2 comments about The Dark Side of the Analytic Moon.

1. A revealing and personal account which exposes much about psychotherapy and especially psychoanalytic training that is never usually allowed to be discussed openly in print. Raises controversial questions that will make the blood of many boil but should be manadatory reading for all those contemplating entering a psychoanalytic or psychotherapy training institute.



2. I cannot believe anyone would publish this book--typos, grammatical errors, sensationalism and all! The author alleges all manner of abuses by psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic institutes based on his personal experience as a psychoanalytic candidate. The persons, places, events and incidents are supposedly disguised (to avoid charges of libel, I would think) and are so negatively portrayed and sensationalized as to be unbelievable. After reading this, the layperson having no other knowledge of psychoanalysis, psychoanalysts, or training institutes would be forever frightened away from pursuing this form of treatment. Those portrayed are so abusive, stupid, unprofessional, self-serving, so completely lacking any multidimensionality as to be simply unbelievable--caricatures of mental health professionals, not real human beings. Did this author have a bad analysis? Did he get kicked out of the various institutes he "exposes?" This book is so bad I couldn't finish it. Don't waste your money.

No comments about Oedipus in Britain: Edward Glover and the Struggle over Klein.

No comments about Autobiographical Notes of Louis A. Gottschalk.

No comments about Margaret Mead (Women Who Dare).

No comments about The Biography Famous: An Intellectual Autobiography within a Biography.

2 comments about Participant Observer: A Memoir of a Transatlantic Life.

1. Ever since Kinship and Marriage first appeared in 1967 -- the classic volume that first set forth the ground rules for understanding how kinship systems operate and which today remains the most widely published anthropological textbook -- Robin Fox's work continues to astound, delight, and challenge. In 1971 he and Lionel Tiger published The Imperial Animal, inaugurating a revolution in thinking with their argument that human beings are, in fact, part of the animal kingdom, that our evolutionary background needs to be taken into account, and that human behavior and culture are ultimately rooted in human nature. Perhaps the term sociobiology is familiar enough today, but when Fox and Tiger's findings were initially unleashed, the impact was nothing less than an intellectual earthquake.
   
   A brilliant essayist and social theorist, much of Fox's subsequent career has been devoted to restoring to anthropology the heritage of Darwin. To that end he has marshaled evidence that cuts across disciplinary lines, and is as much at ease discussing ancient Hindu law or the fundamentals of primate behavior as the philosophers of the European enlightenment. Fox warns in his writings that unless more anthropologists consider biology and human nature in their attempts to understand the human condition, much of their work will be relegated to obscurity. All too often, he laments, scholarship has been driven by agenda rather than by evidence.
   
   Over the course of his long career, Fox has made major contributions in other areas as well. As a linguist and ethnographer, he has written classic accounts of the Tory Islanders and Pueblo Indians, documenting ways of life that have since been lost. He founded the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. And he is an accomplished musician and lyric poet worthy of the great literary tradition of his birthright, England.
   
   Now for the first time, Robin Fox has given us his life story. Written in the third person with epic verve, Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life, takes us back to his childhood in rural Pre-World War II southern England (still undergoing the throws of the industrial revolution) through the terrors of the Nazi bombardment to his subsequent adolescence at the London School of Economics. The compelling and entertaining narrative sweeps us along from Fox's earliest memories to the maturation of his ideas, from his first punishment from a grammar school teacher (Fox's crime was to give an honest but unorthodox answer to her question), to the difficulties he faced later when challenging long cherished paradigms by academics.
   
   In short, Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life, is a breathtaking intellectual odyssey that not only spans the Atlantic but many kinds of worlds. We move from the debate halls of Oxford and Harvard -- with their jealousies, back biting and intellectual battles to the near-neolithic village life of Pueblo Indians of Cochiti, or the Tory Islanders off the coast of England, attempting to preserve their traditional ways of life. Through the telling we are treated to a fascinating array of characters who helped define the 20th century -- their human foibles as well as achievements. Fox is a master at describing the human comedy, and there is a delightful hilarity to much of his narrative -- well balanced against his nostalgia for the lost worlds and people he knew.
   
   At times Participant Observer will have readers laughing out loud, at other times they will likely be moved by its poetic reflection and insight, and at all times pulled along by the excitement of the surge and clash of the great ideas that have helped forge our age (and unmask our species). Fox's own personal narrative moves skillfully in the midst of that giant river helping to steer its course. Here is the perfect marriage of literature and science, disproving the conventional view that it can`t be done. Fox's new book is a must for anyone who wants to understand more about this dynamic scholar: about the intellectual climate that shaped our time and which Fox himself significantly helped shape.
   
   David M. Oestreicher, Ph.D., Independent Scholar



2. Ever since Kinship and Marriage first appeared in 1967 -- the classic volume that first set forth the ground rules for understanding how kinship systems operate and which today remains the most widely published anthropological textbook -- Robin Fox's work continues to astound, delight, and challenge. In 1971 he and Lionel Tiger published The Imperial Animal, inaugurating a revolution in thinking with their argument that human beings are, in fact, part of the animal kingdom, that our evolutionary background needs to be taken into account, and that human behavior and culture are ultimately rooted in human nature. Perhaps the term sociobiology is familiar enough today, but when Fox and Tiger's findings were initially unleashed, the impact was nothing less than an intellectual earthquake.
   
