Book Description

The definitive biography of Alfred C. Kinsey—the man who inspired the major new motion picture starring Liam Neeson.

More than twenty-five years in the making, this groundbreaking biography caused great controversy when it was first published. Drawing on tens of thousands of letters gleaned from more than a dozen archives and scores of personal interviews (ranging from members of sexual subcultures who demanded anonymity to congressmen, university presidents, prize-winning scientists, and heads of foundations), James H. Jones shows that the image of disinterested biologist cultivated by Kinsey was in fact a carefully crafted public persona. The Alfred C. Kinsey who emerges in these pages was a social reformer and a zealot, who devoted his every waking hour to the destruction of sexual repression. 31 b/w photographs. ... Read more

Book Description

"If psychoanalysis is the return of repressed antiquity, distorted to be sure by modern desire, yet still bearing the telltale traces of the ancient archive, then would not our growing distance from the archive of antiquity also imply that we are in the process of losing our grip on psychoanalysis itself, as Freud conceived it?"—from Chapter 1

As he developed his striking new science of the mind, Sigmund Freud had frequent recourse to ancient culture and the historical disciplines that draw on it. A Compulsion for Antiquity fully explores how Freud appropriated figures and themes from classical mythology and how the theory and practice of psychoanalysis paralleled contemporary developments in historiography, archaeology, philology, and the history of religions. Drawing extensively from Freud’s private correspondence and other notes and documents, Richard H. Armstrong touches on Freud’s indebtedness to Sophocles and the Oedipus complex, his interest in Moses and the Jewish religion, and his travels to Athens and Rome.

Armstrong shows how Freud turned to the ancient world to deal with the challenges posed by his own scientific ambitions and how these lessons influenced the way he handled psychic "evidence" and formulated the universal application of what were initially isolated clinical truths. Freud’s narrative reconstructions of the past also related to his sense of Jewishness, linking the historical trajectory of psychoanalysis with contemporary central European Jewish culture. Ranging across the breadth of Freud’s work, A Compulsion for Antiquity offers fresh insights into the roots of psychoanalysis and fin de siècle European culture, and makes an important contribution to the burgeoning discipline of mnemohistory. ... Read more

Book Description

A lively guide to the life and work of the father of psychoanalysis

From Anna O. to Zionism, this uniquely accessible A-to-Z reference presents a comprehensive overview of Freud’s ideas, family, colleagues, patients, writings, and legacy. Mixing humor, passion, and knowledge, each of the more than 100 fascinating entries offers a revealing look at some aspect of Freud’s world, be it a description of his famed pillowed office at Berggasse 19 or an account of his intense feud with former student Carl Jung.

Sharon Heller, PhD (Boynton Beach, FL), is the author of three popular psychology books. ... Read more

Book Description

How does a mother cope when her twelve-year-old is suddenly abducted? What goes through the mind of a child when she is far from home, helpless to determine her own destiny? How is a family affected when the oldest child is gone for weeks, months—when they don’t know whether she is dead or alive, when they have no idea where she is?

Stolen Innocence follows the real-life trail of deception that plagued Jan Broberg from the age of twelve when she became the victim of a terrifying and bizarre four-year brainwashing ordeal. Jan's captor maintained such a convincing and threatening hold on her that even after she returned home from the initial kidnapping she continued to secretly meet him and was eventually taken from home a second time.

Stolen Innocence is a gripping story for anyone seeking assurance that the human mind and spirit can overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. It tells the story of one family’s survival over incredible afflictions. Join their triumphant journey; see how the same determination, unending hope, and unwavering faith in God that provided strength to win their battles can give you strength to win yours.

Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story details not only the frightening acts of a dangerous pedophile, but also shows warning signals and teaches many of the tough lessons that parents, neighbors and society must learn in order to better protect our children. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

I'm a little curious
To the person who wrote the review entitled "Revenge? Hate?" I am curious to know how you know that this book, as you put it, is "destroying a man and his present family"? Do you personally know the kidnaper? From the things you said in your review, I am guessing that you do. To me it sounds like you are the one with a lot of hate. The author didn't "smear" anyone's name, the kidnaper did that to himself when he committed the crimes. You act like we should have sympathy for the kidnaper. But let me tell you, I know how it is to spend a lifetime to recover from abuse and I don't have sympathy for someone who would kidnap and molest an innocent child. You also asked why the author waited so long to write the book. As a victim, I know that sometimes it takes a very long time before a person is ready to talk about such horrible crimes. It is frightening and shameful to have gone through such things. When I read this book (and I happened to also go to a conference where the victim spoke) I didn't feel that the author was judging the kidnaper. I think it could have been much worse against the perpetrator if that had been the goal. She wasn't writing about everything that has happened over the past 30 years, she didn't write whether the person had or hadn't changed since the events of the book, she just wrote about the experiences of the time of the kidnaping. And she wrote it in a way that truly hit home to me. I know what it feels like to be terrified every day because of abuse. I wish I would have had the courage to tell someone many years ago. This book gives victims some strength and courage. I applaud it. I think everyone should read this book!

