4 comments about The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize: A Life in Science.

1. Professor Peter C. Doherty was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Swiss colleague, Rolf Zingerngel, in 1996 for discovering `the nature of the cellular immune defence', and was also recognised as Australian of the Year in 1997.
   
   Brief history of Noble Prize/s and autobiography of his childhood. Technical in places on immunology. A very informative read.



2. In 1996 author Peter Doherty found himself receiving the Nobel Price for Physiology or Medicine from the king of Sweden - an unlikely event for a boy who grew up in an Australian working neighborhood where his schoolmates ended up working in the local slaughterhouse. His journey from Australia, his evolving interest in immunology, and his eventual award-winning work are revealed in a memoir which surveys the life of a research scientist, discussing how scientific projects are selected, funded and organized. This approach makes this more than just a memoir of a prize-winner - and important to any aspiring scientist.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. It is not a How-To book to get the Super Prize, it is a journey of a Nobel Prize winner from his childhood to manage to get a nobel prize.
   
   I really like it



4. This book is part memoir, part autobiography, part philosophy, and part several other things, and the result is a delightful read. The title needs to be taken just a bit in jest as no body can tell you how to win the big one. In science that's the Nobel, in sports its the Superbowl or World Series, in acting a Tony or Emmy.
   
   What the book can tell you is how the big one changes your life around. When the Nobel committee called to inform him that he was a winner they said, 'I'm going to give you ten minutes to call your families and friends before I release it to the press. After that expect the phone to be continuously busy.' In the case of the Nobel, a surprising number of people can't get back to the life of research they previously did, they are too busy making speeches and the like.
   
   Another part of the book is on the conflict between science and religion. Back in Galileo's day the Church had decreed that everything went around the Earth, the center of God's perfect universe. Looking through his home made telescope, Galileo saw that moons went around Jupiter. He was shown the instruments of torture and kept under house arrest for the remainder of his life. After this, astronomical research moved to areas not under the tight control of the church.
   
   Now it seems to be the time for biology to be held in contempt. There exists the possibility that religion will stop biology, at least in the United States, substituting faith in the Bible to replace observable facts. This is pretty scary in view of AIDS, bird flu, and other possible pandemics.
   
   Finally there is a section on What's Next. There are too many thoughts here that I can't even begin to do justice to them in a list. Lets just say that there are tremendous problems, tremendous opportunities.

5 comments about John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics.

1. This is an excellent portrayal of the life of Galbraith, set in the surrounding economic and political history of his lifetime. I highly recommend it for these reasons.
   
   In addition, a theme of Galbraith's understanding of the combination of economic and social and political currents is made clear. Impressively the lack of appreciation by the political and military figures in the US government during different presidencies, as well as the political bias affecting Galbraiths peers in the academic world comes through.
   
   In a world full of people nursing their own ends in the Air Force, government party line, and econometric biases, Galbraith's genious went often neglected or countered. But he remained able to speak to the public at large in his writings, providing a guidance of uncommon sense in his lifetime. This book presents his case admirably.



2. Whenever Galbraith wrote or spoke he did consider not only pure economics but also the large issues at hand. Poverty next to Affluence. Government spending for Military purposes instead of education, health care, i.e. social progress. Our ever focus on larger GNP, the increasing gap between the poor and the better off. He urged to protect the environment when no one talked about it and he supported equal opportunities for women long before any one else of such high stand did. Ken Galbraith was a true Giant among Economists! Great read! I can highly recommend it!



3. While economist Parker's writing style is not as wryly entertaining as Galbraith's, he presents a lucid and engrossing overview of Galbraith's life experiences as they influenced the evolution of his economic philosophy, as well as his political and social philosophies. Galbraith's biography is skillfully presented against the background of more traditional economic thought with which he was regularly in contention. I judge it every bit as readable and understandable for a noneconomist like myself as for someone in the field. For anyone interested in Galbraith, in Keynesianism, or the history of progressive politics and economics, this work is an absolute must. I refer to mine regularly. This, in fact, is my second copy, having worn out the first.



