Rachel Bartlett put this together — the very first book published by the Paul Rosenfels Community — in 2012. Comprising 31 essays hand-picked from the section of this website, she has added an Introduction that explains why she undertook her ambitious project and how she arranged the pieces selected. We are making her book available through Amazon.com, both in paperback format and in .MOBI for the Kindle and similar e-book readers.

Thank you, Rachel.

Rachel's Introduction:

Like many young people, I felt betrayed and let down by my teachers, relatives, even the books in the library. I had been an excellent student, but now that I was free to go and live my own life, it turned out that I had not learnt anything of relevance. I had wasted thousands of hours learning ideological nonsense and useless factoids, but I did not know how to deal with people, how to handle myself without destroying myself, how to be happy, or what I was doing on this planet in the first place. Nobody had bothered to teach me anything useful about the things that really mattered.

Back then, there was no internet, so I could not just google it — and, in fact, I had to re-train myself to think "just google it" whenever I found myself pondering, "I wonder if ", while the internet was growing into the gigantic collection of humanity's treasures it is now. But just a few years later, this was changing, and while it is funny how the internet was instantly claimed by erotica and (what was later called) LOLcats, the early contributors also put up countless pages with their favorite quotations and collected wisdom to encourage and inspire people like me. ("Ten Rules for Being Human" by Chérie Carter-Scott is one of these early gems — she nailed down the painfully obvious in one, short, straightforward list. Some may feel all set after reading this list; by all means go and have fun now.) It is no longer necessary to start from scratch for those interested in living consciously; the internet is leveling the playing field in more than one regard.

Now, in the age of simply googling the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, do young people still feel betrayed by their teachers? I hope this undeserved authority of teachers has evaporated, as nowadays any kid in need of guidance can join an internet forum to discuss the really important questions. Even institutions like Yale University are recognizing the contributions of independent researchers: You no longer need the endorsement of a professor to be granted access to the best libraries in the world. So yes, a lot of progress has been made.

There is no need to invent the wheel over and over again, not even when it comes to psychological development. More people should write autobiographies, or at least essays, so their children and grandchildren would inherit more than money and fuzzy ideas of love and responsibility.

Inspired by conversations with friends and students, drawing from a wealth of experience as a psychological counselor, and decades as the leader of the Ninth Street Center, Dean Hannotte started writing these essays in the 1980s.

Long before I actually met Dean, his essays helped me see the world much more clearly and become the human I am now. They will not explain the world to you, nor will they tell you how to think about anything.

They will merely show you a way to work it out for yourself — teach you how to think, not what to think. Regardless of where in life you stand right now, treat these essays like the words of a wise, experienced old friend encouraging you to lead an interesting, outstanding life, or to re-consider important questions.

For this collection, I picked essays that I consider most helpful for anybody trying to understand human nature and finding their place in this world. I tried to sort them into broader categories, but as they are written in a rather eclectic style, it does not really matter in what order you read them.

All of these essays, with additional illustrations and artwork, plus a number of essays not included in this collection, can be found at The Paul Rosenfels Community website.

Now enjoy reading, and don't forget to write your own story. It is the only life you've got; make something wonderful and worthwhile of it.

— Rachel Bartlett, June 2012

Amazon.com Reviews

Simple but meaningful

The author publishes a number of (usually short) insights and thoughts he has written over the years, emphasizing the importance of human values through many of the goings-on that we have been experiencing on the national scene. He does indeed "keep it simple," peeling away layers of superficiality and facade that often encrust figures (e.g. professors), pronouncements, and activities of various kinds. I found most meaningful the portions of his book that were autobiographical in nature; but he is to be congratulated for consistently bringing out the moral parameters in what we experience. Readable, enjoyable and absorbing.

I found this book readable, enjoyable and absorbing. Also very refreshing — a clear straightforward expression of an individual point of view, opinionated at times, but never stodgy — like we academics tend to be!

In the spirit of keeping it simple, I will endorse the parts that especially resonated with me. Hannotte covers a lot of ground: his remarks about language were specially meaningful since, as an English and literature prof, language absorbed much of my life. It's a pool we all swim in but which can sometimes trap us. Abstractions, especially, can tempt us to "reify" and think that we are are referring to actual object referents. GOD comes in here too, I think.

I gave silent applause to the section "Why can't I stay home and just hope for a better world?" (p.48):

". . . we can certainly and indisputably affect the world through wishing when combined with skillful coordinated action designed to modify or eliminate offending circumstances, behavior and/or attitudes."