Revenge? Hate?
This is a good story for parents to help them be aware of what could happen to their children. However, why did the author feel it was so necessary to repeatedly state the name of the friend that took their daughter? THE ENTIRE STORY COULD HAVE BEEN TOLD USING AN ANNOMYNOUS NAME INSTEAD OF DELIBERATLY SMEARING A PERSON'S NAME ON ALMOST EVERY PAGE OF THE BOOK!! The reason I say this is that it has been 30 long years since this event happened and people do change. Why dig up all this dirt and destroy a man and his present family over something that happened so long ago?
The answer?.....Some people(the ones who wrote this book)can ONLY JUDGE and are unable to forgive.
I did alot of things 30 years ago that I am ashamed of but with wisdom and age have learned the wrong of my mistakes and become a better person. Don't most of us become wiser and better as we age. Would you want to be judged today by things you did 30 years ago?
My father's associate was charged with molesting a 12 yr old girl. It was in all the papers and very, very biased. The papers never asked for his side of the story. His career(a Pediatrician) was ruined! He over-dosed on pills due to the trauma. Two weeks after his death the girl admitted she had made it all up BECAUSE SHE WANTED SOME ATTENTION!! Not only did she kill a wonderful man, she ruined the lives of his wife, 8 children, and 900 pediatric patients.
To the author I would like to ask these questions.......why did you wait 30 long years to write this story? Did Elizabeth Smart's book motivate you to take advantage of the moment and cash in on the profits while the market was "HOT"? Why have you not found forgiveness in your heart?
To the reader I would give this advice: Do not judge a book by it's cover. Be assured there is more to this story than meets the eye!

AMAZING STORY!
Jan Broberg Felt is my cousin and Mary Ann Broberg is my aunt. I was a small child when Jan was abducted and my memories and knowledge of the abductions were vague. This book told me so much that I didn't know about Jan's story. I was amazed and horrified by all of it.

I encouraged both of my teenage daughters to read this book and am telling everyone I know about this story. It's so well written and were it not true would be almost unbelievable.

This book really is a must read!

Why Isn't Berchtold In Jail
Jan Broberg Felt is my 3rd cousin's wife. I found her story both tragic and compelling. Indeed the book is a "page turner." I'm proud Jan now carries the Felt family name because of how she has aquitted her life since the tragedy. Robert Berchtold should have gone to jail for a long time, but he weasled his way free. Even this month I hear he tried to run down one of Jan's body guards. He's a real piece of work.

Gripping From the First Chapter!
The day I received this book and started reading it I did not stop until I had finished all 300+ pages in one sitting. From the first pages, I was completely drawn into the mystery, deception, and heartbreak of this shockingly true story. I was amazed at the insanity of the situation and then touched by the victim's and her family's ability to overcome years of pain and suffering at the hands of someone whom they considered a close friend at one time.

This book is a great read for people of all ages and life situations and may be especially helpful for parents who want to learn how to keep their children safe from predators. It would be an excellent read for teenage girls because it gives such an excellent illustration that not all people who show loving actions are good people acting in their best interest- a message hard to get across to young girls at that age.

Lastly this book is a messenger of hope for victims of abuse and families of abuse victim's who may see themselves in these pages and know they are not alone and that all is not lost.

I know many people who have read this book and every one has found themselves absolutely engrossed from the first chapter and glad they'd read it. It's a great selection for book clubs because you really have to talk about this book with people after you've read it. I very much recommend this book to other readers! ... Read more

Book Description

I argue that Freud is fundamentally an artist, but that the artistic expression of his desires and fears is suppressed. Beginning with this premise, Lesley Chamberlain's The Secret Artist looks at the meaning of Freud's life and work through a new lens. Part biography, part thoughtful examination of his work, this book uses Freud's own writing on art and aesthetics to show how his imaginative creations have revolutionized not only mental health but also thinking about art -- by opening up the individual subconscious as a subject. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Secret Irony
This book is a failure. While Chamberlain attempts to create both an authentic biograhpy and insightful literary criticism, she succeeds at neither. Her central premise relies upon the notion that Freud was really an artist at heart, who invented a new artistic practice to complement these repressed desires. While this idea on its own is not altogether flawed, the argument is marred by Chamberlain's constant cries to be heard as an intelligent and unconventional author. Chamberlain pretensiously reminds the reader of the apparent ingenuity and unorthodox nature of her claim every 7 pages; a claim mind you, that is as unprovable as it is unsupportable. There is no additional perspective gained from this reading. Shocking fact: their is no clear boundary between science and art! This book illustrates controversy for controversy's sake and is its own best example of "pen envy." Freud or Chamberlain: who really wishes to be The Secret Artist? Don't waste your time with this one.

For students of Freud's pioneering work
The Secret Artist: A Close Reading Of Sigmund Freud by journalist and educator Lesley Chamberlain is a deep and perceptive study of the written works of Sigmund Freud, considered to be the founder of modern psychotherapy. In an effort to help readers better understand the mind of Freud, The Secret Artist closely dissects his writings with intense attention to detail. A thoughtful, scholarly, erudite, informative work, The Secret Artist is very highly recommended reading for students of Freud's pioneering work, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the history of psychotherapy.

Modernity's debt to Freud
Early in this terrific book the versatile British scholar Lesley Chamberlain writes of the young Sigmund Freud that what he "wanted and already expected was success," and that his writings "radiate the confidence and ambition and talent that would make it possible; but also the complexity that would not make it easy." This is a complex story and a scholarly work that presupposes the reader's positive regard for Freud (if not as a scientist, as an artist) and then aims to greatly enlarge upon it.

Freud the analyst is revealed as a "secret artist," not furtively artistic but, rather, unconsciously artistic. He was, she writes, a pioneer and an utterly original thinker and writer who contributed amply to our present-day notions of the forms and possibilities of literature. In her view Freud virtually "fathered the creative writing class" by legitimizing not only subject matter but writing forms that had hitherto been considered unsuitable for public consumption. From Freud we inherited new literary forms for self-revelation, self-discovery, and confession.