4. Richard Parker gives us a thorough review of the life, politics, and economics of one of the most well known economists of the twentieth century. Along the way, Parker takes the reader on a tour of the battles that roiled post-war American economic thought and of John Kenneth Galbraith's eager participation in those debates.
   
   Although the subtitle of Parker's book on this legendary 20th century economist advertises itself as covering Galbraith's "life . . . politics . . . and economics," Parker is far more interested in the second and third elements. Readers who are expecting a more traditional biography that focuses in equal measure on the subject's personal and professional life will therefore be disappointed, for Parker relegates personal details to a decidedly secondary place in his book. Instead of a traditional biography, "JKB" seeks to explain the rise and fall of the post-war Keynesian economic consensus -- that government must act to spur aggregate demand to prevent the long periods of underconsumption which economices are prone to endure -- and the legacy it has left behind in the 21st century. "JKB" accomplishes this by recounting the career of its most public proponent: Galbraith. With this in mind, the book operates on two levels; on the one hand it narrates Galbraith's career in public service and in academia, while on the other hand it is also a history of the American economy in the post-war world (and the politics shaping it) as seen through Galbraith's Keynesian eyes.
   
   We thus tag along as Galbraith enters the profession while it struggles to explain the origins of (and discover remedies to) the Great Depression; as Galbraith struggles with the implications of Keynes' revolutionary theory about modern economies; as Galbraith, along with a new generation of economists, tries to implement Keynes' teachings to ensure the nation's prosperity after World War II; as Galbraith and Keynes reach the height of their influence in the 1960s, followed by decline amidst the economic shocks of the 1970s; and as the century ends with both Galbraith and the post-war economic consensus seen as relics of an earlier era, replaced by a new form of laissez-faire reminiscent of the 1920s.
   
   Accepting this as the book's premise, Parker works hard to reach the general reader who does not have a background in economics. For instance, I found his treatment of the end of the Bretton Woods system to be the first comprehensible explanation of why it occurred and of its enormous effects on the world economy that I have come across. Still, parts of the book are a bit technical and dry. Parker tends to digress too much at times, with page after page discussing trends in economics in the 1950s, causing one to momentarily forget that this is a book ostensibly about Galbraith. Nevertheless, Parker has constructed an engaging account of Galbraith's foresight and influence in national (and international) affairs. Parker reminds us that many of Galbraith's ideas were years ahead of his time, such as the insight that corporations now play a decisive role in generating demand through advertising, and that he was dead right about Vietnam very early on. Parker allows Galbraith's wit and humanity to shine through. Finally, his analysis of the ups and downs of the American economy over the last sixty years -- from the post-war boom through the chaos of the 1970s and the nation's economic resurgence in the 1980s and 90s -- is outstanding. This book is a must for anyone interested in the American economy since the war.



5. This is really an excellent biography of a fine man and economist. His friend, the noted patrician conservative, Bill Buckley, gives it high praise on his front cover blurb for the book. Hopefully, Gailbraith got Buckley's praise before he died. If he did, I hope he withdrew his earlier comment quoted in the book that, "...Buckley...was invariably wrong." Plus, if he were still alive, I'm sure he would be most pleased with Bill Buckley's criticism of Bush and the Iraq war.
   
   Richard Parker has written an excellent book documenting John Kenneth Gailbraith's very long (98 years) and productive life. I happen to agree with Paul Samuelson that Gailbraith will be remembered long after the neo-classical mathematizers have passed away. Economics is a Social Science that belongs in the Liberal Arts tradition. It should not be treated as a cultish pseudo-science with the "high priests" continuously muttering incantations of statistical and mathematical hocus-pocus. All the time, enjoying well financed academic chairs funded by conservative business interests or working for conservative foundations. Writing apologetics for the corporate business community is certainly going to be far more finanically rewarding than speaking truth to power.
   
   When I hear many of today's conservative economists speak on conservative foundation panels on C-SPAN, I am sometimes reminded of the old radical American economist of Norwegian-American descent, Thorstein Veblen. One of his more direct comments about the education of business oriented neo-classical economists was that they possessed "trained incapacity" by the end of their extensive schooling. Some things haven't changed too much since the early 20th century when he coined the phrase.
   
