Short Book Reviews April 2019

A roundup of three short book reviews. (I) Timothy Carey's 'Method of Levels' -- Scott pans the crackpot 'one true therapy' framing but engages seriously with its perceptual-control-theory model of intrapsychic conflict as competing control systems needing higher-level reorganization (with the sharp 'a theory of everything can't do clinical medicine' / germ-theory-to-penicillin analogy). (II) Zizek's 'How To Read Lacan' -- readable and clear but never coheres; Lacan himself incomprehensible. (III) 'The Steerswoman' -- rationalist-beloved 80s fantasy (steerswomen must answer and be answered); fun but shallow, with world-building holes.

Quality 66 · Strong. Strong (66). A competent review roundup lifted by the substantive MoL review (the PCT explanation and the theory-of-everything-can't-do-clinical-medicine analogy are genuinely good); held below the full-book-review average by brevity and the two slighter, more dismissive reviews.

Claude’s paradigm shift 42 · Moderate. Moderate (42). Reviews of others' books; the mildly fresh bit is the PCT-as-intrapsychic-conflict framing. Low novelty.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. 2 -- minor/within-blog. Reviews of niche books; within-blog reach (a modest boost to The Steerswoman in rationalist circles).