Chamberlain shows how Freud devised "the "double-well," an "artistic form with a moral component," a new way to tell a story in which "a dream sits on the divide." His stories about his patients have more in common with contemporary novellas than the medical case histories of their time, extending at times "a typical Freudian invitation to the reader, to pull the [...] thread and see where it leads."

Chamberlain examines Freud positively without minimizing his shortcomings. "Freud was not a model of tolerance by today's standards, " she writes, and cites his views on homosexuality, women's sexuality (on which she says he was "underinformed"). Nonetheless, Chamberlain writes that Freud "gave us a more relaxed attitude toward sex, freed from values of God and the soul, and gender, and divorced from insensitive stereotypes." This is, then, no small thing.

Chamberlain has accomplished an unusual and stimulating combination of biography, literary analysis, intelligent conjecture, and thrilling narrative. Her writing is crystal-clear, she tackles complicated things, and explains them wonderfully well. Freud's wide-ranging creative and personal relationships to philosophy, the visual arts, poetry, nature, music are explored. Along with a good index and bibliography, here are over a hundred pages of fluid and impossible-to-resist (because so interesting and energetic) "Notes, Arguments, and Explanations."

Well worth reading. ... Read more

Book Description

The most interesting lives are not always the best-known lives, and this is the account of a truly fascinating person. The stories of Alexander Gerschenkron—his great escapes, his vivid wit, his feuds, his flirtations, and his supremely cultured mind—are the stuff of legend.

Born in 1904 into the progressive Odessa intelligentsia, Gerschenkron fled the Russian Revolution at sixteen and settled in Vienna, immersing himself in the charged civic and intellectual life of another doomed city. Escaping the Nazis in the late 1930s, he made his way to Massachusetts, evolving from a political exile and social outcast into a man referred to by The New York Times as “Harvard’s scholarly model,” and by his peers as “The Great Gerschenkron”—the Harvard professor who knew the most.

Gerschenkron was a dazzling thinker, and his professional theories complemented his personal preoccupations. He was particularly interested in people—and economies—that cleverly overcame the large forces conspiring to hold them back; there were uses, he said, to adversity. Colleagues admired his vigorous ethical code and considered his personality to be perhaps even more original than his work. Gerschenkron was an uncompromising man who feuded with everyone from Vladimir Nabokov to John Kenneth Galbraith, who played chess with Marcel Duchamp, who enjoyed an intimate interlude with Marlene Dietrich, and who was a confidant of both Isaiah Berlin of Oxford and Ted Williams of the Red Sox.

Or was he? Layers of mystery and contradiction are at the core of this brilliantly recreated life, this prism through which we look back across some of the most important and unsettling moments of the twentieth century. With The Fly Swatter, best-selling author Nicholas Dawidoff gives us an intelligent, beautifully written, deeply felt biographical memoir of a real-life American character. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Very good story teller with a good story
Alexander Gerschenkron is the type of man many of us would like to be: smart, charming, interested in the world, charismatic, etc. His grandson, Nicholas Dawidoff, seemingly captured his life in a surprisingly honest and thoughtful manner. I say "suprisingly honest" because one could certainly understand if Dawidoff were to give in to hero worship -- given the important role his grandfather played in his upbringing. But Dawidoff saves the hero worship and the highly personal anecdotes for the opening and concluding chapters. The 300 or so pages in between give a very balanced depiction of a complicated man, and that's the stuff of great biography. The first half of the book is a real page-turner, chronicling Gerschenkron's difficult times as a young man in revolutionary Russia and fascist Austria. How could Dawidoff possibly keep up this pace once his grandfather settles down as an educator at Harvard? Well, he doesn't, through no fault of his own. Dawidoff's depiction of Gershenkron's latter life is beautifully written, but the exciting pace of the earlier pages simply can't be sustained. Dawidoff clearly spent a great amount of time interviewing Gerschenkron's colleagues and students, most of whom (although not all) were effusive in their praise. But the book tended to feel slightly repetitious toward the end with the ongoing remembrances and non-related anecdotes. For one so close to the story, Dawidoff managed to expertly review and analyze Gerschenkron's complicated doting relationship with his wife, Erica. Also, a wonderfully telling anecdote at the end of the book reveals not only Gerschenkron's character, but Dawidoff's patient understanding, as well. Although Gerschenkron was an expert chess player, somehow he managed to lose his queen to the 14-year-old Dawidoff. Gerschenkron swept his arm across the board, spilling all the pieces onto the floor. "Num, num," he said. "Let's go eat lunch."

An Amazing Story From a Grandson
Maybe you had a grandfather who was quite wonderful, but you did not have a grandfather who was wonderful like Nicholas Dawidoff's grandfather was wonderful. Dawidoff's charming biography of his grandfather, _The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way in the World_ (Pantheon) starts with his own memories of Alexander Gerschenkron. For instance, Gerschenkron, known as "Shura" within his family, had an arsenal of fly swatters, each of just the proper color and heft for its particular target. The baby blue flyswatter was just the thing for his particular enemy, the wasps, because they were vicious, and the mild color would make them let down their guard. If he were successful in swatting the wasp (not often), he would give "lengthy disquisitions on swatting technique." He would never allow the insect body to be cleaned up, for he "claimed they were deterrents, that other yellowjackets would encounter their unfortunate colleague and feel inclined to keep away themselves."