   Gailbraith's adherence to the less popular and older view of economics as "political economy" will, I believe, win out in the end. Economic behavior is social behavior and cannot be fully extracted from psychological, sociological, anthropological, and most of all, political, concerns. To deny this very basic fact is to live in a fantasy world. Political decisions are enormously important in the workings of national and international economies. Market forces are also of great importance, but there are no "free market" forces that act in isolated purity. Market forces are always contextual--influenced by family, community, custom, mass psychology, politics especially, etc., etc.
   
   Parker convinced me that the U.S. would be a much better place if presidents after FDR had followed Gailbraith's advice. The world would also be a much safer place without the extraordinary levels of US militarism after WWII--with accompanying conservative belligerance. Military spending is necessary up to a responsible, defensive level. After that level is achieved, however, it is incredibly wasteful and injurious to world peace. We would be far better served to invest in our people, their health, environment, and infrastructure than to keep flushing the money down the toilet for more "killer" weapons systems.
   
   John Kenneth Gailbraith was a voice of sanity in an increasingly insane world. He will be greatly missed by those of us outside of the neo-conservative asylum.

3 comments about The Theory of the Growth of the Firm.

1. The Theory of the Growth of the Firm is a classic book in management literature, and one that is explored by academics as well as business enthusiasts. With this book, Penrose founded what's known as the resource-based view. Essentially, she determined that there must be something inside the firm that drives its growth (i.e. success).
   
   The author explores the reasons for such growth. Penrose moves away from the neoclassical economics model of the firm towards a definition of the firm as one that has administrative responsibilities (strategic planning or management) and a view of the firm as a collection of resources (human resources, technologies and other capabilities a firm has). She argues that choice of how those resources are put to use is central to a firms "entrepreneurial" activity.
   
   Penrose goes on to say that change and growth of firms must be driven from inside the firm because the economy as a whole does not constrain firms. Managers, she says, know that they can alter their environment, and that the environment is not independent of their activities.
   
   The resources that are available within firms are ever changing, of course, and often come together in bundles. This means that there are always some resources that are not being used, or being used inefficiently. Managers who realise this can develop those resources and grow their companies as a result. Thus, it is knowledge in combination with resources that drives growth. This is also what makes each firm unique: there are hundreds of ways to combine those resources, and each firm does it differently.
   
   The book then talks about how growth takes place - sometimes as part of a diversification process or through an acquisition or merger. Penrose also discusses the role of time, and the difference between a small or a larger company growing. Growth, she concludes is possible for all firms - size does not necessarily mean that a firm is more efficient (which is the typical economic argument). The only thing that constrains growth, really, is the limited capacity we humans have for managing a lot of change at once.
   
   The style of writing is conversational, if somewhat dated. The only slight drawback is that Penrose often returns to hammer on the same point. But that's not unusual for this type of book. The most astonishing aspect by far is that Edith Penrose was a woman, in a world of business and academia that then, and still now, consists largely of men.



2. I find myself springing to the defense of this book, because when I read it - right through - it was with a sense of appreciation for its acumen. Penrose's terminology is a little idiosyncratic but it does not take long for the reader to adjust. Moreover, when reading it with the circumstances of actual companies in mind, it presents a way to gain insight into their histories. One other way to express this is that my notes on this book are very detailed and lengthy. I didn't make these notes simply because the book is a "classic".



3. This book helped provide the foundation for what has become known as the resource-based view of the firm (RBV). Back in 1959, when the male gender dominated the economics discipline, Ms. Penrose set out to answer this question: Was there "something inherent in the very nature of any firm that both promoted its growth and necessarily limited its RATE of growth."

   I found this book so interesting and helpful (I am a business appraiser) that I read it twice. This led me into studying the resource-based view of the firm.

   I recommend this book for anyone interested in the broad topics of business strategy and management. Related books that I recommend include "Contemporary Strategy Analysis," by Robert Grant; "Modern Competitive Analysis, by Sharon Oster; and "Why Firms Succeed," by John Kay.

