Review for Choice Magazine: Peter Toohey, Hold On: The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting (Oxford University Press: 2020)

 

Peter Toohey, Hold On: The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting (Oxford University Press: 2020)


Reviewed By: Ronald F. White, PhD.

Professor Emeritus

Mount St. Joseph University


The title of this book tells you a lot about it’s contents. However, aside from a few forays into Science (biology and psychology) it is mostly about various works of art (paintings and drawings) and how they depict/interpret the “art of waiting.” It includes a brief, but highly informative prologue, four chapters, and a summarizing epilogue. There are twenty-five black and white illustrations. Previous recent publications by Toohey include analyses of “Jealousy (2014) and “Boredom” (2011). We are all familiar with the phenomenon of waiting. The contexts for “waiting” are resplendent. We wait for future pleasures and future pain. For example, when we are at boring/unpleasant work, many of us “wait” to go home, wait for the weekend, and wait for retirement. When we wait, “patience” is usually regarded as a “virtue,” but sometimes we are rewarded for patiently waiting, sometimes we are punished. There is both “decisive waiting” and “indecisive waiting” (or “dithering”). There is also bit brain science covered, that explores the biochemical basis for the emotions that accompany waiting, Dopamine (immediate reward/punishment) and Serotonin (future rewards/punishments). Some scholarly critics will argue that a rigorous biology of waiting would require much more than two brain chemicals. Evolutionary psychologists and others would expect an explanation of how and why we humans wait, and how waiting might relate to human survival since the Pleistocene Era and Post-Agricultural Revolution. Finally, there’s a lot more to be said about how the mass media and other technologies influence waiting. Nevertheless, this is an important initial investigation into the topic. It is an interesting, well-written textbook accessible to undergraduate and graduate students, and the general public.


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