Shura was, to be sure, a character. But he was also brilliant in an obsessively academic way. He mastered some two dozen languages, but his field of expertise was not language. He was able to discourse on (and write academic treatments of) _Hamlet_ and _Dr. Zhivago_, but he did not teach literature. He was an economist, a quintessential Harvard professor who left a lasting mark on economic thought with his theory of "economic backwardness." He had a rather exciting early life, fleeing the Russian Revolution, and then fleeing the Nazis, before he found himself in the economic department of Harvard that was to be his academic home. He was a natural show-off. He could certainly be obnoxious and overbearing, and his students often felt they were not measuring up to his superhuman standards, but none of them forgot him, and he left a strong mark on the next generation of economists. Dawidoff makes the case that his standards were so exacting, and his sense of the overwhelming complexity of history and economics so complete, that he constantly spent time in library stacks gaining more information, but was intimidated about committing himself in print. He did, however, play chess with the artist Marcel Duchamp, disparage Vladimir Nabokov for an inept translation of Pushkin, and charm Marlene Dietrich to give him her phone number.

One of the great strengths of this engaging book is that it makes Shura's wide-ranging academic endeavors almost as exciting as his flights from political oppression. The love of reading and the love of learning just for the sake of exercising one's mind could not have a finer exemplar. And while most people would regard a life in libraries as unexciting and unromantic, Shura was fond of living his life as fully as his capacious mind would allow. After he had recovered from a cardiac arrest in the foyer of the Harvard Faculty Club, he used to bring his students to the very spot where he had temporarily died. "You know, there was nothing. No beautiful colors. No castles. No bright lights. Nothing. So, if there are things you want to say and do, don't wait. Say them and do them. You won't get the opportunity after you're dead." During decades devoted to learning, this comprehensive biography makes plain, Gerschenkron drove himself to a life which for all of its time in an ivory tower was full of exuberance and courage.

Gerschenkron's world
Growing up Nicholas Dawidoff had a talkative and demonstrative larger-than-life maternal grandfather who had lived in, to paraphrase the Chinese curse, interesting times: his home town Odessa during the Russian revolution and Vienna (where he had to start over, learning German as a student) during the rise of Nazism. Alexander Gerschenkron (called Shura) had married a fellow student, Erica Matschnigg, in Vienna, whom he would deem "perfect," and who was his lifelong intellectual sparring partner. To save their lives they emigrated to the US. After a time Shura found work at UC Berkeley, The Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, and then at his favorite place ever: Harvard. In addition this brilliant and cultured grandfather was kind and funny, educated, eccentric, and more than willing to act as a sort of a dad for his grandson, whose own father was mentally ill.

The one thing, though that Gerschenkron couldn't, or wouldn't, provide for family, friends, or colleagues - or his beloved and loving grandson - was so much as a shred of concrete information about his childhood, his youth, and anything remotely resembling his feelings. No one got into his inner life, and those who tried (and there were many) learned that it was at all times off-limits. So this book is a memoir but also a work of informed conjecture and detection.

Dawidoff, an insightful man and a compassionate reporter, draws a careful and reasoned portrait, "a biographical memoir, a work of reconstruction" that is a pleasure to read. The "dismal science," economics, has never seemed so vitally important and downright interesting as it does in this book.

Gerschenkron was hyperactive; he gave up reading the newspaper in middle age, citing the number of books he had yet to read and reasoning that the time the papers took from this was objectionable. He loved to argue and to win, but he was courtly, too. He practiced what he called "French manners," combining recognizable rules of European etiquette with extreme chivalry. He could be exasperating, but he was generous and possessed astonishing depth and breadth of knowledge (in many areas, not just economics) which he more than willingly shared with the world. Gerschenkron developed theories of economic behavior that are classics, now, and some which were of great importance to US policymakers' understanding of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and of developing nations' economic behavior. He was a prolific essayist and loved literature. Rather than read translations, he taught himself entire languages. He worked out chess problems without a chessboard. He was a character, and became something of a curmudgeon in later life.

Gerschenkron was also fiercely loyal to certain things - countries, colleagues, ideas, people, and the most ordinary stuff of his life. Dawidoff takes pleasure in this information, and I did, too Of Shura he writes. "[He] had a party (the Democrats); a team (the Red Sox); a player (Ted Williams); a board game (chess); a breed of dog (Labrador retriever); a flower (pink rose); a lower body haberdasher (he sent to a Vienna tennis shop for white linen trousers); an upper body haberdasher (he ordered his wool plaid lumber jackets and matching caps from a hunting supply outfit in Maine); a brandy; a chocolate bar; an aspirin; a bullet; a pencil; a shaving soap; a foreign bookstore; a domestic bookstore; a barber; a newsstand (he would go miles out of his way to buy his periodicals from Sheldon Cohen at Out of Town News); and a weekly news magazine (L'Espresso)." And of course he had a school, Harvard, which he loved beyond all measure. Gerschenkron's calculus was simple: the US was the best nation on earth, and Harvard its best school. He thrived there. Dawidoff claims that Harvard "made his personality possible."

Gerschenkron dominated people and gatherings and enjoyed contact, but also required and demanded great blocks of solitude. Sometimes he hurt those he loved. He insisted that his young daughter practice her flute when he wasn't at home, because the sound annoyed him. He disappointed his daughters often and had some stormy relations with friends and colleagues.

There's hardly a dull moment in this account of a life and the many lives that Gerschenkron touched, and Dawidoff has provided enough interesting tangential information to serve as jumping-off points for a lot more reading and inquiry.