2 comments about Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On : The Autobiography and Journals of Helen M. Luke.

1. I found the autobiographical section of this book a little hard to follow. Could not understand how her life was structured, timeline-wise, and what actually happened.
   
   The journal section is clearer and more accessible.
   
   How do devoted Jungians find time to pursue all these symbols and images? The true weakness of this book is that I could not quite grasp how the author's inner work really related to her life with other people. In some cases, obviously, it is clear. But entire swatches of love, romance, child rearing, friendship, analytical work, are left out, leaving me agog with curiosity. What happened?



2. Recently in an interview with Charlie Rose Meryl Streep spoke of women needing a dream that portrayed them as powerful, particularly as they age. Helen Luke's autobiography is just such a dream. It is a carefully woven tapestry of her dreams, her thoughts, her readings (the wide range of her reading & interests included Lord Of the Rings by Tolkien, Dante, T.S. Eliot, C.K. Williams,& Larry Dossey's Shamanic books), and the encounters that she had in her life (which included Robert Johnson, Carl Jung, Dr. Meiers, Toni Sussman,Dr. Kunkel). The patterns of this tapestry speak to us of a life that followed the Way of individuation, as she refers to it in the autobiography. What most impressed me was the way in which she lived the path, risks and all, that Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell taught, despite her Christian Scientist upbringing. This straightforward autobiography & her journals model The Way. Her courage to leave her mother behind while she was dying in order to follow her "dreams" was inspirational. Her discussion in her diary entry about C.K.Williams work Descent Into Hell (which she refers to frequently, reminding me of how good a book it was) and it's demonstration that "a `daughter's gift to an injured mother' through language, even many years after a mother's death, may be valid" fed many beliefs that I have had about how healing can occur and ones role in it. The book read like a road map to a fulfilled life, well marked by the signposts of the numinousities, synchronicities, and struggles encountered by a thoughtful individual. It is hard to put down, I read through it almost at once, and will be studying and thinking about the lessons it holds for a long time. I am quite confident that most men and women will not regret studying this book.

2 comments about The Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez.

1. Cesar Chavez has been likened to the American Gandhi, using the powerful tools of nonviolence, including fasting with prayer and mass mobilizations, to affect political change, labor rights and human rights for his people, our people, for Americans now again forgotten, rejected, despised, blockaded, dispossessed. We need him now. We need him again. Read this book. Be him now.
   
   Published by the excellent Catholic printing house Orbis Books, this biography was written by a professor of moral theology at Holy Rosary College in San Jose who briefly and intermittently volunteered for the UFW after the death of Cesar Chavez, whom he had seen once deliver a speech.
   
   I met Mr. Chavez a few times nearly twenty five years ago at Mass in the tiny chapel of the Maryknoll House in Manhattan, as he was visiting during conferences in New York. Mr. Chavez was ever a faithful and a profoundly practicing Catholic, inspired by our Faith to work for peace and justice and labor and human rights for the most poor and despised, just as Our Holy Father His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI recently exhorts us in Sacramentum Caritatis: el Sacramento de la Caridad: una Exhortacion Apostolica Postsinodal that the Eucharist in itself compels us to alter the unjust economic structures which entrap so many of us in desparate poverty.
   
   Ceasr Chavez therefore inspires and guides all Americans and all Catholics in the true realization of living our Faith integrally. Professor of Moral Theology Dalton here examines deeply the life of Mr. Chavez, exploring his moral vision and his true path in Faith.
   
   Briefly the professor sums up this intense and real moral vision thusly:
   
   "Cesar's moral vision centered on sacrificial service, solidarity through voluntary poverty, nonviolent confrontation, and faith in God and others. These virtues shaped the identity and character of the union community just as they shaped Cesar's own identity and character. These characteristics were from Cesar's perspective, non-negotiable (p. 152)."
   