That means so much to me. I have tried to promote world peace, security, and respect for individual rights through volunteer support for organizations that do the skilful coordinated action — Amnesty International would be an example. I do tire of callous disregard born of laziness on the part of some people in connection to this kind of work. And I appreciated Hannotte's critique of the Alexander Technique in this regard too.

I was also impressed by his succinct statements about Romance and the validation and endorsement of the educative aspect of falling in love:

"For unless we passionately care about other human beings, why bother changing the world?"

Again hooray and applause and such an important addition to my words above about changing the world.

I did a lot of work from a literary point of view on autobiography at one time, and was interested in the author's autobiographical comments. "How can we help our neighbor if we don't know what he needs?" (p.107) I also found very resonant. There is a need for self-organizing networks of individuals who link up to help one another. Perhaps "social media" could facilitate this process or perhaps not. I'm not sure. I prefer physically present bodies interacting, but that may be old fashioned. (I see the author's Ninth Street Center as having been an example of one of those.)

Lastly I come to Hannotte's remarks on his kitten. It's true I've never owned a cat but I do have three dogs in Mexico and the original one — a female Golden Retriever (who became a mother at one point) — was a revelation to me. She had a capacity for unconditional loving and sensitive awareness, and a consciousness of herself and myself, which astonished me. Of course she depended on us for food and shelter but her regard for us went beyond simple need gratifications.

Keep it Simple. That will be my new mantra, for a while at least! Iconoclastic, challenging and fun

In the interest of full disclosure, I've known Dean Hannotte as a community leader, advocate and some-time mentor for more than forty years. I've long admired his writing on psychology and social anthropology, especially his views on the capacity of his fellow human beings to live engaging lives of creative thought and action. I feel so enthusiastic about his work including this most recent collection because I find it so brutally honest, direct, and important to the work of maintaining science and civilization against its growing number of enemies. In close to forty (mostly short) essays Dean raises questions about morality, religion, education, psychology and lots else in a clear voice. Rachel Bartlett has given some welcome cohesion to the writings which were composed at different times. Besides Rachel's helpful grouping of the themes by general topic there is an engaging progression from the reasonably self-evident works to those which require closer attention. These appear towards the back of the book.

Dean is a prolific writer and scholar in diverse fields (which includes computers and dinosaurs) and the talented urban polymath in him comes out to move us off our backsides. He does this as a man of the people without footnotes or other academic embellishments. The author is a sharp and funny observer of the human scene and he is a spot on critic of what he has experienced. His canvas covers the alpha and the omega of human existence in a social work sense. It should be noted that a large part of his formative experience was spent as the intellectual partner of the innovative psychological theorist Paul Rosenfels. This partnership evolved during some twenty years of Rosenfels' work in and around the Ninth Street Center and as a psychiatrist in Manhattan's East Village. Getting back, throughout this little book Dean demonstrates his unique gift of perception when his sensors are in the vicinity of a fraud. In this pursuit he's as good as Sherlock Holmes.

Even so, through these essays you'll discover that there are few limits to the author's vision or imagination. For Dean, a world can arise where all men and women live, love, and work together in a cooperative of wisdom and strength. A wealth of fables, half-truths and cave-bound visions of morality will have to die or be overcome — and that's the simple part. It's all spelled out clearly in a friendly and informal way, but I feel and see more than a little bit of playful irony in the book's title and in many of the essays. What I think the author and his editor are trying to tell us about is the sophistication, understanding and human engineering skills that are the unseen foundations of many of the "simple" concepts and truths that he presents. It seems to me that Dean does this to set us free to find our own paths to self-hood and greatness.

Here's what I'm talking about. Isn't there usually some real confusion in trying something new, in working to get rid of a bad habit or a way of thinking, or in trying to establish a good habit or a way of thinking? Concepts and projects such as these might be easy enough to contemplate, but they can be painful or disturbing to do. What Dean and Rachel find "simple" is a place in your head that you might be too angry or afraid to go to — that is, without some preparation. I think that that's the sort of start up work that most of these essays are encouraging us to do. Our minds are urged into chores like these: to begin the mental calisthenics of self examination; to get used to thinking more rigorously about what is true and right and to allow some flexibility in how one lives one's life and in how one sees him/her self and others. Of course, this is all very simply presented and Dean is upfront in his delivery. But I think we're being tickled and coaxed into some rough work. In the main, a life-long work that will require some tough thinking and hard action is what's really being offered here — insert the smiley-face icon of your choice.