There are Source Notes and Acknowledgements. The books lacks an index, which is a real shortcoming. There are hundreds of interesting and important people, places, and works of art and scholarship in this book and its publisher ought to have splurged on something so essential as a good index. Gerschenkron (a lover of notes, acknowledgements, appendices, and indices) would agree. ... Read more

Amazon.com

William and Henry James are well known for their master works ofpsychology and fiction respectively, but the celebrated brothers amassed an impressivecollection of letters to one another as well. Through their copious correspondence,readers are privy to the private thoughts of these intellectual heavyweights. Sure, theirletters expound on philosophical, political, social, and cultural subjects with imaginationand wit, but more often they focus on the quotidian: health, news of friends and family,mutual praise, advice, complaints, and good-natured ribbing. What makes these 216epistles remarkable is the quality of writing and the keen observations made by thebrothers James during their wide and frequent travels across America and Europe. Theletters contained in William and Henry James: Selected Letters span more than50 years and are infused with the history and events of their era. This volume illuminateseach man's distinct personality and reveals the relationship the two crafted out of equalparts of criticism and support. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Biography Box
This is the best biography I've read. I certainly find Skinner interesting, but what's impressive is how well this book flows, and I expect that's due to Bjork's writing skills and understanding of Skinner.

I came to this book because I don't know much about Skinner. I can't vouch for its accuracy or slant but it seems very professional, with plenty of references. I feel lucky to have started here. I've been reading other books on Skinner and Radical Behaviorism and appreciate the background Bjork has given me. There's a smooth mix of detail and overview.

Although there's plenty of material to help to understand Skinner the scientist and philosopher, there is also a good amount for feeling one has learned about Skinner the man, a dutiful husband, warm father, and, despite some isolation that his advanced thinking brought him, a decent friend. Seeing this side of Skinner provides good reason not to jump at labelling him a reductionist. I also learned to admire his faithfulness, despite popular opposition, to pushing forward to scientifically study how conditioning impacts us (and how we use and can better use conditioning to our own advantage).

While I'll be reading Skinner, I'd also like to read more of Bjork. If I were a famous thinker, Bjork is someone I'd like to have write my biography.

Insight to Skinner
This is a good primer of Skinner's life. It provides clarification regarding the origin of Skinner's ideas and charts the course of his personal and intellectual development through his career. ... Read more

Book Description

All students and scholars are curious about the human faces behind the impersonal rhetoric of academic disciplines. Here twenty of America's most prominent sociologists recount the intellectual and biographical events that shaped their careers. Family history, ethnicity, fear, private animosities, extraordinary determination, and sometimes plain good fortune are among the many forces that combine to mold the individual talents presented in Authors of Their Own Lives. With contributions from women and men, young and old, native-born Americans and immigrants, quantitative scholars and qualitative ones, this book provides a fascinating source for students and professional sociologists alike. Some of the autobiographies maintain their reserve, others are profoundly revealing. Their subjects range from childhood, educational, and intellectual influences, to academic careerism and burnout, to the history of American sociology. Authors stands alone as a deeply personal autobiographical account of contemporary sociology. ... Read more

Book Description

To the renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist Julia Kristeva, Melanie Klein (1882­1960) was the most original innovator, male or female, in the psychoanalytic arena. Klein pioneered psychoanalytic practice with children and made major contributions to our understanding of both psychosis and autism. Along the way, she successfully introduced a new approach to the theory of the unconscious without abandoning the principles set forth by Freud. In her first biography of a fellow psychoanalyst, the prolific Kristeva considers Klein´s life and intellectual development, weaving a narrative that covers the history of psychoanalysis and illuminates Kristeva´s own life and work.Kristeva tells the remarkable story of Klein´s life: an unhappy wife and mother who underwent analysis, and -without a medical or other advanced degree -became an analyst herself at the age of 40. In examining her work, Kristeva proposes that Klein´s "break" with Freud was really an attempt to complete his theory of the unconscious. Kristeva addresses Klein´s numerous critics, and, in doing so, bridges the wide gulf between the clinical and theoretical worlds of psychoanalysis.Klein is celebrated here as the first person to see the mother as the source of not only creativity, but of thought itself, and the first to consider the place of matricide in psychic development. As such, Klein is a seminal figure in the evolution of the provocative ideas about motherhood and the psyche for which Kristeva is most famous. Klein is thus, in a sense, a mother to Kristeva, making this book an account of the development of Kristeva´s own thought as well as Klein´s. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the leading public intellectuals of twentieth-centuryAmerica and a pioneering and brilliant social scientist, C. Wright Mills left alegacy of interdisciplinary and hard-hitting work including two books thatchanged the way many people viewed their lives and the structure of power in theUnited States: White Collar (1951) and The Power Elite (1956). Millspersistently challenged the status quo within his profession--as in TheSociological Imagination (1959)--and within his country, until his untimelydeath in 1962. This collection of letters and writings, edited by his daughters,allows readers to see behind Mills's public persona for the first time.

Mills's letters to prominent figures--including Saul Alinsky, Daniel Bell,Lewis Coser, Carlos Fuentes, Hans Gerth, Irving Howe, Dwight MacDonald, RobertK. Merton, Ralph Miliband, William Miller, David Riesman, and Harvey Swados--arejoined by his letters to family members, letter-essays to an imaginary friend inRussia, personal narratives by his daughters, and annotations drawing onpublished and unpublished material, including the FBI file on Mills. ... Read more

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.

Here Mills focuses memorably on the qualities and uses of the sociological perspective in modern life, how such a scientifically based way of looking at, interpreting, and interacting with the larger world invests its user with a better, more accurate, and quite instrumental picture of what is happening meaningfully around him. For Mills, the key to understanding the value in such a perspective is in appreciating that one can only understand the motives, behavior, and actions of others by locating them within a wider and more meaningful context that connects their personal biographies with the large social circumstances that surround, direct, and propel them at any given historical moment. For Mills, for example, trying to understand the reasoning behind the sometimes desperate actions of Jews in Nazi Germany without appreciating the horrifyingly unique existential circumstances they found themselves in is hopelessly anachronistic and limited.

