Customer Reviews

Revolution in Psychiatry

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Wonderfully written, this book is pretty ambitious and cerebral. It is Becker's attempt to devise a theory of psychopathology. He incorporate the philosophy of John Dewey, using the active-passive dichotomy to distinguish those who have retreated into either (1) a depressive symbol system versus (2) those whose proneness to over activity lead to a lack of substance. The idea's are fairly abstract and essentially posit the active-passive dichotomy as central, then link it to Dewey's philosophy, then link it to formulation about mental illness. This book is not for everyone, obviously, but if you like Beckers ambitious literary style, it is a good and challenging read. Also, it is pretty much a forgotten book, and likely to be unknown to even most scholars of psychology and its interface with sociological thought. But despite some abstruseness, is actually pretty useful in therapy. Hid ideas jibe pretty well with more commonly understood ideas about human nature and the kinds of emotional and social retreat in depression. When offering these ideas in somewhat more day to day speech, I notice that they do offer some explanatory power to some clients. For others, book may be of historical interest in understanding Becker's ideas, so popular in the 70s, which now pervade pop culture. Damon LaBarbera