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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I really WANTED to like this book, but.......,
By
This review is from: Performance of a Lifetime: A Practical-Philosophical Guide to the Joyous Life (Paperback)
I'd heard of social therapy from some folks I respect, and wanted to read about it to gain a greater understanding. Unfortunately, this seems hard to do. Apparently, since this approach takes issue with the very concept of "meaning" or "having a point", then it is not conducive to a lucid overview. I found several aspects of this book population, people wishing to better themselves, philosophers, therapists, all of the above? It's hard to speak to so many different audiences in the same book. It seems to presume that the reader has read "Let's Develop", a previous work by the author. There are almost no examples of technique given. This may be in line with what seems to be a general pish-poshing of technique as being just another hatchet-man of categorization. Almost despite itself, the book makes some interesting points, even while denigrating the value of 'points.' Those it does make are not laid out until the last 10% of the book, and some not even there. For instance, there is mention of the value of "Wittgensteinian language games", but never a clear explanation or example of what they are. Again, it may be a function of the approach of social therapy that you have to "perform it" to have any use for it, and that to talk about it logically is to limit and pervert it. Yet it seems to me that some better way can be had for transmitting some of these ideas in book form -- otherwise, why even write a book to begin with? While obviously a very smart man (the preface and cover tell you that), Newman explains his concepts indistinctly over and over and over in a way that left me looking forward to the end of the last chapter so I could get it over with, while not wanting to quit because I kept thinking that there must be "more to it" on the next page. There wasn't. There needs to be a better book written about these ideas.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strolling With Newman,
This review is from: Performance of a Lifetime: A Practical-Philosophical Guide to the Joyous Life (Paperback)
This sequel to Newman's earlier book (Let's Develop)is an interesting and enjoyable experience. Unlike most self-help books, Performance of a Lifetime promotes no simple lessons and makes no unrealistic claims. It works more like poetry. If you enjoy exploration for its own sake, conversation in and of itself, a walk through the park with a friend, then Performance of a Lifetime may be just your style. A very good book for the right kind of reader.
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