I'll briefly note three essays that I especially liked. The first is "Is belief in a supreme being harmless?" This is one of the best recapitulations of agnostic thinking that I've ever encountered. Dean does not ask anyone to abandon cherished beliefs if they are comforted by them, only to be open to the truths that science and experience reveal in understanding the real nature of things. And this might include some grand and simple unities that are waiting to be discovered and understood. The author names a faith that I've felt strongly about for a long time but have not always practiced: Comte's "Religion of Humanity." Dean suggests that this religion has grown from ordinary roots in a "belief in the future, and faith in mankind." As no special days of observance or family dinners are required, it will always be a faith of mine. Like the author, I want to believe (no X-Files here) that the accumulation of knowledge will triumph over the accumulation of facts and will in time bring about new discoveries and questions. These will clarify, baffle and astound in ways that the standard brands of psychology and religion of our times cannot.

The next essay is entitled "What is correct, politically?" In this one, Dean says: "This idea that the public must always be soothed and mollified is insulting to our human dignity." That's right on target: I just don't get how doing a great dance around the truth will help us resolve the injustices of our times. How will great wrongs ever be righted if all of us must be thought of as equal in all ways? How will special talents and abilities ever be acknowledged if no one's feelings are to be hurt? I can never hear or see the word "challenged," that famous PC suffix for being less than standard or able without experiencing a painful afterthought of sarcasm. It's all absurd, and future generations will laugh at us for the ignorance and immorality that were approved in this practice. Equality of opportunity is something else, and I'm always in favor of that. What follows is a little story from my early childhood. It's from a time and place way before first grade: I drew a crayon drawing as badly as I could as a test of my Mom's often overbearing positivism. When I got the expected response of "How lovely, darling!" I knew that I was being had. But that really wasn't so bad in the long run because she also taught me something about testing the truth and I'll always be grateful for that.

The nightly news of these times amazes me. For the most part, facile PC storytelling takes precedence over any concern for honesty about what's being given to us as true and right. This seems to be so even if the survival of our species and all else depends upon it. Covering up the truth never helps, neither in society nor individuals, especially in the long run. Learning that a battle between the good guys and the bad guys is really a battle between the bad guys and some really bad guys can kill human interest in the decent folk stuck in between. Or, finding out later on that your locally praised talents and skills shine only in the smallest of ponds back home can be shameful and disorienting. If anyone really cared about you or what might become of you, they would have been more honest or asked for more. In this short and feisty selection Dean lays out some provocative examples of PC fibs that do more harm than good. As he says:"What exactly are we afraid of here?"

"Why is it so hard to write an autobiography?" is the third and last essay that I'll discuss. This comes with a closing note of full disclosure: I haven't written my own history yet. But I'm likely to be the first person to suggest the task at-hand to most any acquaintance who seems unique or interesting. Maybe that's why this essay grabbed me the way it did. Like Dean, I feel that it's instructive to share the narrative of one's ambitions, successes and failures with those who arrive later on.

I'm an aging gay man of 67 years, long out of the closet. I'm still aware of the feelings that I had in my younger days that there just couldn't be anyone else out there that could possibly understand me. That was wrong-headed thinking on my part, formed during an emotional crisis, but it's a commonly held mind-set among people with problems. The part of my story that is unique and worth sharing was that I had a desire to understand and help others that was larger than the usual scene could handle. Also, that it took me a while to find a community of like-minded explorers of the mind. And further, that I had some truly great as well as some truly awful experiences along the way that could serve as guideposts to others. The "others" here would be those with big dreams about improving human understanding and communication on this planet, but who are a bit shy in the abilities expected in this sort of thing. Those who are "academically-challenged," as one might say in politically correct lingo. A common gift of autobiography is that it demonstrates that reinventing the wheel is not a prerequisite of civilization, and that there are (or were) others out there who might have a clue or a way of doing things (or not doing) that might help.

According to Dean most of us think that all of our work must be written as though for all humanity for all time — just like the laureates. On this problem (which plagues me) he says: "We write best when we know who our audience is — what culture they're from, maybe how old they are, how much we can assume they already know." If we happen to chose fiction for teaching new ideas, he suggests that a good framework can be crafted "by presenting a picture of a situation that a reasonably sensitive but curious reader has never experienced." I'm sure these ideas will improve my writing and I'm glad that Dean brought them up.

