Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Educators    3. Historical - General    4. Social Scientists & Psychologists    5. Social Science / Handicapped   

Reviews (8)

Lachman comes up short on both insight and useful information
Gurdjieff was certainly not infallible, by his own admission, let alone dozens of others who knew him.He made errors--one of which may have been placing so much hope in Ouspensky, especially during the Russian phase of his evolving teaching.
Pretense gossip written by ex-blondie ex-iggy-pop punk-rocker
Gary Lachman and Gary Valentine (guitarist with Blondie and Iggy Pop + author) are one and the same person.
"Fourth Way" Escape Manual
Gary Lachman's book is essentially predicated upon what we already knew about Gurdjieff and Ouspensky from primary and secondary sources. However, the book's very special character stems from the author's brilliant synthesis of all that material. One might criticize the book for its dependence on secondary sources. But such criticism badly misses the mark.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography And Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. New Age    6. Social Scientists & Psychologists    7. Biography & Autobiography / General    8. Psychotherapy   

Reviews (5)

Best by this author
I thought this book the best of the several books I have read by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.
This Is The One That Should Be Famous
Like many other people, and despite having serious doubts about psychotherapy myself, I was put off by the pamphleteering tone and over-comprehensiveness of "Against Therapy". In this book, Masson reveals the reasons behind "Against Therapy", which are very sound indeed. The ways in which absolute power can corrupt a therapist absolutely are made crystal clear, and are shown most convincingly by this highly intelligent and lucid first-person narrative. It is unsurprising that Masson should have been put off therapy completely by his experiences, and a pity, as his intelligence and dedication would have made him a great reformer.

EXCELLENT
Anyone even remotely associated with analysis, as either a patient, friend of a patient, or an analyst himself, should read this very informative and fascinating book.Clear and well-written, Masson does a wonderful job ofexposing the clique of therapists who get rich by deceiving their patients,pretending to care and asserting knowledge they simply don't possess.Avery engrossing book that explores a heretofore closed society. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. (Jeffrey Moussaieff),    2. 1941-    3. Antipsychiatry    4. Biography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Masson, J. Moussaieff    7. Movements - Psychoanalysis    8. Psychoanalysis    9. Psychoanalysts    10. Psychology    11. Social Scientists & Psychologists    12. United States    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / Psychoanalysis   

Reviews (5)

Must Read
I have worked in Zimbabwe for two years as a photographer and film maker.Of Spirits and Madness gives western thinking a new vantage point.Remember, there is no reality only perception. One of the best books I have read on Shona culture.The spiritual basis of life forms all other truths in Africa.Great Book, wonderful to read.

Outstanding
I bought this book to be polite.When a friend of 10+ years writes a book... you buy it.And the day before his reading... you start the first chapter.What I did not expect was that I would absolutely inhale the text.My brain lit up with pleasure. There are so many good things about this book.Not only is the writing itself excellent, the information that Paul tucks into the narratives of each patient is downright fascinating.He takes up politics, economics, spirituality, culture, context, and mental health.The story of each patient's illness is refracted through Paul's Western training, his good heart, and his growing understanding of the local explanations for why things happen as they do. Along the way he provides a terrific set of curbside lectures about a wide spectrum of mental illnesses.He interweaves factual information about disease states with tender compassion for and curiosity about the people he served.I learned a lot from this book and plan to read it again.Maybe I should be polite more often....

Ancestor Bewichment Clashes with Modern Medicine.
Dr. Paul Linde's book "Of Spirits and Madness" is a wonderfully entertaining and insightful look into the culture and psyche of the Zimbabwean people.As an American psychiatrist in this third world African country, he becomes immersed in a cultural quagmire of ancestral spirits, evangelical Christianity and traditional healers all colliding with modern Western medical practices.The results, a train wreck of frequently amusing and sometimes very sad situations: experienes which challenged the author's intellectual and medical skills while raising questions in his own mind about the modern world's pursuit of indivudual gain and blatant consumption.This is a great book which will make all readers laugh, think and reevaluate one's own views of what is truly important.The best book I've read this year! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. General    3. Medical - General    4. Psychiatry - General    5. Psychology    6. Social Scientists & Psychologists    7. Biography: general    8. Cultural studies    9. Popular psychology    10. Psychiatry    11. Science / General    12. Zimbabwe   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Social Scientists & Psychologists    4. 1-55369-204-7,1553692047,Donald G. Myers,Donald Myers,trafford publishing,Psychotherapy Behind a Razor Wire Fence,psychology,forensic psychology,corrections,law and psychology,prision,mental health    5. Biography & Autobiography / Social Scientists & Psychologists    6. Psychotherapy   