   A brilliant essayist and social theorist, much of Fox's subsequent career has been devoted to restoring to anthropology the heritage of Darwin. To that end he has marshaled evidence that cuts across disciplinary lines, and is as much at ease discussing ancient Hindu law or the fundamentals of primate behavior as the philosophers of the European enlightenment. Fox warns in his writings that unless more anthropologists consider biology and human nature in their attempts to understand the human condition, much of their work will be relegated to obscurity. All too often, he laments, scholarship has been driven by agenda rather than by evidence.
   
   Over the course of his long career, Fox has made major contributions in other areas as well. As a linguist and ethnographer, he has written classic accounts of the Tory Islanders and Pueblo Indians, documenting ways of life that have since been lost. He founded the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. And he is an accomplished musician and lyric poet worthy of the great literary tradition of his birthright, England.
   
   Now for the first time, Robin Fox has given us his life story. Written in the third person with epic verve, Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life, takes us back to his childhood in rural Pre-World War II southern England (still undergoing the throws of the industrial revolution) through the terrors of the Nazi bombardment to his subsequent adolescence at the London School of Economics. The compelling and entertaining narrative sweeps us along from Fox's earliest memories to the maturation of his ideas, from his first punishment from a grammar school teacher (Fox's crime was to give an honest but unorthodox answer to her question), to the difficulties he faced later when challenging long cherished paradigms by academics.
   
   In short, Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life, is a breathtaking intellectual odyssey that not only spans the Atlantic but many kinds of worlds. We move from the debate halls of Oxford and Harvard -- with their jealousies, back biting and intellectual battles to the near-neolithic village life of Pueblo Indians of Cochiti, or the Tory Islanders off the coast of England, attempting to preserve their traditional ways of life. Through the telling we are treated to a fascinating array of characters who helped define the 20th century -- their human foibles as well as achievements. Fox is a master at describing the human comedy, and there is a delightful hilarity to much of his narrative -- well balanced against his nostalgia for the lost worlds and people he knew.
   
   At times Participant Observer will have readers laughing out loud, at other times they will likely be moved by its poetic reflection and insight, and at all times pulled along by the excitement of the surge and clash of the great ideas that have helped forge our age (and unmask our species). Fox's own personal narrative moves skillfully in the midst of that giant river helping to steer its course. Here is the perfect marriage of literature and science, disproving the conventional view that it can`t be done. Fox's new book is a must for anyone who wants to understand more about this dynamic scholar: about the intellectual climate that shaped our time and which Fox himself significantly helped shape.
   
   David M. Oestreicher , Ph.D., independent scholar.

No comments about Tributo A Freud/tribute To Freud.

1 comments about A Prophetic Analyst: Erich Fromm's Contributions to Psychoanalysis.

1. Mauricio Cortina and Michael Maccoby give us a rare gift in A PROPHETIC ANALYST: ERICH FROMM'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOANALYSIS, by editing the work of eighteen contributors presented at the Erich Fromm International Symposium held in Washington, D.C. in March 1994. Erich Fromm was read by millions and was highly influencial in the 1940s and 50s, but fell into neglect in his later years, in spite of the fact that some of his important work, SOCIAL CHARACTER IN A MEXICAN VILLAGE (co-authored with Micheal Maccoby) and THE ANATOMY OF HUMAN DESTRUCTIVENESS was published in the 1970s. Erich Fromm greatly admired Freud, yet was courageously critical of many aspects of his theory. The contributors to this book take a similar attitude toward Fromm, admiring his major contributions to psychoanalysis without shrinking from pointing out his short-comings. This is a scholarly work, but (also in Fromm's own tradition) one that is highly readable. I recommend it to anyone who has found Fromm a source of understanding or inspiration in the past. For the clinician, it offers rare insight into Fromm's contributions to clinical psychoanalysis. It deepens understanding of his work as a sociologist and philosopher. For the merely curious about Fromm as psychoanalyst or social thinker, this book could be a good beginning. Robert Duckles, Ph.D. bobduck@aol.com

3 comments about The Good Listener: Helen Bamber, A Life Against Cruelty.

1. Why does this book have only 2.5 stars? One German reader doesn't like it, the other reviewer doesn't think it's political enough, and every reviewing publication gives it a very high recommendation. It seems that the stars are very simplistic and robotic.



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3. This book like Schindlers List creates heroes which can be used to characterize the offical enemy as evil, much like a t.v. melodrama, while ignoring the complicity & collaboration of Britain & the U.S. in the very crimes they chronicle, when it suits their colonial ambitions. While Six Million Died. by, Arthur D. Morse a more substantive history, describes Britain in a far less innocent manner, but apparently the publisher could not afford Amazon's asking price for a prominent spot on their home page.

1 comments about Journey to Xibalba: A Life in Archaeology.

1. This book was enjoyable on a number of levels. I purchased it for myself because I have recently accepted a position in an environmental consulting firm that employs archaeologists and I wanted to understand their work in a more personal way. From that perspective it was very successful in helping me to understand why people choose this career and the fulfillment they receive from it.
   
   Not long ago one of our archaeologists was confined to bedrest following surgury and I sent the book on to him as a help to pass the time. He was very appreciative and said he especially enjoyed reading about the work of another professional who had followed a very different path in his choice of work. That tells me it is stimulating enough for a pratitioner in the field.
   
   I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has ever said, "I'd like to do that" when watching TLC programs shot in Egypt.