thought, who is also a doctor, that i was exaggerating, which i would never exaggerate. [laughs] >> one day she was in her clinic and she had a patient and it was a lady and she said, she asked about her husband and she said, the knife went in. and she realized that i hasn't been exaggerating. now this way of putting it is cig -- significant. at least i thought it was significant. suggested that the perpetrator was distancing himself from house own and responsibility for it. he was telling in some kind of natural event rather like an eruption, for example, rather than a motivated will-action

with human intention behind it. but, of course, it's not only murderers who use mental device. i'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but i doubt that there's anyone in this room that has never resorted to it. and certainly the human mind displays flexibility so brit -- brilliantly as to behavior. everybody the dumbest person who has never had and i -- idea in his life, he becomes the moment accused of doing something that he had not to have done. this is an important if not necessary critical aspect of

human psychology in nature that is surely available to anybody who either pay attention or think about the words and acts of others to what dr. johnson called the notions of his own mind. honest attention to the word and the deeds of others and to our own thoughts and emotions reveals to us int -- int -- more about the student condition than psychology has ever done or will ever done. the fact it's my contention in the book that psychological theory, behavioral, whatever it is, any theory that claims to explain all or very large part of our human existence and experience actually create a

barrier to human understanding. in so far as it encourages people to think of themselves and others as objects rather than subjects. and this leads to an increase in intellectual and moral dishonesty because we cannot experience ourselves as objects rather than as subjects. there's tension that's created. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> a signature feature of book tv is our all day coverage of book fairs with top-notch fiction authors. in early october, the southern festival of books in nashville.

the weekend after that, we are live from austin for the texas book festival. near the end of the month we will be covering two book festivals from our nation heartland. we will be in portland, oregon followed by the national book awards from new york city. at the end of november we are live for the 18th year in a row. that's a view of the fairs and festivals this fall on c-span2 book tv. >> how many books have you written? >> 17. if you count that, it's 18. >> and what are the topics? >> the topics have been politics, marriage and family, sex, money, wealth, poverty,

technology, microships, life after family, i really think is -- sums up all the various subjects through the expedition of information theory, which i think is the major scientific breakthrough in this century is information there is, behind all of our technology and i believe it explains our economy. >> do you identify as an author, consultant or what? >> i am not a consultant, although the 27th consultant. they used to be a partner of mine, so --