On the other hand, one invested with such an appreciation for how biography and history interact to create the meaningful social circumstances of any situation finds himself better able to understand the fact that when in a country of one hundred million employed, one man's singular lack of employment might be due to his persoanl deficiencies or lack of a work ethic, and be laid at his feet as a personal trouble, it is also true that when twenty million individuals out of that one hundred million figure suddenly find themselves so disposed and unemployed, that situation is due to something beyond the control of those many individuals and is best described in socioeconomic terms as a social problem to be laid at the feet of the government and industry to resolve. To Mills, it is critical to understand the inherant differences between personal troubles on the one hand, which an individual has the responsibity to resolve and overcome, and social ills, which are beyond both his ken or control. Indeed, according to Mills, increasingly in the 20th century one finds himself trapped by social circumstance into dilemmas he is absolutely unable to resolve without significant help from the wider social community.

Thus, for both psychological as well as social reasons, a person using the sociological perspective, or invested with what he called the "sociological imagination", is more able to think and act critically in accordance with the evidence both outside his door and beyond himself. Fifty years later, such a recognition of "what's what" and "who's who" based on the ability to judge the information within the social environment is as valuable as ever. This is a wonderful book, written in a very accessible and entertaining style, meant both for an intellectual audience and for the scholastic community as well. While it may not be for "everyman", any person wanting to better understand and more fully appreciate how individual biography and social history meaningfully interact to create the realities we live in will enjoy and appreciate this legendary sociological critique and invitation to the pleasures of a sociological perspective by one of its most remarkable proponents some half century ago.

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.

The unmarked edits only occurred in the Tovarich letters, those that were written to an imaginary Russian correspondent. Mills "made it clear [to his agent] that he wanted the Tovarich writings to be edited before they were published . . . his marginal comments included these instructions: 'very good, use it,' 'can't use this,' 'cut somewhat.'" And so, unlike for the rest of the letters, the editors "did not mark deletions with ellipses and occasionally changed the location of paragraphs, shortened a heading, or relaced a heading with a phrase that Mills had written in the text. Although we usually left the original references to men, boys, women, and girls in these essays, we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people.'"

In the rest of the letters, the only editorial changes were spelling corrections and occasional deletions (the latter are always marked with brackets).

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

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Reviews (3)

A lively coverage
This biography recalls early American radicalism and the efforts of one Mary Jones, a force in the early labor movement. She traveled throughout the country lobbying for civil rights, labor laws and basic worker's rights: her career, life, and long-ranging effects on American labor are recounted in a lively coverage.

Mother Jones: Everybody's mother
Elliott Gorn has written an excellent biography of Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones. Gorn has applied critical analysis to his meticulous and quite impressive research--this was not an easy woman to pin down, and Gorn has managed with limited materials to convey the essence of her life. In doing so, he tells three simultaneous stories, all significant for a broad view of American history. First is the story of Mary Jones herself. Her life was both tragic and triumphant, and Gorn treats it with sensitivity and a light touch, conjecturing at times to what she must have felt, but never presuming to be inside her head or heart. The second story is the story of the American labor movement, particularly that of the United Mine Workers, and their struggle against BIG CAPITAL. Gorn does not overemphasize the uneven nature of this struggle, nor does he dwell on the massive injustices against the mine workers by mine owners, coal interests, and even the Federal Government. He gives it to us straight. The facts speak for themselves. But Gorn presents the facts in the context of Jones's life and her struggle, and never preaches. He lets the history--a history too seldom told--be revealed through the contours of Jones's life. Which leads to the third story: the story of American self-invention. Mary Jones invented herself, and went to great lengths to sustain an identity that would allow her, as a woman and a mother, to become one of the toughest and most feared labor organizers in American history--not a normal or accepted role for women, generally during her lifetime. Throughout these three stories, Gorn engages the notion of gender in late Victorian and early twentieth century US history. This, too, he does with a subtle hand and a light touch, totally without jargon. The book is thoroughly enjoyable, accessible to all readers, and interesting in its own right. Plus it sheds light on important processes in American history. I highly recommend it.

Dry but informative
Mother Jones was a character of mythic proportions, created by the all-too-human Mary Harris Jones. The author takes the position that while many of the details of her life - as portrayed in Mother's speeches, writings and autobiography - are impossible to verify or demonstrably false, they stood for a larger truth.

Gorn obviously has sympathy for Jones and does a good job of putting her life in its context, but this book is no easy read. It is written in the dry verbiage and cadences of academia.

An unequivocally positive addition to the library of labor history, but don't try to read it at night before bed unless your aim is to hasten sleep. ... Read more

Book Description

We take it for granted today that babies need love. But less than a century ago, psychologists warned women against showing their children "too much affection"-predicting dire consequences ranging from deadly disease to sexual dysfunction in adulthood. The story of how this conventional wisdom was finally shattered takes us into the life and the laboratory of Harry Harlow-workaholic, alcoholic, brilliant and brave, capable of caustic wit and cruelty-and into an era in which the scientific establishment was just beginning to understand the power of human emotion. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Looking at love
"Love At Goon Park" is a fascinating look at a man and his work. Deborah Blum provides the reader with an extensive and sobering background before exploring Harry Harlow's research. Did you know that as recently as the 1950s, psychologists were trying to convince parents that too much cuddling and "love" were bad for their children? Harlow, with his revolutionary experiments on baby monkeys, was bucking the conventional wisdom of his time. He was trying to say that mother's love mattered, that touch mattered, that affection mattered. His peers didn't want to hear this, but Harlow's research finally forced the profession to listen.