   I fonud the references to the great Bishops Connelly and Curtis of Connecticut tantalizing yet welcome. Despite the revised Code of Canon Law's bias which might throw cold water on such faith necessities, they performed truly Catholic work in line with Pope Leo the Great's famous encyclical Rerum Novarum, a courageous labor which may be studied more fully and thus usefully at Cesar Chavez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers' Struggle for Social Justice. We need them and their truly Catholic hierarchical witness and orthopraxis and deeply moral vision and integral living of our Faith now more than ever.



2. Frederick John Dalton is to be congratulated for this beautifully written and spiritually inspiring study of the moral vision that underlay Cesar Chavez's activism. Following in the tradition of Jesus, Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, and the Berrigan brothers, Chavez's orientation was biblical to the core. He preached and practiced nonviolent resistance, personal and group sacrifice, the transformative power of love and forgiveness, and individual prayer and meditation as essential tools in working for peace and justice. Unlike so many activists then and now, Chavez wasn't concerned with protesting and demonstrating just to say "No." More fundamentally, he was interested in working for social and economic conditions that would affirm people with a resounding "Yes!" Chavez's deep faith in God and the Gospel of justice and peace grounded that "Yes" and made it truly prophetic. As he himself said, "What keeps me going? Well, it's like a fire--a consuming, nagging everyday and every-moment demand of my soul to just do it. It's difficult to explain. I like to think it's the good Spirit asking me to do it. I hope so...If you really want something, you have to sacrifice. Because of my faith the concept of sacrifice is understood" (p. 162).

   This is a must-read for anyone who yearns to integrate a passion for social justice with a deep, mystical faith in God. Cesar showed us, as all genuine mystics do, that the two are not only incompatible but necessarily conjoined. Dalton's sensitive and well-written study has done Chavez proud.

1 comments about African American Leadership: An Empowerment Tradition in Social Welfare History.

1. 
   Dr. Iris Calton-Laney is a valued member in the African American community, her contributions are culturally constructive, professionally progressive, and economically empowering.
   
   We support her because her goal is to empower us.

5 comments about City of One: A Memoir.

1. This book moved and enlightened me. Cournos' story of surviving what every child fears most--the loss of both her parents--is raw, vivid, and remarkably compassionate given that she became a foster child through willful neglect on the part of her extended family. Cournos succeeds in transforming her own particular journey into a roadmap for others who want or need to understand what it is to be an orphan. Brave and beautifully done!



2. As a psychiatric social worker this book gives an excellent perspective on the foster care system, how we would knew it and what it has become. In addition the book Dr.Cournos writes sheds an enormous light on the alienation of family and the reasons that alienation might occurr. It is a sad tale with a shinning light ending. As a mother who has almost lost a child to cancer, this book has inspired me to look ahead and consider all the possibilities, as Dr. Cournos has. It is a book that all should read.



3. As a psychiatric social worker this book gives an excellent perspective on the foster care system, how we would knew it and what it has become. In addition the book Dr.Cournos writes sheds an enormous light on the alienation of family and the reasons that alienation might occurr. It was a sad story with a shinning light ending.



4. It didn't occur to me that I would be so touched by Francine Cournos's book. I have an interest in child welfare issues, which is why I read it. She deals with a much bigger issue than foster care -- she writes about the voluminous effect that the loss of parents can have on a child throughout his or her life. Brava, Dr. Cournos. Thank you for sharing your life with us. This is a must-read for anyone who works with children in any arena.



5. As a writer, and as someone whose own experiences of childhood loss and its aftereffects closely parallel those of Dr. Cournos, I found City of One both deeply moving and comforting. We who have the hole where the loving parent should be, we who deal with the myth and the anger and the quest for wholeness, understand every word. Not only does Dr. Cournos evoke the pain of the loss, but her honesty and her search for the strengths that can come from a tragic early life goes beyond judgment and pathology. It goes to the things that define our lifelong sense of who we are. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone who wants to understand or who struggles with these issues.

5 comments about Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures.

1. I picked up this book hoping that I might find some similar experiences. Like this author I immigrated to the US when Iwas 20 and have been in the US for more than 20 years and living in two cultures: Korean and American.
   
   I didn't mind reading the author's comparisons about two cultures, saying "in Japan....but in Midwest ..." But her voice is getting too much negative and so angry then it becomes that she sounds arrogant: no personal warmth from the author.



