all of the pertinent content into this book. Perhaps this edition would more appropriately be labeled a compilation of the writings of Dr. Johnston.

Four stars for Dr. Johnston's message, but the delivery was rough. Too often he referenced previous works and terms of phrase defined in those books which - while clear - interrupted the flow of the book. Additionally, Dr. Johnston did not seem to be able to decide whether to take an academic approach to the subject, or to go the pop-science route.

All that criticism aside, Dr. Johnston's attempt to be as objective as humanely possible is applaudable. For such a topic that is dominated by emotion, this is a tough endeavor. I appreciate that Dr. Johnston's view that neither the Left nor the Right can held singularly responsible for the current political climate. Additionally, I found the concept of "Cultural Maturity" to be quite interesting and I have purchased his book on that subject to learn more.

Do I recommend this book? I do. It is imperative that we all take some time to consider how to move forward out of this extremely polarizing culture. Dr. Johnston is, so far, the first author I've found who writes a complete picture of where we are, and how to improve.

I really wanted to like this book. I desperately seek answers to the current issue of political polarization and the deepening divide between factions that no longer appear to believe in compromise.

However, this book really turned me off. It seems that much of it was written to simply reference the author's previous works, and I felt that the author did a poor job of laying out his points in simple, easy-to-understand language that would have made the book for more accessible.

I do applaud the author for saying that the current political problem can be blamed on one political party as much as the other; that's sure to cause disagreement and put off roughly 50% of the audience, but it shows that the author is not trying to please anyone.

That said, I found this book difficult to finish, which was all the more disappointing because I was so excited to read it.

I picked this volume out because I appreciated the hopefulness in the title. But I’m afraid I had several issues with it. In places, I think Dr. Johnston is naive. He maintains that after 911, people in general did not characterize the Middle East and Arab people as evil. I think that indeed happened at the cost of lives. After Trump was elected, many people saw immigrants for Central and South America as rapists and murderers. And after Covid-19 struck, there were assaults and at least one murder of an Asian-American.

Johnston has a very academic style that I don’t find particularly engaging. There’s lots of analysis, but very little narrative. I longed for a few good stories that made one of his points. Even when he tells a story, he dissects it afterward.

The content he is addressing is really important, and I wanted to like this book much more than I did. I’m afraid that even if people do pick this book, intrigued by its title as I was, that they will find it hard going. Yet I know, because he references them all the way through this book, that Dr. Johnston has several previous books that have done well. I suspect it will be that audience, the one that has enjoyed his previous volumes, that will enjoy the analysis in this one. Perhaps it will be well received in academia. I hope they also find the guidance that is lifted up in the title.