Subjects:  1. (Ronald David),    2. 1927-    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. England    8. Laing, R. D.    9. Medical - General    10. Psychiatrists    11. Psychiatry (General)    12. Social Scientists & Psychologists    13. Biography: general    14. Psychiatry   

Reviews (6)

Entertaing and informative introduction for many
As a reader familiar with the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, but
Fluent and Sophomoric
Matthew von Unwerth's precocious book rehashes (and often repeats two and three times) facts already well known about Freud, Rilke, and Lou Andreas-Salome. It relies on an admittedly charming ramble through various episodes in the lives of these major characters, and there isn't a single clumsy sentence in the whole. But FREUD'S REQUIEM lacks something one would think an editor would demand, namely a thesis. To claim that a probably fictional walk -- Rilke and Freud strolling along together -- has an "invisible history" is not a thesis, and in fact Von Unwerth quickly shows us that Freud incorporated several experiences into the story of the walk in his essay "On Transience." Von Unwerth rubs two sticks together -- Freud's notions of mourning (confrontation and acceptance of loss, as spelled out in his essay) in tension with Rilke's desire for a truth beyond mere existence. Von Unwerth seems uncertain about the very antitheses between Freud and Rilke he otherwise insists upon -- which, of course, might have yielded an original insight into the material if the author had the ability to find one. It is as if he is prodding the reader to synthesize material and provide critical thought in absence of his talent to do so. One of the overheated blurbs says the book is a "well-informed meditation." This is a euphemism for "factual drift" -- lots of facts, no insight. For insights into the contentious and complementary relationship between literature and psychoanalysis, read the stimulating, unsentimenalized essays of Adam Phillips. Von Unwerth loves an anecdote; why does he describe the last days of Freud in London, and how do these facts illuminate the thesis he fails to provide? His understanding of Rilke's poetry is so pedestrian as to serve only his simplistic (and boringly repeated) image of Rilke and Freud as polar opposites. The only glimmer of creativity comes toward the end of the book, as he suggests (tantalizingly, but alas, sputteringly) that Lou had seen the potential for a synthesis of the two men's positions on art and poetry. His final sentence: "In learning to give himself over to the symphony of life and death, he [Freud] rediscovers himself, and so realizes the potential inherent in all beings to love and work." Is that so? In all beings? I think not, and Von Unwerth gives at least one striking example where Freud thought otherwise, too. But Von Unwerth can't help himself, symphony and all. A fluent but sophomoric attempt.

Fascinating Freud
A very favorable review in the New York Times led me to "Freud's Requiem." The book gave me a fascinating entry into the world of Freudian thought and concise explanations of many of Freud's key concepts, including his view of love, memory, repression sublimation, mourning,and death.It also told intriguing stories of Freud's relationships with figures, including Nietzsche, Rilke and the little-known, remarkable, serial lover, Lou Andreas-Salome. And, the book provided delightful tidbits, like Freud's teenage enjoyment at reciting the Gettysburg Address - in English - and his first scientific discovery that eels are bisexuals. I came away with a new understanding of how Freud connected literature and art with his theories and a greater appreciation of his personal struggles to arrive at his insights in how we think, feel and react."Freud's Requiem" does require some mental exertion, but I felt better after the workout.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Death, Grief, Bereavement    4. Freud, Sigmund    5. History    6. History Of Psychology    7. Movements - Psychoanalysis    8. Psychology    9. Social Scientists & Psychologists    10. Psychology & Psychiatry / History   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Social Scientists & Psychologists    5. Women   

Reviews (1)

Seminal addition to History Of Psychology reference shelves
Deftly compiled and edited by Susan Stanford Friedman (Virginia Woolf Professor of English and Women's Studies and Chair of the English Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Analyzing Freud: Letters of H. D., Bryher, And their Circle is a fascinating, informative primary source providing invaluable insights into the life and work of the famous father of modern psychoanalysis -- Sigmund Freud. The poet H. D. was one of Freud's patients in 1933 and 1934; her letters to her novelist companion Bryher (which often revolve around the hours she spent with Freud), offer a unique glimpse into the inception of psychoanalysis, the modern-day science of the mind. Analyzing Freud is a very highly recommended, essential, seminal addition to History Of Psychology reference shelves and supplemental reading lists. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    3. Freud, Sigmund    4. General    5. H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961    6. Letters    7. Literary    8. Psychology    9. Social Scientists & Psychologists    10. British Isles    11. English    12. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    13. USA   