Blum's writing is never dry, never boring. She writes with amazing flair and humanity. You'll feel that you are getting to know this person, Harry Harlow. Even more, you'll feel you are there in the lab with Harlow and his graduate students, waiting to see how the baby monkeys will react to the latest experiment. What will we learn? Will anyone listen? Blum cares, and you'll care too.

You can't help but feel for the monkeys when you read this book. And Blum doesn't gloss over the issue of abuse, especially mental, that was visited on our primate cousins in the name of science. "Goon Park" takes an unflinching look at Harry Harlow, warts and all. I think her treatment of all the issues was fair and balanced.

I highly recommend "Love At Goon Park." It's well-written, interesting and important.

This book provided reassurance for me as a mother
Love at Goon Park is about Harry Harlow, a scientist who uses monkeys to prove that feeling loved is very, very important to children from the minute they are born and to us all. I was curious about such a scientific project but was totally surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. It's a very good read on every page. The author explains it all clearly and simply, letting her own feeling for both the animals and the people come through. My own children are adults now, but mothers have the hardest job on earth, and we need constant reassurance that we provide a good environment for our family. Reading Love at Goon Park gave me reassurance, and I highly recommend it. You don't have to have a background in science to benefit from its words.

Review update
This book has a whole new meaning now that the debate over stem cell research has reached the forefront. Harry Harlow's research cause a plethora of laws to be passed limiting researchers to more ethical, humane treatment of animal subjects. Now, homo sapien babies are the target of the debate over individual rights and the greater good of society. We've saved the rats and the monkeys from murderous research, but the future doesn't look so good for humans. I know the argument: Like African-Americans, women, and Jews of the past, "not quite human enough" for human rights is the classification unborn children receive today. At least other animals are somewhat safe from our selfish desire to live in perfect health forever. Deborah Blum, thank you. You are one of the few who understands Harlow's work.

All teachers should read this, too.
I am one of the millions of people in the USA with an education degree who are not teachers. Behavior theory is the rule of the school today. I couldn't figure out why we treat children like guinea pigs instead of like the human beings that they are. This book opened my eyes. There IS more to life than rewards and consequences. I think science has backed itself into a corner, though, because religion has a corner on the love and respect market and science has repeatedly assured us that all that spiritual stuff is nonsense. This book is a must read for anyone with an accessible heart.

Good Historical Perspective
Like many others, I never forgot the pictures in my intro psych text of Hary Harlow's baby monkies and their surrogate mothers. Blum's very readable book reviews Harlow's work and places it in the historical context of psychology and the social perspectives the middle part of the 1900's.

Although the descriptions of Harlow's experiments were well written, the last chapters of Blum's book were most interesting to me. In these chapters, Blum describes the feminist and animal rights back lash against Harlow's work. One can't help be stunned by the irony that Harlow's work, which ultimently championed the importance of mothers' relationships to their children and the deep intelligence of monkies (and their similarities to human beings), would be vilified by these groups.

Blum's book is, thus, not only about one of the most innovative psychologists of the past century, but also a great perspective of how we change our thinking about what we are as a species. It is far more than a book about the man who took baby monkies away from their mothers. ... Read more

Book Description

The first non-fictional account by a female expert in the field of forensic anthropology, this book is a collection of short stories about forensic and bioarchaeology cases in Louisiana. Raised in a family of storytellers, the author weaves the history of her family into the accounts ofher cases which include those that are both solved and unsolved. This account also illustrates how determination on one woman's part made it possible for her to rise to the top in an often male dominated field. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

The Bone Lady ROCKS!
The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist is a great read and anyone interested in forensic anthropology should pick this book up. It's not a technical laden book of words that are only known to this field. It's written in a format that can be easily read and understood. Inasmuch as I enjoyed her writing, I wish she had written more books. I was hoping to read more about her cases and if there were any updates. Even possibly getting more into detail of the forensic process.

A Smooth Narrative and a Southern Story-Telling Charm
What is a forensic anthropologist? "We are physical anthropologists who are trained in the human skeleton, and we use that training in a medico-legal context to assist law enforcement."

The real live "Bone Lady," Mary Manhein, answers this and another questions with smooth narrative and a Southerner's story-telling charm.

A Louisiana State University graduate who didn't begin undergraduate studies until her early thirties, Manheim weaves her own autobiography into the short book's twenty-seven chapters. After completing the bachelor's degree in English, she earned a master's degree in anthropology from LSU. She grew up loving literature, she says. And her early years were anchored in rural home places, "the hills of southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana, where my life revolved around stories."

Today, she is director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) at LSU.

The Bone Lady tells dozens of work-related stories in and around her FACES Lab. Many detailed photographs and illustrations accompany the puzzle-like scenarios that the author finds herself trying to solve when either attempting to determine the identity of human remains, or the cause of death.

Filled with bits of trivia, the story takes readers into mysterious and sad cases of the "lost" people that Manhein has tried to identify, from drown victims to a suicide stowed away under a family porch. Even the controversial case of Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long's assassination receives a chapter-length treatment, at least Dr. Carl Austin Weiss's alleged participation in the shooting on September 8, 1935.

Readers of true crime, memoir, and Louisiana history will find this slim volume interesting, strong, and crisp. These are the hard-won stories that have made the author; all of it is rooted in the red clay and swamps of Louisiana.

