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The Origin of Illness: Psychological, Physical and Social

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This book is fundamental reading for anyone who desires a deeper awareness of himself and others and especially the world in which we live. It is also basic reading for a better understanding of the unique and innovative work of the renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher and social scientist, Dr. Norberto R. Keppe.

In "The Origin of Illness" Keppe describes the three stages that lead us all to these conflicts and difficulties, and how through consciousness of this vicious circle we can improve our lives, our relationships and society. The author gives many practical examples, which we all can relate to, including excerpts from a number of his client's analysis sessions.

The first part of the book deals with the fundamental human problem, which is envy. This deep and hidden envy which is in everyone, to a greater or lesser degree, makes us blind to all that is good and beautiful in life, and consequently hinders or even destroys, all opportunity for development and progress.

The second part of the book addresses our fear of perceiving and dealing with our shortcomings. Keppe explains that the problem isn't having a problem, but in not seeing the problem. And this is our dilemma: how can we solve our problems when we do not admit that they exist?

The final section of the book deals with projection, which is the process of seeing all of our own problems or qualities in other people and things. Because of our enormous resistance to self-knowledge, we turn our eyes to the external world in an attempt to ignore our internal psychological life. Instead of seeing that the cause of the dissatisfaction is inside of me, for example, I blame my partner, my parents, my workmates, the city in which I live, etc. Projection is the cause of human conflicts, and the end result is that we to lose contact with reality and ourselves.

This book gives a whole new expansive perspective of the psychopathology of the human being and the civilization we have built. It provides answers to the question of why we experience so little true happiness in our lives and why we destroy the good in ourselves, each other and life in general.

This is is the only book I have found that gives the definitive universal answer to those crucial questions: Why are we unhappy and depressed? Why are we self-destructive? Why are we hell-bent on destroying the planet? What drives us to do the crazy things we do? In this easy-to-read book, Dr. Keppe tells us why: it's name is "Envy" and it unconsciously drives us to destroy all that is good in ourselves, others and life in general. And in the process, we are driving ourselves to the brink of insanity and extinction.

This isn't just another little self-help book to get happy and healthy - this is an expansive and breath-taking body of work based on over 30 years of intensive scientific research and clinical experience.

Humanity is in dire straits - we are at a crossroads and unless we start to address the psychological imbalances and neurosis that, according to Keppe, each and every one of has to a greater or lesser degree, we are bound for mass destruction and extinction.

On a personal level, the book was profoundly helpful in allowing me to see in a way I've never seen before (even with the previous help of psychotherapy) my own unconscious desire to sabotage my life and everything good in it. Thanks to the incredible insights and awareness I received from this book, I now feel I have a fighting chance to live a productive and meaningful life

This book should be mandatory reading for every person on the planet!

The Origin of Illness should be in every library and on the book shelf of every person who works with or around people. The work of Norberto Keppe, a Brazilian psychiatrist, is quite arguably the best bet to develop a unification of philosophy, theology and science of all the current psychological theories. The Origin of Illness is based on over 30 years of careful scientific analysis by Norberto Keppe. The scope and importance of his work can be explored by looking under the term Analytic Trilogy on your search engine.

Warning! This is not a easy fix, magic bullet, self-help book. The Origin of Illness is not an easy read, i.e., do not skim and expect to get the gist of it. Do not let the fact it is "thin" book fool you either. The writing is direct, spare, and precise. It is a profound well written book. Each page offers wisdom and insights when you carefully attend to what Keppe is saying.

The reader needs to carefully note and hold in mind the meanings Keppe gives to terms. If you don't do this you will not understand the significance of what he has discovered about the phenomena being discussed. For example, he uses envy to describe a condition of not being able to see the goodness, the truth, and the beauty in our world. Another example is the use of the word unconscious to entail negating consciousness of our problems, i.e., the unconscious is not a container or a compartment in which things are stored out of our awareness. Happily, the task of keeping the terms in mind has been made easier by including a glossary of terms at the end of the book

Keppe's inclusion of samples of actual analysis sessions is helpful and demonstrates the terms in use. They also give the reader an opportunity to insights about their own blind spots. The method used by Keppe takes spiritual courage: You constantly strive to become ever more aware of the things you and others are doing that lead to psychological, physical and social illness. This awareness becomes the basis for dealing with problems. Problems never go away but you can constantly choose to go towards the good, truthful and beautiful in life.

I have to admit I have a very strong bias in favor of Keppe's work based on my 40+ years experience in the human service field in mental health, education, and corrections. All those years I was constantly looking for practical ways to assist people overcome their problems. Then I discovered Keppe's work. Keppe is on to something important about the human condition. Simply put, IT WORKS! Keppe's therapeutic model is highly ethical, respectful and radical in that it goes directly to to source of the problem --- our lack of awareness of how we attack the good in our life and in the lives of others.

In closing, The Origins of Illness is, to me, both a practical aid and spiritual guide. I am currently incorporating his approach in groups for court referred domestic violence perpetrators, anger management classes, and addicts in a residential program with excellent results. Keppe's practices require compassionate honesty on the part of the therapist and educator when dealing with clients. And you need to constantly work on becoming ever more aware of your own contaminated thinking and blind spots.

