So I recently picked up a copy of Freud's Civilization and It's Discontents. I went to photoread it and I ran into trouble establishing a purpose. I am a beginning photoreader and do not have very much experience with the system. But I know the value of a clear purpose.

The trouble is...I have no idea what it's about and I have no idea how I'll use the information. I am just interested in reading Freud.

What I mean to ask is... Is "To learn what the author wants to teach for the advancement of my general pool of knowledge" a legitimate purpose?

My hunch is that it is not specific enough. Which is why I am posting this. Anyone have any experience with this?

That's a perfect purpose if that's what you want to get out of the book. You do not need to be 100% clear in your purpose because, from my own personal experience, if you know roughly what you want to get from a book but have a feeling about what you would like to get out of a book, even if you can't verbalize what that is, you brain will intuitively know why you're PhotoReading it. Your feelings of why you're PhotoReading is as just as viable a form of communication with your brain as words are. Of course, if after PhotoReading the book for general information, you would like more specifics then you can either follow-up with more specific super reading and dipping sessions, or you can rapid read the book or even PhotoRead the book again but this time refine your purpose. Hope this helps.

~NeverSpeak

That definitely helps thanks a bunch.

thanks for posting this question. I am having some troubles also, and it's very helpful that you've posted this. Thanks.

This thread was very useful. I am studying at present, and am also a new photoreader, so a little concerned at my technique and whether I will get from the text what I want, when my general purpose is pretty much to learn everything that I can from each text!!

Helpful also to see the suggestion about re-visiting the text with a more specific purpose, if one emerges during the first pass.

Thanks.