Customer Reviews

My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Do you ever feel as though something is profoundly wrong with the world today? Ever feel tired, thwarted, disconnected or overworked? Ever feel as though you don't belong? These are some of the vague notions that often plague many of the so-called normal who are succeeding in life. Perhaps you are one of them. Or perhaps you have come closer to the pathology and directly experienced the violence, exploitation and abuse of life in the modern world. In response to the crises we all know by now, Glendinning's thesis - hailed as both obvious and brilliant - is that, behind the sparkles and glitter, we all suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, induced from life inside Western Civilization.

A doctor of psychology, with years of work in the field under her belt - as well as personal taste of abuse our civilization deals out - Glendinning's diagnosis for our collective madness is illuminating and profound, constituting nothing less than a critique of Western Civilization, progress, normality and rationality. After providing example after example of the folly, abuse and suffering we continually inflict upon ourselves, our loved ones and the earth who created and sustains us, her thesis quickly passes from specious to plausible, from doubtful to obvious. Perhaps more enthralling than the pathology is the cure, though.

Not only a message of suffering and pain, Glendinning offers us hope, beauty and joy. Aside from critique, Glendinning provides concrete examples of cultures that - in contrast to our culture - offer full political and social participation, genuine democracy, equality of the sexes, leisure, good food and nutrition, stability, ecological sustainability, and most importantly a sense of a connection and belonging. In a word, she reconnects us with the traditions, cultures and communities abundant with all the things we have lost in the Faustian bargain for that evanescent more we call progress. Should not be overlooked.

I was assigned in my Intro. to Religious Studies class to find a book on which to do a final project. A friend suggested I read "My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization". I did, and I have been profoundly effected. This book is full of brilliant theories of correlation between the ecological crisis (which it really is) and human mental health problems that are so abundant. Glendinning has put great effort into researching her material, and has also filled this work with astounding personal passion. For me, she has changed my entire perspective of life. Before reading this book, I suggest that you have a completely open mind. Glendinning covers issues that will indeed disrupt an average sense of reality. In the words of another of my favorite artists, Bjork, "It takes courage to enjoy it," ("Big Time Sensuality").

Also excellent books by Glendinning: When Technology Wounds, and Waking Up in the Nuclear Age.

This is THE most important book I have ever read. After reading this book I realized why I have never been able to complete the healing process I began 10 years ago and it is because I didn't understand what the real problem was. This book has helped me to connect my life and my own personal pain and childhood emotional abuse to a much larger picture of a dysfunctional culture out of sync with nature with the traumatic effects being passed down from one generation to the next. This book is already helping me to become whole again and I know that it can help many other people. This is a book for people who are suffering and struggling to understand why and wondering what to do. This is a book that draws a complete picture of the horror that many of us are feeling as we are abused, as we watch our earth being polluted and degraded, as we read about child prostitutes and species extinctions. If you are ready to heal and become whole again then you are ready for this book.

Why are we Westerners so sick as a culture? Because we're no longer rooted in the natural world.

With convincing passion and lucidity, the author raises the middle syllable of her last name against the backwardness of therapizing, medicating, motivating, chanting, meditating, praying, and healing without taking the real problem into account. People of nature, enviously demonized as childlike or primitive, suffer like the rest of us--but why do they do without neuroses and eating disorders, mass murder and organized intolerance?

Because it's our cultural separation from the seas and stars that makes us mad, and WE are the culture. In the brief, brief splinter of history since the rise of cities--a fragment in the million or so years of hunter-gatherer existence--we have taken the most radical social step imaginable and severed our contact with the dangers and lushnesses of the world. In its place we have concepts and categories, empiricism and case histories--and so much wrong-headed bewilderment that for most of us, a thing isn't real unless a laboratory measures it or a scientist finds a way to blow it up.

Dr. Glendinning does not make the reactive, pendulum-swing suggestion that we abandon our cultural or technological developments. Instead, she challenges the postmodern reader to find a satisfying personal rootedness in what's left of the Earth's wilderness.

See for yourself....