2. As a half-Japanese raised in the Midwest by an old-fashioned Japanese mother born and raised near Tokyo, I could really relate to much of this book. Mori's personal story and her eye-opening revelations of traditional Japanese culture vs general American culture are fascinating, however she did lose me a bit in her comparisons with the Midwest which I did not fully buy into. Others may argue that Mori discloses the "old" Japan, but there are plenty of books out there trying to teach Americans how to negotiate the Japanese social terrain which is extremely complex and still quite traditional and conservative. Mori is an unusually independent and practical woman, so much so that she discovers marriage even to a good man who gives her space is too constricting. It seems her own childhood experiences have thrust her into the extreme. I hope she finds happiness.



3. I loved this book. I am not surprised that there are bad reviews. Some Japanese and japanophile readers could be offended by the revelations about Japanese culture. But, Kyoko is giving the reader tremendous insight into the social structure of Japan. She points out quite a few similarities to American Midwest culture. Best of all, her stories draw the reader in and keep reader wanting more.



4. 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.
   
   However, I found some un-evenness in the actual content of what Dr. Mori had to say. Her observations about what it's like to be a person caught between or maybe with one foot in each of two very different cultures struck me as very true and perceptive, as this is also my life story.
   
   The problem is when Dr. Mori talks about Japan. She is one of a fairly typical group of adult-immigrants to the US, who moved here because they disliked their life in their home country. And since she has been here for 20 years and has been very successful and lived a full life, all her stories about Japan are going to have a goal of saying 'I am so glad I left Japan.' In addition, as the other reviewers have said, Dr. Mori had an extremely unhappy childhod in Japan, which probably colors all of her perceptions of that country. I found her descriptions of her feelings in flying closer to Japan on a rare visit there very revealing -- to her, Japan is not a home, not even a happy place, but instead a place full of terrible memories that she is only too happy to have escaped from.
   
   Nonetheless, I think this book is worth reading both for its writing and its observations about being a person who is bicultural by choice.



5. 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."
   
   Also, coming from the Chicago area, I learn from Mori's comparison of her understanding of Midwestern Green Bay culture and Kansai Japanese culture. It's a comparison that other sociological books and more quantative readings fail at. In terms of writing quality, maybe I'd give it 3 stars, but the way Kyoko Mori shares so much personally, this open honestness encouraged me to give it 4 stars. This book might also be useful for couples with a Japanese or Japanese-American partner.

5 comments about The Creation of Doctor B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim.

1. The Creation of Doctor B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim
   I read Bruno Bettelheim books when he was the guru of child psychiatry in the 50's and 60's and thought they were excellent. Now this book exposes the truth about him. It is quite interesting and anyone who still believes in his methods should really read it.
   Jane Gaschke



2. Pollak's book is a long-needed, well-written, thoroughly researched document that should be required reading for every psychology and psychiatry student.
   
   Bruno Bettelheim did not blight just one generation of families of autistic people. He hurt, and continues to hurt, hundreds of thousands of people through his misbegotten, arrogantly upheld, cruel, baseless theories that were far more widely publicized than the current scientific research. His book The Empty Fortress (published in 1962 with all the Freudian nonsense) is still in print, which means that there are even today, 2007, many people out there who believe or even revere him.
   
   Rare, indeed, is the family member of an autistic person who has not been assured by a confident Bettelheim reader that the child's mother caused his disease. Can you imagine the harm and heartbreak this causes? Even Bettelheim's own wife quarreled with him because he was so hard on mothers.
   
   Personally I believe that Bettelheim killed himself in part because it was more and more difficult for him to uphold his theories, his life work, in the face of mounting scientific evidence that autism has physical causes.
   
   The Bettelheim defenders have no facts to back them up. They fall back on "he was a brilliant man" or "follow-up studies would have gone against his method" or "he was a distinguished scholar." The facts are that Bettelheim's whole career as a "scholar" was based on lies and misrepresentations; that he hurt dozens of children directly and hundreds of thousands of families indirectly; and that Pollak's book is finally getting people to take a hard look at a very bad man.
   