Subjects:  1. 1935-    2. African American sociologists    3. African Americans    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. General    7. Minority Studies - General    8. Social Scientists & Psychologists    9. Social conditions    10. Sociology    11. Sociology - Urban    12. Sociology, Urban    13. United States    14. Wilson, William J.,    15. Ethnic studies    16. Social classes    17. USA    18. Urban communities   

Reviews (3)

Highly recommended
A superb introduction to French colonial thought and literature.For those of you who are interested in understanding the historical context within which this remarkable figure lived, I highly recommend this book.David Macey carefully addresses the various misrepresentations of Fanon, such as that by Hannah Arendt (most of the French of the time and others), who portrayed Fanon as simply being synonomous with violence.Fanon was a much more complex person than that: Driven, highly intelligent, a product of the French educational system, of WWII, of racism, a psychiatrist, a writer, yet born in Martinique and, after accepting a position in Algeria (rather than stay in France or return to Martinique), finds himself embroiled in an anti-France Algerian nationalist movement. The influences on him, his various professional decisions, as well as those that led him to direct involvement in wider African affairs, are carefully considered and documented.The footnotes, bibliography, and index are all much appreciated by this reader.
Fascinating!
This book, though enormous, was an easy and entertaining read.I have really only one objection.The book was a great history book but there weren't enough details about Fanon the man.I do think that historical contextualization is essential in biographies and in fact they're one of my favorite ways to learn history.
In Depth look at the origins of the civil rights movement
Bobby Seale gives virtually sole credit to Fanon's works as inspiration for the organization of the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.Frantz Fanon led a brief yet complex life fighting racist communist French colonialism in his adopted homeland of Algeria.This biography is not a quick read, and is intended for people that are willing to take their time getting through this 500 page monstrosity.In order to understand the opposite views of African politics through French colonialism during the same time period, reading about Leopold Senghor is an absolute must.Bravo to anyone seriously reading these philosophies!It's uncanny how much of Fanon's principles still relate to modern politics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Social Scientists & Psychologists   

Editorial Review

Kyoko Mori spent a largely unhappy childhood chafing at social restrictions in Japan beforemigrating to the American Midwest. In 12 beautifully turned essays she shuttles between these twocultures, observing local customs with a wondering eye. Too bold to be emotionally fluent in either land,Mori scrutinizes--and sometimes ridicules--the sound of a woman's voice raised in a childish squeak; thedifferences between Americans who marry for love (and divorce the day it dissolves) and traditionalJapanese women, who may be more likely to find happiness in an honorable widowhood; and thenavigation of uncomfortable truths and painful emotions. "Having a conversation in Japanese is likedriving in the dark without a headlight," she says. "Every moment, I am on the verge of hittingsomething and hurting myself or someone else, but I have no way of guessing where the dangersare." Despite frustration and puzzlement, Mori rarely swerves even to make her own limitations morepalatable. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

Beautifully Written but Flawed
I really enjoyed reading this book.Mori, as befits a writing instructor, writes beautifully.Her essays have a wonderful flow about them and are peppered with interesting details.I think they would serve as great instructional pieces on writing personal essays.
Recommended if you have lived in Japan
Having lived in Japan 4 separate times, I loved returning because things worked somehow and at the same time confused me as to how they worked. Mori by sharing her personal experiences -- through her mother's suicide, her stepmother's evil intent, her transition to life in Green Bay, her divorce to her husband, and more -- offers a lot of insight into the thinking that makes Japan's culture such a magnetic source of confusion for me. Although this represents more the author's insights from her personal experiences more than whatever "average" there may be to Japanese life, the reader can still learn from her unique experience of being "Japanese."
just terrible and offending!!!!!
Someone wrote, "She is writing about a Japanese society that she is no longer part of. She makes statments that assume that Japan has remained frozen in time since she left. She is comparing apples still on the tree to 20 year old rotten oranges." I really agree with this person!!! Does she really think that Japan is stii the same country which she had belonged to? Ridiculous! Don't believe anything in the book as well as her other books. I am a really Japanese and was truly offended by her description of Japan in her books. Her books just cause misunderstanding of Japan and Japanese people. To the author, don't write about Japan anymore. Because you already had left Japan many years ago and you are not Japanese who is able to describe Japan accurately. You ARE an Urashima Taro.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Japanese American women    3. Middle West    4. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    5. Social Science    6. Social Scientists & Psychologists    7. Social life and customs    8. Sociology    9. Women    10. Women's Studies - General    11. Biography & Autobiography / Social Scientists & Psychologists   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Movements - Psychoanalysis    5. Scientists - General    6. Social Scientists & Psychologists    7. Women    8. Biography: general    9. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    10. Psychology & Psychiatry / Psychoanalysis   