----------Reviewed by Dayne Sherman

Bone Lady a good book for the general public
Interest in Forensic science has exploded over the past few years. As a result so have books concerning the subject area. Many of the books are well and scholarly written. The Bone Lady reads well for the general public, but for thise truly interested in the field of forensic science there are a number of books that are much more informative with respect to science. For a forensic anthropology book, consider Bill Maples Dead Men Do Tell Tales. If however you are simply looking for a simple entertaining excursion into memoirs, the Bone Lady is for you.

Cool Book
This was a quick really great read...I highly reccommend it!

A good starter book
It's well written but way too short. Manheim should have gotten more into either her personal feelings or (what I would have preferred) more into the science of what she does which I am sure is fascinating but she chose not to for some reason. Anyway, this book is a good way to pique interest in reading other books on the subject of forensic anthropology. ... Read more

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Does anyone want the views of an autistic?
I'm a 60-year-old autistic and have read lots of books and articles both by and about Bruno Bettelheim. This one takes the cake, though. It's so easy to skew facts in order to defame genius.

Consider this: Bettelheim openly admitted he smacked his patients, but only in response to violent behavior. No one gets mad at Benjamin Spock for suggesting that it's not such a bad thing to strike your child, just so long as you include a display of rage, rather than a cold-blooded reptilian front! When Annie Sullivan clobbered seven-year-old Helen Keller, everyone thought that was just precious. But when Bettelheim did it occassionally, he became grist for Pollak's cheap-shot rumor mill.

In fact, Helen Keller is a good case in point to back Bettelheim's theories of autism. When Keller was 19 months old, according to her parents, she was precocious and could talk perfectly well. After her traumatic illness, she not only lost her ability to talk--as typical of most autistics--she started exhibiting COMPLETE, FULL-BLOWN autistic behavior. She would perseverate over meaningless details and rock back and forth. In fact, modern reseach has shown that 31 per-cent of all blind children become autistic at age two.

Bettelheim believed that nobody is born autistic, but they may have inherited predispositions. Moreover, he believed that one can acquire a predisposition due to environment. If
Bettelheim was right, that autism has multiple causes, it would explain why autism is so elusive to modern researchers who are careful to rule out in advance any theoretical construct that might suggest environmental determinants, because such researchers are afraid of upsetting enraged mommies. When is the last time anyone has suggested that mothers like the one in "The Three Faces of Eve" might cause mental problems? This is deliberate ignorance, and Pollak has encouraged it. His book is a disaster to millions of autistic children who must now abandon all hope, or place it in the hands of neurologists. Unfortunately, no neurologist on Earth offers a cure for autism.

BRUNO BETTELHEIM: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE FREUDIAN
RICHARD POLLAK, THE AUTHOR OF "THE CREATION OF DR. B", BRINGS TO HIS STORY HIS OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DR. B. HE ALSO BRINGS WITH HIM A LOT OF PERSONAL RESENTMENT. HE SEEMS UNABLE TO SEPARATE BETTELHEIM'S STRONG FREUDIAN PERSPECTIVE AND BELIEFS FROM BETTELHEIM'S QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR. POLLAK'S RESENTMENT GETS THE BETTER OF HIM WHEN HE MAKES DUMB REMARKS LIKE: BETTELHEIM WAS A "A MOMMY HATER"
HIS BIO DOES GIVE SOME GOOD HISTORY ABOUT BETTELHEIM, THE TYPE OF HISTORY WE ALL LIKE TO SEE ABOUT GREAT MEN, ALL THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY. IN BETTELHEIM'S CASE A LOT OF THIS AIRING OF LAUNDRY IS WARRENTED. BUT BETTELHEIM WAS A TRUE FREUDIAN. AND I FOR ONE HAVE FOUND HIS WRITINGS EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING. THAT HIS PERSONAL LIFE WAS A [FAKE] DOES NOT TAKE AWAY FROM HIS POSITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE. POLLAK THINKS OTHERWISE.

Another Idol Falls
On an episode of "The Simpsons," Bart is climbing on a psychiatrist's bookcase and knocking off some tomes. The psychiatrist says, "Stop that! Some of those books haven't been discredited yet!" "The Creation of Dr. B" is truly an astonishing book. To think that such a fraud could obtain such a prominent position in American life makes you wonder what other now-respected people out there are con-men and phonies. Pollak's book is a model of research and writing: those post-modern people who say we can never come to a definite knowledge of the truth should eat their words after reading this. "Dr. B" is one of those recent works that help show the insanity of the Freudian dominace of psychology in the mid 20th century. Can we now lump it with phrenology, as it deserves to be?

At last, the truth, The real story of Dr. Bettelheim
As a former student at Bettelheim's Orthogenic School, I would like to commend Mr. Pollack for a well written and truthful account of Dr. B. He was NOT the "saint" as people would like to have him be. Mr. Pollack's description of Dr. B is totally accurate in every detail. We, the students, as Mr. Pollack did point out, were very intimidated by Dr. B and were often slapped and beaten by him. The Orthogenic School staff, never came to our aid, themselves, as well, being intimadated by this man. I am glad Mr. Pollak wrote this book and only wish others would also expose the fake Dr.B.

A freudian fake exposed
Richard Pollak has done great service by calmly exposing Bruno Bettelheim as a liar, fake and child abuser. In europe there is still a refusal by post-WWII psychiatrists to let the so-called "research" on autism of Bettelheim go where it should, in the trash can of freudian mis-interpretations. Bettelheim destroyed generations of our children and their parents by laying the blame for autism at the children's mothers. I pray forgiveness for his soul. ... Read more