   The University of Chicago should publicly apologize that it supported him for so long.



3. this is not biography, but libel with a good motive. For an unbiased overview of the polemic about dr. B. see the review "The Strange Case of Dr. B." in the New York Review of Books, Volume 50, Number 3 ? February 27, 2003. (i found it online)



4. Mr. Pollak has done families on the autism spectrum and, especially, mothers an enormous service by writing this book. The Bettelheim theory on autism -- that refrigerator moms caused autism in their children by unconsciously rejecting them -- ruled the medical and psychological community for decades. Based on little more than his own unresearched ideas, Bettelheim not only generated this theory, he made it his business to preach it from the popular media pulpit. Due to this, for decades worried mothers who turned to the medical community for help with their children who were slipping away into autism were blamed as being the cause of the disorder, shunned by doctors and nurses, and advised to institutionalize their autistic children so that they could not contaminate them further.
   
   With three children on the autism spectrum in my extended family, I know firsthand the difficulties, guilt, shame, and fear that parent's feel when figuring out how to help their kids with autism. I cannot and do not want to even imagine how destructive and cruel it must have been for mothers of autistic children to be told by the very people they went to for help -- in the medical and psychiatric community -- that they themselves were the cause of their kid's autism. Mr. Pollak has righted some very pervasive and poinsonous wrongs by exposing Bettelheim for the fraud that he was. It is also a cautionary tale that pat, unsubstantiated claims about any psychological theory should be viewed with caution.
   
   Now, could we look at Mr. Freud and all his many theories based on the psyches of middle-class Viennese ladies?
   
   Thanks, Mr. Pollak!



5. Pollak does a brilliant job of tearing away the deceptions and rationalizations that made Bettelheim's Orthogenic School seem like an outstanding, cutting edge School for emotionally troubled, mentally ill and autistic children.
   
   The chapter on Bettelheim's brutality against the children really made me wonder how did the staff working with him rationalize his behavior for so many years? I guess some staff were intimidated by him. And some were awestruck by his prestige.
   
   I think indirectly Pollak's book is an indictment against the University of Chicago for so carelessly supporting Bettelheim for so many years - 30 years. Pollak shows how Bettelheim was allowed to surround himself with whatever staff he pleased. And frequently, he chose impressionable, young people who had good reason to believe that Bettelheim's method's were rational since the U of C backed the school. I guess the U of C was so content with Bettelheim's national prestige and with the money he brought to the University that they weren't concerned about his cruel, sadistic side. And I'm sure that U of C officials must have known something about this side of Betttelheim, since he said outrageous things in public.
   
   Also, I guess Pollak's book shows how easy it can be for the ordinary person to witness terrible acts of brutality against a vulnerable population (and troubled children, some as young as 4, living away from their parents for several years is probably one of the more vulnerable populations in the world) yet do and say nothing.
   
   In the book, Bettelheim supporters seem to rationalize that because Bettelheim was so brilliant that he could somehow abuse children in an effective, therapeutic way. They decided that his role of the Big Bad Wolf would help sick children overcome the terror of their inner aggression. Now, unless you think mentally ill children are an alien species, what child is going to feel safer knowing that at any moment they might be beaten in the head, slapped repeatedly in the face or have their pants pulled down and be beaten on their behinds with a belt? What child is going to feel safer knowing that all this abuse would be dealt out entirely according to the discretion of one man. And that the staff would either ignore what he did or tell you to overlook the welts he created on your body and just listen to the wisdom of what he said to you. This type of thinking, which Pollak describes in his book, seems like a rationalization of the worst kind. It is extraordinarily simplistic to assume that Bettelheim can help children by beating and shaming them. And Pollak makes it clear that Bettelheim's cruelty towards the children was not an infrequent aberration, but an integral and consistant part of this therapeutic milieu. And, because he is dealing with children, often young children, they cannot stand up to his abuse. They need someone to depend on so much, that they can't resist his tyranny.
   