The Origin Of Illness: Psychological, Physical, And Social by psychoanalyst Norberto R. Keppe (President, International Society of Analytical Trilogy, Sao Paul, Brazil) is a "reader friendly" self-help book explaining how mental and emotional details of goodness within and without the self can lead to destructive illness and pathogens. Professor Keppe, reveals the way to greater health and resilience is through confronting personal inner deceptions and opening oneself to love. The Origin Of Illness is a highly recommended and profound testimony to the real power, both positive and negative, of the human spirit with respect to human health and physical/emotional well-being.

The Origin of Illness was well written and because of the constant interpolation of snippets of analysis session dialogue more interesting than Glorification, Dr. Keppe's other book.
The most striking thing about Analytical Trilogy is that its basis is clearly a secularized version of Catholic Theology. A.T.'s essence is Keppe's broad definition of "Envy", a dead ringer for the Catholic doctrine of Original Sin. ( I say the Catholic doctrine because, while the Protestant Reformers also taught Original Sin, their definition was quite different.) In fact, Dr. Keppe twice in the book uses the term original sin in connection with Envy.

The alalogy hold up quite well with A.T.'s "consciousness" equivalent to Catholic "conscience", the is, the ability to distinguish good from evil.

Although strictly speaking the analogy ends there, but one can't help but see the Keppean psychoanalyst as a replacement for the priest in the confessional.

Also, one wonders where all the needed pschooanalysts the world needs are to come from.

Keppe clearly sees A.T. as the only solution to the problem of envy and inversion with the accompanying problems of delusional projection.

The low pointof the book can be found on pages 94-95 where Keppe gratutitously offers an unsupported and, in my view,unsupportable, attach on the crusades, the 1991 Iraq (incorrectly called Iran) War, and Clinton's denunciation of Brazilian child labor. I suggest this attack has more to do with Dr. Keppe's own feelings about authority figures (in this case the popes and presidents) than any psychopathology of the accused. Projection?

The A.T. system itself because of its fundamentally moral views strikes me a more acceptable approach to Christians in need of psychoanalysis than traditional Freudian approaches. The book itself does a good job of explaining why.

More Than a Self-Help Book

As a psychologist who has been working with psychotherapy for about thirty years in a few countries, including New York and London, I have studied a number of theoretical and practical approaches to the study of the human personality. What I find most remarkable in Keppe's work is the precision with which he has pinpointed the central and crucial points that characterize man.

Throughout his work, Keppe has scientifically discovered what Socrates and Plato previously determined by intuition - that man is based on a foundation of goodness, truth and beauty. But as Keppe goes to great lengths to explain, we are unfortunately all ruled by Envy, which we do not perceive, and which is the cause of the greatest number of destructive consequences in an individual's life and society in general.

In pinpointing Envy as the fundamental cause behind all illness (psychological, physical and social), Keppe enters new psychological territory, and explains in very practical terms the underlying root cause of all of humanity's problems, giving us the opportunity to address this profoundly serious issue. If we do not begin dealing with this destructive force, which affects every human being on the planet, we could very well drive our civilization to extinction.

This book is a must-read for everyone.

One of the best and most explaining books about human and social pathology ever written. Norberto R. Keppe gives a brilliant explanation how people complicate their lives and the lives of others. The book "The Origin of Illness" brings to the reader the concept that the human being does not want good for himself and that he through envy tries to attack what is good, beautiful and true. He shows in a direct and understandable way based on analytical material that people oppose consciousness about themselves by projecting their problems, anger, insecurity and such onto the exterior world and therefore creating all kinds of neurosis and problems. In short Norberto R. Keppe gives an illuminative explanation how people, through envy, block themselves from entering into the vast world of consciousness that could solve personal, social and even planetary illness. It is a book for all ages and for all nations and should be read by every person on the planet who likes to have better life.

This book is really a profound experience! Norberto Keppe reaches the most inner problems of the human being, when he explains about our resistance to what is good, our fear of seing ourselves as we are, and how we often project our own problems and caracteristics onto others. The book can help the reader to prevent himself from destroying good things in life and at the same time it shows the way to accomplishment and joy, through conscientization.

This book give a whole new meaning to the term of envy.It has been a good help in the process of understanding various problematic areas in my life. I find it as a very important book that could help many people to a better life, through conscientizing what actually impedes us to be happy-our denial of good.

I loved this book! Over the years, I've dabbled in many different disciplines and philosophies looking for some answers to the unfulfillment I felt in my life as well as the massive problems we are facing in the world today. It was a completely welcome, albeit unexpected, pleasure to find the answers to both in one book.

The significance of this should not go unnoticed. Brazilian psychoanalyst Dr. Norberto Keppe has managed an astounding feat: to get to the essential, underlying reason for all of the troubles on earth and in the human heart, mind and soul.

His expansion and larger understanding of the serious problem of envy begun by Melanie Klein is impressive. One can begin to glimpse through this book the source of so many problems stemming from this single existential point: our envy of goodness, truth and beauty is causing us to destroy them at every turn - personally, collectively, scientifically, politically and economically.

Dr. Keppe's clinical examples are illuminating, the breadth of his thinking is massive and his discoveries have significance for all areas of human function. This is a truly extraordinary journey beyond the surface symptoms we in North America are accustomed to dealing with. This wonderful little book cuts to the root of our individual and collective problems and shows us how we can begin to clear the way for a more realistic and humane world.

Dr. Keppe's ideas rank with the greatest of human ideas. I can't recommend it highly enough.