The Art of Contrary Thinking

Description:

"When every body thinks alike, Everyone is likely to be wrong."       
The ten words quoted above are, according to Humphrey B. Neill, a potent factor behind the economic booms and busts that blight our civilization. "The Mississippi Bubble," Holland's incredible "Tulipmania," and the New York stock market crash in 1929 are historic examples of disasters magnified and hastened by the pressure of mass opinion.

In exactly the opposite direction, in the years immediately following the close of World War II, ominous popular forecasts of business recession turned out to be wrong. What actually happened was - a business boom, not a business but!

The reason is no mystery to anyone versed in the contrary way of thought - the practical application of the Neill Theory of Contrary Opinion. Today, this Theory - which began as one man's quest for a way to solve the puzzles of economic trends - has expanded enormously in both scope and significance.

In THE ART OF CONTRARY THINKING you will find the answer to a question increasingly asked by persons of affairs and influence: Contrary Opinion - what is it?... What will it do for me?

Contents:

Before You Begin-

Section I - It Pays to be Contrary

Section II - Essays Pertaining to the Theory of Contrary
Opinion and the Art of Contrary Thinking

Waves of Mass Sentiment
The Investors' Dilemma
Habit
The Psychology of Inflation
When There Is No Public Opinion
Imitation of the Minority
For Your Notebook
On Being Contrary to the Gregarious Opinion
The Theory of Contrary Opinion is a "Way of Thinking"
Thinking By Accident
Put the Cart Before the Horse
Law of Universal Inequality
Propaganda
Realism: The Contrary Challenge of the New Year
How Economists Sometimes Make Their Predictions Go Wrong
Ask "What's Right?" - Instead of Always "What's Wrong?"
Mass Psychology and the Campaigns
Social Psychology
Economic Psychology
Looking Back
An Historic Return to Gold
Contrary Events from History
Tidal Movements
Much to Learn
On Predicting the Unpredictable
"Crowd Upset" Favors Eisenhower
Money Minds
Why Forecasts Go Haywire
Revolutions Require the Long View
Theory of Contrary Opinion Hinges on Laws of
Imitation and Contagion
Where Will Mass Conformity Lead?
The Theory of Contrary Opinion Deals with
Delusions and Mass Misconceptions
Looking Two Ways at Once
The Ticklish Business of Forecasting
What's the Use of It All?
Maybe Some Old Theories Are Still Valid
"Neutralism" - in Economic Writing
Be a Nonconformist in Your Thinking
More on Socio-political Trends
Thinking Humanistically As Well As Realistically
Thinking in Circles
"...Still Doesn't Know What Makes Him Tick"
Three Types of "Opinions" - Thoughtful, Thoughtless,
Emotional
How Opinions are Formed
Read-and-Needle Is the Contrary Way
The Theory of Contrary Opinion and the "Triadic Law"
"Social Pressure Often Breeds Conformity"
Momentum
More on the Contrary Approach to Creative Thinking
Motives and Movements
Mass Mesmerism
...Again on the Question: "Is the Public Always
Wrong in the Market?"
The Problem of Knowing and Measuring Opinions
The Law of Mental Unity of Crowds
The Theory of C.O. Is Not a System of Forecasting:
It Is a Method of Working Toward Thought-Out Conclusions
"Why Do You Think You Think?"
Let Us Be Contrary: Let Us Not Deny That Our
Destiny Lies in the Skies
Capitalism's Basic Factor: Earning Power
A Libertarian Surely Has To Be a Contrarian These Days!
A Fallacy in Economic Extrapolation
How To Look Ahead - Profitably
Is There Any Real Purpose in Contrary Thinking?
Limbering Up Your Mind
A Money-Mind Versus the Impetuous Impulse To
Make Some Easy Money
Communists Practice the Theory of C.O.
The Right Word (or Thought) May Be Worth a
Thousand Pictures
A Think-It-Out-For-Yourself Kit
Opinions and Words Versus Facts
The Years Forecasters Would Like to Forget
Quick to Conform, but Slow to Differ
Forty-one Years of "Unexpected" Events
Epilogues: Slave to "They," by Samuel B. Pettengill