Customer Reviews

Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence

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The simple idea that the way we think about something determines how we feel about it, and how we act on it. Widely considered the father of modern cognitive therapy, Dr. Beck didn't invent this idea, nor is he the only one promoting it. Yet his expression of it, especially in this fine book, is elegant and compelling. There are many powerful and immediately recognizable examples from daily life, showing how we turn hurt into anger into hatred. How our beliefs and thinking patterns gradually imprison us in cages of reactivity. This book helps make our capacity for both good and evil more understandable. Readers of this book who want a more complete understanding of the topics would probably also benefit from a number of the books talking about the evolutionary and physiological origins of violence. Yet, for the part of our dark nature that we have some ability to control, this book makes a powerful and promising statement, and is complete unto itself.

Beck credibly explains and illustrates the origins of hatred acted out by both individuals and groups. While the underlying elements show remarkable similarity, group and leader dynamics, of course, enter into hate by groups. I do agree with another reviewer who commented that Beck produces few new explanations of hatred and the resulting behaviors.

The book, however, easily kept my interest and used many examples to beautifully illustrate the process that Beck explains. And he does provide some direction for helping to combat anger, hostility, and violence.

Anyone interested in this book may benefit from the following notes that I made:

1. I would like to have seen some information about the duration of the benefits from the cognitive studies that Beck refers to.
2. If you're looking for credible evidence to support a belief (that I would love to have) that we're likely to find ways to significantly prevent or eradicate hate by groups of people, you won't find it in this book.
3. While Beck provides thorough explanations of anger, hostility, and violence, you'll find far more useful tools to combat these patterns in both David Burns' "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" (Burns has worked with Beck for more than 15 years) and Albert Ellis' classic "A Guide to Rational Living."

Beck does a fine job of demonstrating and applying the basic ideas of his therapy to realistic situations that are much too prevalent in America, let alone the world (currently and as history). Beck explores hatred, the making of hatred -- sponsored by societies or governments, and the results of the hatred. The analysis is poignant and acute. Probably the theme of the book can be summed up as "humans find it easier to hate than to love". Some of the historical analysis was tedious, although historians may not find it so. Beck leaves us with a hopeful note, although looking at the state of the world, I am doubtful about optimism. This is an important book for anyone wishing to understand how the mind works in the respect that the mind influences the actions, which produce the tragedies or triumphs. It is important as well for any person in our society who finds themselves hating, whether it be towards a race, a gender, or an individual. Understanding one's hatred is a step towards freeing oneself to lead a happier existence. Looking at hatred in a global sense leads to understanding just how and why men and women can be made to create suffering. For more info, I recommend the Biology of Violence by Niehoff.

Overflowing with information about cognitive therapy, the book also focuses on negative emotions and behavior. Psychologists don't often take their knowledge to the scale Beck does, integrating theory and practice into a view of the world as it is right now -- a world that isn't in very good shape. The path to learned hatred is explained, with numerous examples to help one assimilate the ideas. Anger, peer groups, etc., are handled in detail, and the only lack is a more biological perspective, but that can be found in such books like the Biology of Violence (Niehoff). A fine book, worth reading.

What could be more interesting than a book on violence written by the world's leading psychiatrist? That's what I was thinking when I bought the book. Although Beck made some interesting points, very few were original points that I wasn't already familiar with. The book is a slow read and only moderately interesting. For a much more interesting account of violence, read James Gilligan's book VIOLENCE: REFLECTIONS ON A NATIONAL EPIDEMIC.

Lee J. Markowitz, Ph.D. student in clinical psychology

Court-mandated anger management courses for first-time offenders deferred from imprisonment for law-breaking aggression became a necessary safety valve for overloaded court and incarceration systems in the late 1990s. It's taken a decade to move from loose notions of what to do in such group work through various suspect methodologies towards empirically verified methods.

If deferees are to move through denial to more than mere contemplation or identification and on to committment, behavioral change and relapse prevention, they will pretty likely have to confront the issues addressed herein. Any effective rage-reduction program will require psychodynamic, group dynamic, self-confrontation and emotion-recognition techniques, of course. But if, as Beck has asserted and researchers have agreed for a half century, man's beliefs, values, ideas, attitudes, evaluations, interpretations and appraisals are the drivers of emotion, a cognitive strategy for anger management is mandated.