Reviews (4)

Stories until now untold
One way of dealing with events that bring one to a daily struggle is to tell a story, and Maria Ritter has told a fascinating story, captivating at every turn, and elucidating a period in her life that helps us all in overcoming the struggles of our own pasts. This book is one of several appearing in these days about the world of the writer's childhood.We have heard it from those who suffered through the holocaust, we have heard it from the point of view of Europe coming out of the destruction of World War II, but here is another account of one who was a child, severely wounded in the bombing of Dresden, seeking to find her past, and either forgive it to redeem it in the light of all that history has shown about the power and abuse of Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Moving Memoir
This book touched me on many levels.First, it was eye opening to learn more about the effect of WWII from the prospective of a child in Germany.To learn not only about the raw experience of war itself, but the struggles and shame after the war.Issues that are complex for anyone, let alone a child who was given no explanation for what had happened.Second, it is a story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit. Third, it discusses the importance of coming to terms with the struggles of the past and learning to be at peace with them.

Both heartbreaking and inspirational
Maria Ritter returns to Germany as an adult, and through the recollections of her early childhood, recalls the horrors and devastation brought to her homeland through the Hitler regime and the post WWII years under the communists.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Childhood Memoir    6. Dresden    7. Dresden (Germany)    8. Europe - Germany    9. Forced migration    10. German Americans    11. Germany    12. Psychological aspects    13. Ritter, Maria    14. Social Scientists & Psychologists    15. Women    16. World War, 1939-1945   

Reviews (7)

The battle against drug hypocrisy
Regardless of one's personal opinions about Timothy Leary, one cannot really deny the fact that he was a great man; great in the sense that his thoughts and ideas influenced an entire generation (and continues to do so), and that A LOT of people had - and still have - A LOT of strong feelings about everything he stood for. Perhaps it's too early to figure out how extensive his influence actually was. Everything he talked about didn't revolve around LSD, even though many tend to think just that. What many don't know, for instance, is that he contributed greatly to the field of psychology and developed different tests that are still in use today.
important and revealing
This is a rich and revealing book that I always recommend to anyone trying to grasp the contradictory figure that was Timothy Leary - not least because many of its subjects are still struggling to grasp exactly what hit them when Leary entered their lives.Highlights for me include the essays by Ram Dass, Robert Anton Wilson and Ralph Metzner, as well as William Burroughs' ability to use a few brief words so well.Winona Ryder's eulogy is also terrific -- it has since been included in Copeland's book on the greatest eulogies of our time, and I liked it so much I used it as the foreword to my own biography on Leary, 'I Have America Surrounded'.
A little rain on the celebration
This book is a source of comfort to anyone disgruntled by Robert Greenfield's less than appreciative bio of Timothy Leary. Editor Robert Forte calls his project a "festschrift," which, if my rusty German holds up, loosely means "celebration of writing." It is by no means balanced; its cover promises castigations but delivers only one, ironically from former outlaw chemist Owsley Stanley.There are polite rebukes of Leary's methods from Huston Smith and Myron Stolaroff, but the rest of the book is mainly a chorus of paeans, a love fest that gets sloppy in places.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1920-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Consciousness    7. Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience    8. Historical - U.S.    9. Leary, Timothy    10. Leary, Timothy Francis,    11. Philosophers    12. Popular Culture    13. Psychologists    14. Scientists - General    15. Social Scientists & Psychologists    16. United States    17. Biography: general    18. Mind, body, spirit: disciplines & techniques    19. Social Science / Popular Culture   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. France    4. History    5. Movements - Psychoanalysis    6. Philosophers    7. Psychoanalysis    8. Psychoanalysts    9. Psychology    10. Semiotics & Theory    11. Social Scientists & Psychologists   

Reviews (3)

