Chatter by Ethan Kross

CHATTER by Ethan Kross deals with “The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.” Kross, a professor at the University of Michigan and director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory, explores verbal development and emotional development, describing how “as toddlers, speaking to ourselves out loud helps us learn to control ourselves.” He defines chatter as “consist[ing] of the cyclical negative thoughts and emotions that turn our singular capacity for introspection into a curse” and notes that “we spend one-third to one-half of our waking life not living in the present.” Building on an understanding of what the inner voice really is and the extent to which it can harm our bodies, he turns to the most helpful part of the book: a summary of tools and “techniques [which] involve shifting the way we think to control the conversations we have.” Kross divides these into three sections: “tools that you can implement on your own (e.g., reframe your experience as a challenge), tools that leverage your relationships with other people (both providing and receiving chatter support), and tools that involve your environment (e.g., create order, spend more time in green spaces).” Clearly of particular interest to our Psych students, CHATTER received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.