One of the other reviewers is correct to note that other books (including those by Beck himself) address the specific methods more directly, but having read a good 20 books on CBT, REBT, ST, CAT and other cognitive therapies, I'm forced to go this far: Any therapist who conducts anger management courses without reading this book at least twice is going to be well short of his or her potential. In fact, I'd say PoH should be mandated for certification in this specialty.

Psychodynamically- and sociologically-oriented therapists will not be displeased. Beck invests plenty of time and effort in ego defenses and groupthink. He also addresses the concerns of the interpersonal school when it comes to reciprocal reactivity and parataxical integration, as well as who the triggerable select for intimate relationships and why.

From passive aggression all the way to paranoid delusion, Beck misses darned little in a treatise that ranges from intrapsychic all the way to macro-cultural. This a -great- book for the psychotherapist, sociologist, business or government leader, diplomat, and sophisticated lay reader alike.

This book has given me a new perspective on my life. Being a person who has often spells of intense anger. I have managed to refrain from physical violence for a long time now. This book helped me take the "edge off". It has also helped me with border line personality disorder and depression by highlighting, what I interpreted, as causes of both. I highly recommend this book to anyone who gets angry or would just like a good book to read.

The author discusses (p.182-3) the psychological factors that led to the Holocaust, but he does not mention Stanley Milgram's "Obedience To Authority" experiments/explanation, instead he (note 20, p.309) writes that the "Obedience To Authority" experiments are probably not valid because they utilized deception. He cites a study "Probing Suspicion Among Participants in Deception Research" American Psychologist (1996). The author (Beck) implies that Milgram's subjects actually knew that they were not inflicting any harm on the "learner." However he presents no evidence to support this conclusion. He just cites the article, which refers to another experiment. Neither the author (Beck) nor the study examined Milgram's "Obedience To Authority" experiments to determine if any of Milgram's subjects realized that they were being lied to. This is pretty thin gruel. Incredibly the author relies on other studies that utilize deception, for example (note 25, p.319) "The Robbers Cave Experiment: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation." This study utilized deception, yet the author (Beck) writes nothing about it/doesn't question its validity. Why? Is it possible that the author dislikes Milgram's "Obedience To Authority" experiments because they contradict his ideas?

The author writes (p.52) that some people have "shaky self-esteem," a (p.53) "vulnerable self-image," and (p.47) "fragile self-esteem." He writes that people should/can have a "stable positive image" of themselves (p.54). Throughout the book, the author seems to demonize people who have self-esteem or self-image vulnerabilities, but doesn't everyone have some kind of vulnerability of this type?

The author writes (p.33) that people "unwittingly construct a phantom world" composed of people "poised to dominate, deceive, and exploit us." He implies that domination, deception, and exploitation are relatively rare. In a capitalistic, competitive, self-interested, individualistic, somewhat sadistic culture like our own, these things are common, not rare.

The author writes (p.38) that psychological harms such as "disparagement, domination, and deception" do not "constitute dangers to [our] physical well-being or survival." It seems to me that repeated/prolonged psychological harm/stress can cause massive physical damage to our health. I believe that many studies have demonstrated this. I entered "psychological stress and disease" into Google and got an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 298 No.14, October 10, 2007), which maintains that psychological stress does indeed damage people's physical health. Many of the other articles listed say the same thing. Did the author do any research on this topic before he wrote this book?

The author writes (p.67) that people can have stable, positive views of themselves & stable high self-esteem that need not fluctuate according to life events. This seems like self-delusion/unlikely. Everyone's self-esteem & self-image fluctuates according to life events. People can't go through multiple traumatic events without their self-esteem & self-image being affected. Throughout the book, the author postulates the existence of people who have no psychological vulnerabilities at all. This seems like reification, turning an abstract concept into a rock-solid reality.

I do agree with the author that cognitive issues have to be addressed, if hate, anger, and violence are to be diminished.

Very good book with respect to personal struggles resulting from hate. The Macro issues of nation against nation, while informative, were not the reason I purchased the book.