This book provides a thoroughly documented (with footnotes) thesis: We live neurotic lives generated by a perpetuated trauma called civilization.This trauma started 10,000 years ago with the Agricultural Revolution and has grown to an incredible state in this posmodern era. As with any trauma there is a recovery path to 100% sanity, Glendinning shows that path.
It is a moving book, very powerful in stating our addiction to this techno-society and the symptons it generates. It is written by a psychologist and it shows that the author has gone through her own recovery and has come out with message to be heard.
If this book falls into enough hands it should help to change the world.

This book is an important step in understanding our dependence upon technology and our attempt to cure the ills of our society with technology, rather than with a reconnection with one another and the planet. The author makes some very astute observations regarding personal traumas and the traumas inflicted on us by our unhealthy society/culture. I consider it a "must read" for anyone interested in rebuilding our connection with nature.

Those familiar with the recovery movement will instantly connect with the thrust of Glendinning's work. She has looked at the loss of connectedness humans endured in shifting from nature-based, hunter/gatherer cultures to agro-industrial life, and found that the symptoms mirror post-traumatic stress. Using anthropological studies and the stories of surviving nature-based groups, Glendinning makes a strong case that we are cut off from the "primal matrix" in which we lived for 35,000 generations before the rise of agriculture. That primal matrix embedded us in oneness with the earth, a sense of place, links to community, and an encompassing spirituality which we lost when we decided that humans were separate from nature. This book makes an excellent companion to Clive Ponting's A GREEN HISTORY OF THE WORLD (St. Martin's Press, 1991), which explores the ecological damage which necessarily followed agriculture around the globe -- now compounded by the waste of industrial civilization. Glendinning's work is part of the relatively new field of eco-psychology, and is a thoughtful introduction to the idea that our behaviour and discontents are closely bound to our environment. (Should this surprise us?)

The title was a little weird, and the cover photo should be on the back, but get over it and buy this book. I don't know where she came from, but this is a compelling, heart-felt, angy and convincing book about how messed up we are and how we must change. I underlined page after page of it. The author does not even own a computer, so she'll probably never read these comments, but she's just great and I wanted to book her for a workshop immediately after reading the book.

God bless, Chellis. Keep writing.

I read this book many years ago, and it transformed my understanding of the world. It is a difficult book to read since it defies some basic assumptions about good and bad in civilizations. However, reading "My name is Chellis" (in 1999) gave me a framework for comprehending some of the chaos of the modern world that stays with me today.

I noticed a few negative reviews of this book on Amazon. Many of them disagree with the title or the general premise, so I must point out that even if you are in this camp, it is healthy to expose yourself to ideas and information that you would not typically come across. This is exactly such a book. Chellis lives an unusual life, and she has wisdom to share from it. You don't have to agree with everything she rights to read her book and critique it with an open mind.

To be fair, I seem to remember that it did become difficult to finish this book because the subject matter can be very depressing after multiple chapters. You may just want to read the first half and then the last chapter, which I remember has some positive ideas for moving forward.

I also spent many months living on a native reservation four years after reading this book. I think the next time that I read it, I will approach the book with a greater critical eye of potential over-romanticizing of current-day and historical native life.

Even so, I look forward to reading this book again. It may not move me as deeply the second time around, but I know I need a re-fresher, a new perspective every now and then. This is one.

When I was 4 years old I ran away from school. It was a cold, rainy day and I'd been herded into a large barn filled with noisy children for lunch. I looked around and saw nothing to soothe my feelings of emptiness. I wanted to go home. Escape filled my mind and drove me to run out of the school and to try to get as far away as I could from my misery. Feelings of alienation, lonliness, and despair have pursued me ever since. I've spent a lifetime alternately trying to either escape or understand my feelings, but I've never been able to adjust. Chellis' has put the missing pieces togther for me, her writing is truly revelatory. She brings together a thesis which is not only intellectually stunning but emotionally and spiritually remarkable. I have to admit that while reading her words I was confronted and challenged. I've been in denial, not wanting to face the consequences of my mindless participation in the spoils of western civilisation. I remain grateful for Chellis' great effort and insights and would like to recommend her book to anyone who is serious about evaluating the real effect of our culture and ways on each other, wildlife and the planet. The book is a testament to her consciousness, loving kindness and integrity.