A Wonderful Look At The Insights Of An Intellectual Titan!
No one has written with more verve and authority about the awesome and frightening capabilities of man than the late C. Wright Mills, a prominent and controversial sociologist who wrote such memorable tomes as "White Collar", an exploration of the emerging American Middle class in the early 1950s, and The Power Elite", a provocative examination of the nature of power, privilege, and status in the United States, and how each of these three critical elements of power and property in this country are irrevocably connected to each other. At last look, both books were still in print and are still used in both undergraduate and graduate sociology courses throughout the world. After fifty years, that in and of itself is powerful testimony to his enduring value as a scholar and an original thinker. Publisher responds to customer review
A customer review on this site states that the editors have changed the word "men" to "people" in the letters.As the publisher, we would like to place this statement in its proper context. C. Wright Mills: Letters and Writings, A Brief Review
I have been eagerly awating the publication of these glimpses into Mills' 'personal' life. The book is organized, for the most part, chronologically.Its contents are mostly letters written by this most influental radical intellectuall of the cold war period. The letters (and autobiographical writings disguised as letters) reveal Mills to be as intense, focused, and dedicated to his social analysis as I, a student of his work, have imagined him to be. The writings are beautifully composed; Mills was indeed both a scientist AND an artist. His musings are inspiring for any student, scholar, or critical minded person who wants an insight into Mills "private" reflections. This book could also serve as a wonderful guide to a study of Mills' life-work, as we are given insight into his concerns and struggles during his writing process. I do have a complaint...his daughters, who have no doubt taken painstaking efforts to compose this work, have been so bold as to alter the language of his personal writings... "we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people'" (p. xiv). I think we are wise enough to realize that Mills language is a reflection of the social and historical context in which he lived...Regardless, we are lucky to have this invaluable resource that provides endless reflections into the life and though of C. Wright Mills.END ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Political    5. Social Scientists & Psychologists    6. Sociologists    7. American studies    8. Biography: general    9. Essays, journals, letters & other prose works    10. History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)    11. Sociology, Social Studies    12. USA   

Reviews (1)

No Time
Blumberg is a psychologist in the city of Baltimore, Maryland helping students and working in conjunction with teachers, social workers, and other school professionals.This book is her story- both inside school and in general.As the mother of an intellectually limited child herself, one of Blumberg's focuses is on increasing the interaction and understanding between health workers and the parents of the children she works with.Additionally, Blumberg is a staunch proponent of behavior management to help students, both inside and outside the classroom.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Educational Psychology    3. Personal Memoirs    4. Social Scientists & Psychologists    5. Philosophy & Social Aspects    6. Education   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Foresters    5. Ibberson, J. E    6. Pennsylvania    7. Social Scientists & Psychologists   

Reviews (5)

of all of us
Martha Wakenshaw is a rebel among psychologists. She believes in the healing power of love, of simple human decency & natural bonds. Strong, emotional book
Be prepared for some of the most horrific stories of situations that some children live through.Martha Wakenshaw is a professional therapist who has dealt extensively with children from some of the most frighteningfamily situations that you can imagine.As you read this book you will be transported to some of the most horrific situations that a child could live through.Be prepared to cry for the child and for the therapist as she deals with a child welfare system that seems to have very little interest in a child's welfare and insurance companies that think a lifetime of abuse can be resolved in ten weeks.Feel the pain of the children, feel the pain and love of the therapist, feel the frustration as both try to work through their difficulties."This child of mine" shows Martha Wakenshaw's committment to the children brought to her for healing.It is not another child with another problem, they are real children which she accepts as if they were her own child. Poetic, Inspiring and Real
Ms. Wakenshaw has given of herself to the children and families as well as to the readers of this book. She does not gloss over details that are traumatic and real nor does she exploit them. This poignant glimpse into the life a therapist working with traumatized children is not easy to read but I believe is essential to anyone considering working with children. Ms. Wakenshaw opens her heart to us as she did to the children, sometimes to her own detriment. You will feel what she felt and see through her eyes as she desperately tries to save fragile little lives. You may get new insights into the laws and policies surrounding the protection of children and families. Ms. Wakenshaw uses poetic imagery to describe what she was going through in a way that is real and moving. You will never forget this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abuse - General    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Case Studies    6. Child psychotherapy    7. Psychology    8. Psychotherapists    9. Psychotherapy - Child & Adolescent    10. Social Scientists & Psychologists    11. United States    12. Wakenshaw, Martha    13. Biography: general    14. Clinical psychology    15. Paediatric nursing    16. Child abuse    17. Recovery    18. Play therapy