This book, the third in the author’s series examining the impact of symbols on human behavior, boldly corrects the record on the interpretation of James George Frazer’s classic work, The Golden Bough. Frazer presented how symbolism affects humanity from beginning to end, and Edgar Ridley author takes on Frazer’s critics, such as A.B. Cook and Theodore Gaster. 

In this volume, the author reminds the reader that symptomatic thought and behavior have shaped every aspect of the genome and has controlled how genes operate throughout the world. Our understanding of genetics and its importance in human life and the changes that we have made throughout the world is based on the event of what the author labels the ‘neurological misadventure of primordial man’.  This book describes how Symptomatic behavior and the dynamics of symbolic behavior is the cause of how genes operate in our bodies and how they express themselves in who we are and how we behave.

Edgar Ridley maintains for all time that symptomatic behavior will last forever as a catalyst for behavior transformation that will lead to the solving of the world’s most perplexing problems, including the conflicts that we face, the health problems that we endure, which issues are built primarily around racism and religion, causing health disparities and military conflict.  According to the author, those problems and the human condition that affect the quality of life can only be solved by changing the mindset that produces symbolic behavior. 

About the Author

EDGAR J. RIDLEY is Chairman of a global management consulting firm, Edgar J. Ridley and Associates, based in New York. He has published four books, An African Answer: The Key to Global Productivity; Symbolism Revisited – Notes on the Symptomatic Thought Process; The Golden Apple: Changing the Structure of Civilization – Volume I, and Volume 2 – Evidence of Symptomatic Behavior. His research interest focuses on cognitive semiotics and the effect of symbol systems on human neurological processes as well as the damage that symbol systems have caused to human behavior throughout civilization.

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