   And the person Bettelheim picked to be his successor, Jacqui Sanders, never reported his abuse to any authority. And she continued his legacy of hitting children for many years after her directorship. She even wrote a book rationalizing her behavior that was published by the U of C press.
   
   Many who worked at the Orthogenic School, including Jacqui, still rationalize their abusive behavior as superior to restraints or drugs. First of all, I think it's a horrid twist of logic to suggest that beating children is superior to these other methods. Also, at some point in her directorship Jacqui did stop hitting children...I think it's when she finally got licensed as a clinical psychologist. So I guess even she thought of other ways to contain a child who is acting chaotically, possibly when she actually studied the ideas of someone other than Bettelheim. Here's a suggestion for helping a child from me: try finding the child a compassionate therapist. Not a person who witnesses abuse of children and says nothing or a person who is trained to tell a child that getting beaten is okay. But a person who will listen to the child and who will try to help them understand their feelings and behavior.
   
   The sad legacy of the Orthogenic School is that for many years it forced children to accept that getting beaten and shamed was an acceptable form of "care". I personally think that's sick. And I appreciate Pollak for exposing the sadistic underbelly of Bettelheim's School. Many of the students who went there are still alive. Some have families. And some appreciate having a bit of truth exposed to try and understand how the cruelty might have affected us.

1 comments about MARGARET MAHLER: A Biography of the Psychoanalyst.

1. 
   Reviewed by Karrie Grobben for RebeccasReads (6/08)
   
   Margaret Mahler grew up in an oppressive and difficult period for women and for Jews--she was both. Anti-Semitism was steadily rising in the wake of WWI, from which Hungary had suffered bitter effects and women, especially well brought up upper middle-class women, were not expected to doggedly pursue higher education and a career. Mahler may have been at still more of a disadvantage, having been exposed to her mother's indifference and blatant favoritism of her younger and more feminine sister. Yet Margaret, even as Hitler steadily grew in popularity, overcame every hurdle to pursue her doctorate and study what was still a relatively new field: psychiatry. Later she would be known for many things: her brilliant work with children, the development of separation-individuation theory, her ambition, her oddities and ultimately, her humanity.
   
   The story of Margaret Mahler, as author Bond announces in the opening pages, "encompasses her shortcomings as well as her strengths," and indeed, Mahler has plenty of those. Many accounts of her behavior suggest stubbornness bordering on pigheadedness as well as self-absorption and insensitivity. Many of even Mahler's closest friends had to admit that where there was genius, there was an equal amount of eccentricity. Even so, I found it difficult not to be fascinated by this strange character, whose upbringing clearly scarred her at an early age and yet really kindled her thirst for knowledge and eventually became the inspiration for the development of her groundbreaking concept of separation-individuation. Beyond this, how can you help but respect and admire a woman who defeated every obstacle and ultimately got what she wanted?
   
   At least, she attained the goals she set for herself as a young woman. Mahler was always intrigued by Freudian theory and though she would eventually achieve the most professionally through psychoanalytical research, she did earn her clinical degree as an analyst. She became well known for her innovative approaches in the field and her theories, according to some noted psychoanalysts today, remain relevant. Yet she never resolved the unsteady, though loving, relationship with her father. She never forgave or stopped being obsessed with the relationship between mothers and small children, after having felt so disconnected to her own mother. Her personal relationships, with lovers, husbands and friends continued to be dysfunctional. The book is not afraid to show both sides of Mahler: both how charming she could be and how warm, how much some loved her and still do, as well as her flaws.
   
   There is a glossary of terms in the back of the book and a comprehensive list of resource materials used. Even so, some readers unfamiliar with psychoanalysis may find the use of psychiatric terms to be overwhelming. In order to really enjoy this read, you must be interested in more than her achievements and actions--this is, to some extent, a genuine analysis of Margaret Mahler as a person and as a psychoanalyst. As such, Freudian psychoanalysis of that period is discussed, explained and compared to modern psychoanalysis where it is called for.
   
   I recommend this book particularly to readers with an interest in Freudian psychoanalysis and its workings but I also urge those unfamiliar with it to give it a try. Above all else, even her professional success, Margaret Mahler was a fascinating woman.