Disciplined Minds ─ A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives

This book details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker, showing how an honest reassessment of what it means to be a professional in today's corporate society can be remarkably liberating. Poignant examples from the world of work reveal the workplace as a battleground for the very identity of the individual. Schmidt contends that professional work is inherently political—that the unstated duty of professionals is to maintain strict "ideological discipline." Career dissatisfaction evolves as workers lose control over the political component of their creative work. After reading this insightful book, no one who works for a living will ever think the same way about their job. Jeff Schmidt lives in Washington, D.C., where he is an editor for Physics Today.

Jeff Schmidt was an editor at Physics Today magazine for 19 years, until he was fired for writing this provocative book. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Irvine, and has taught in the United States, Central America, and Africa. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he now lives in Washington, D.C. You may write to him at jeffschmidt@alumni.uci.edu.