A little human interest story that touched on the theme of Dean's essay follows. It happened because I'm an avid fan of Public Radio — you know the type. Recently on the Moth Radio Hour a reformed drug dealer and jail-house moonshine maker shared the news that he was hard at work work putting together the story of his life for publication. I was both delighted and disturbed by this. "Well, why shouldn't he?" I had to ask myself. This on-air raconteur shared some lessons about the trials of friendship in very bad circumstances and about learning from several very outlandish mistakes brewing booze for sale and barter while incarcerated. And there was some hope for his future when he spoke about his late blooming desire to become a counselor to others in trouble. In my heart I wished him the best. Even stories like his say something at a very elementary level about not quitting on one's self and about taking steps toward independence, and that's a good thing.

I hope you'll spend some thoughtful time with Dean and Rachel's new book "It's Simple." It's iconoclastic, challenging and fun and both your brain and your mind will thank you. This is from a guy who thought that he was way too cool for junior high school with a copy of Bertrand Russell's Unpopular Essays in his back pocket. The complex made understandable

I really enjoyed reading It's Simple. The complexities of philosophy and heuristics are explicated in a clear and agreeable manner. The book can be read in bits and then pondered all evening long. Or the book can be read in one bite leaving the reader impressed by the depth of pondering and understanding of the authors. Matters of the mind and the spirit are exposed in an engaging passion. Over all a really great little book about matters of great import. Great Read

What's simple? That after reading this book, no one can ever accuse author Dean Hannotte of leading an "unexamined life." From religion to science, from psychiatry/psychology to political correctness, Dean questions the very often unexamined assumptions/premises upon which they rest. In people's busy everyday lives, I believe most don't stop to investigate these matters, which are often very relevant to their lives. Regardless of your academic, political or religious views, Dean's questions will intrigue and challenge your views. In addition, his willingness to share his own personal life and upbringing add an element of authenticity often absent in any kind of scholastic work. I.e. It's real. Thank you Dean and keep writing. Simple, Gentle, yet Provocative

Dipped into this delightful book on many occasions. The author makes his points indirectly, with analogies and examples. The book is sprinkled with insightful quotes. While you may not agree with everything, the book will make you question your world and you will emerge the better for it. A Journey to become Conscious

is a collection of essays written by Dean Hannotte and edited by Rachel Bartlett. To say that Bartlett edited and wrote an introduction to the book is not enough. To this reader her creative influence can be felt throughout the book. I believe that is why both names are under the title on the cover of the work.

cuts through the clutter that chatters away in our heads as we try to figure out the myriad conundrums that life throws in our path. It offers guideposts in our "journey to become conscious."

The introduction by Bartlett is an important part of the book and is an essay in its own right. She tells us that, "More people should write autobiographies, or at least essays, so their children and grandchildren would inherit more than money and fuzzy ideas of love and responsibility." But responsibility is a through-line of these essays. The book asks us to look for, and helps us to find, fruitful and conscious responsibility, not a soft-edge, vague, shifting of our responsibility to the shoulders of others.

Hannotte warns us that, "Language conventions can embody philosophical errors and trick us into deluding ourselves." What he wants us to do with the book, is use it to see past the grammatical structure into the larger questions that are, imperfectly, and sometimes wrongly, embedded in those grammatical structures. The authors want us to see through the cloud of idiopathic confusion, and to simply confront ourselves as we are, here, in the reality of this moment.

For Hannotte the "unconscious mind" hypothesis is crutch that allows us to pass off the "hard work of introspection and consciousness-raising." The collaborative writers of this book, Hannotte and Bartlett want us to use our intelligent memory (yes for them memory has intelligence) and re-memorize raw information so that we may re-interpret it as we discover changes in our environment, and ourselves. "Objective insight into the human condition is almost the most important kind of knowledge there is."

The influence of the psychologist Paul Rosenfels can be felt throughout the essays. The book is not a mere restatement of Rosenfels ideas but stands on its own, while recognizing the influence of earlier thinkers. Rabelais, Leibniz, Niels Bohr and Mark Van Doren are also woven into the fabric of the work, although it is not necessary to have read any of them to appreciate and understand .

Is romance important? Why is it so hard to write an autobiography? What is correct, politically? Why are people like computers? What is our species ultimately capable of? These are some of the questions that are negotiated in . You won't agree with all of it, but you won't regret reading it. And you won't be able to stop thinking about it.

[This review can also be found at .]