Review
Schneider has produced a... work of passion, insight, advocacy, and public vision on perhaps the most important social topic of our time. Furthermore, it comes in a very readable package of short, digestible chapters, ideally suited for discussion in classrooms, book groups, and other platforms of learning. Like the work of our best public intellectuals, it is a scholarly treatise in which the scholarship supports the message without interfering with or obscuring the topic at hand. Daniel Leichty, PhD, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare
Kirk Schneider's [The Spirituality of Awe is a] provocative exploration of the dangers we face in an increasingly mechanized world.... Although clearly a...warning of serious moral, spiritual, and social danger, the book does not simply content itself with identifying problems and hand-wringing. Schneider provides a number of urgent rec-ommendations for responding thoughtfully and forcefully to the robotic revolution in ways that seek to maintain our humanity, our agency, and sense of spiritual awe in the face of ever-growing threats from reductionist science, consumerism, and materialist social philosophies. Edwin Gant, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
The Spirituality of awe is a new take on the 'remorselessness of technology encroaching on our most intimate spaces.' It is a fast paced, easy-read dash through our technological future with the impending dangers of transhumanism at its core. In the end, as we enter the age of robotics, we are given the human choice to decide if we want an awe-inspiring dawn or a dehumanizing nightmare. Buy it. Read it. It is original." Noel Sharkey, PhD, DSc, Emeritus Professor of AI and Robotics, Sheffield University, UK, Judge BBC television's Robot Wars and Director of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics
Schneider's 'depth psychology' approach casts new light on a classic dilemma in AI's inevitable march--bringing us all the promise and peril that science fiction writers have warned about for centuries. Mike Boland, Chief Analyst, ARtilliry, former reporter, Forbes
In a world where many feel dehumanized and devalued, we need courage and clarity to widen our perspective and find new purpose. In this book Kirk Schneider offers a sensitive and incisive new narrative to help us reconsider what our lives are about today. He gathers wisdom from his long experience, and freely combines this with the insights of psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, sociology, religion, literature and cinema to create a new vision of where we are heading and how we may change direction before it is too late. Fascinating and essential reading for therapists and lay readers alike. Prof Emmy van Deurzen, PhD, Principal of the New School for Psychotherapy and Counseling, UK; author of Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice and Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness
A cogent plea to neither reject nor embrace technology, but to try instead to look beyond it. Kirkus Reviews, Featured Review
An evocative and deeply human take on the coming AI and robotics age. You must read it. Gina Smith, PhD, Award-winning author of The Genomics Age and the NYT bestseller, iWOZ: How I Invented the Personal Computer
About the Author
Kirk Schneider, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned psychologist and author. Dr. Schneider is past president (2015-2016) of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the American Psychological Association, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2005-2012), president-elect of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI), and adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr. Schneider has published over 100 articles and chapters and has authored or edited 11 books (several of which have been translated into Chinese, German, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Slovakian, and Portuguese). Dr. Schneider's books include The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, The Psychology of Existence (with Rollo May), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology (with James Bugental and Fraser Pierson-now being updated for a second edition), Rediscovery of Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, Existential-Humanistic Therapy (with Orah Krug-accompanying APA video also available), Humanity's Dark Side: Evil, Destructive Experience, and Psychotherapy (with Art Bohart, Barbara Held, and Ed Mendelowitz), Awakening to Awe, The Polarized Mind and The Essentials of Existential-Humanistic Therapy Supervision (with Orah Krug; APA Press accompanied by a video conducted by Dr. Schneider) as well as The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy (with Emmy van Deurzen et al.; Wiley-Blackwell). Dr. Schneider is the recipient of the Rollo May Award from Division 32 of the APA for "Outstanding and independent pursuit of new frontiers in humanistic psychology," the "Cultural Innovator" award from the Living Institute, Toronto, Canada, a psychotherapy training center which bases its diploma on Dr. Schneider's Existential-Integrative model of therapy, and honorary diploma/membership from the Society for Existential Analysis, London and East European Association of Existential Therapy. Dr. Schneider is also a founding member of the Existential-Humanistic Institute in San Francisco, which in August, 2012 launched one of the first certificate programs in Existential-Humanistic practice to be offered in the U.S.A. In April, 2010, Dr. Schneider delivered the opening keynote address at the First International (East-West) Existential Psychology Conference in Nanjing, China, and has repeatedly been invited to speak at similar venues in China-as well as Japan--over the last several years. In May 2015 Dr. Schneider delivered a keynote address at the First World Congress of Existential Psychotherapy in London. For more information on Dr. Schneider's work go to kirkjschneider.com.
