Doris Lessing never explains or refers to the title of her book in the text itself. What "prisons" is she talking about, and why does she say we "choose" to live inside them?

Lessing contends that the "soft sciences," such as psychology, sociology, and social anthropology, are responsible for generating the best information on human behavior, but people are not putting the lessons from these discoveries to practical use. Why not? What does Lessing regard as the main impediments to this accomplishment?

When people of the future look back on this time, they will marvel at how much we learned about ourselves, and how little we did to change our behavior, Lessing contends. Her attitude toward this failure has several aspects. How would you describe it?

People who are captivated by a group's ideas or dogma often regard others who do not share their...