The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents [Hardcover]

Joyce Milton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2002

The Road to Malpsychia gives intriguing portraits of the patriarchs of the new secular order-- Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Timothy Leary. The Road to Malpsychia charts the rise and fall of one of the most significant cultural movements of our time. It is a story filled with character and anecdote and also with daunting implications for the secular souls left stranded by the failure of what Maslow once called the religion of human nature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Offering vivid portrayals of the major players in the humanistic psychology movement is Joyce Milton's The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents. This cultural movement which sprouted from an impatience with human limitations and a desire to put the self at the center of the universe had its heyday in the 1960s. Milton (The First Partner: Hilary Rodham Clinton) writes about psychologist Abraham Maslow, the movement's prophet, and of its followers, including Carl Rogers, a Californian who instructed people to get in touch with the dark impulses of their true selves.'
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Vivid portrayals of the major players in the humanistic psychology movement."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 309 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (July 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554465
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554467
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #614,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about time, August 21, 2002

By 

Eugene A Jewett "Eugene A Jewett" (Alexandria, Va. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents (Hardcover)

This book reflects on pop culture and the way it developed from the Progressive era of the late 1800's into the 60's. These poisonous theories embrace by humanistic psychology sought to undermine an Anglo-American culture that had made America the greatest and fairest nation in recorded human history. In that vein this book is like "Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson in the way it contrasts the way self anointed guru's of the last half of the 20th century live their own lives versus the way they recommend other's live theirs. By citing pseudo-intellectuals like Abe Maslow, Tim Leary, Carl Rogers, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Richard Alpert, the author reveals what many of us thought all along, these people are frauds who have perpetrated their absurd theories of human behavior by masquerading them as science. Recall that thousands of intellectuals were gulled into believing that Marxism was scientifically determined and that its conclusions were inevitable. All of it turned out to be nonsense on stilts, but we should use it as a lesson where we never forget that we can never dismiss man's incredible capacity for self-deception.

Joyce Milton outlines the central tenets of her subjects by citing their disdain for the family, religion and private property. It is interesting that Hanna Arendt, in her book "the Origins of Totalitarianism", recounts these themes as ones so destructive to what has made western culture preeminent in human history. Did this all just happen by accident? No. Joshua Muravchik covers this ground well in his book "Heaven on Earth; the decline and fall of socialism".

Milton explains New-Age spirituality, radical feminism and self-esteem psychology, and its origination of the hot tub, group hug societies so in evidence in many parts of America (such as Marin County California where anti-Americanism is a virtue.) She cites an interesting example of the confusion these people might possibly feel if they take their beliefs to a logical conclusion by quoting their intellectual guru, Karl Marx, who says at the end of his life, "I am not a Marxist". Who knew?

Milton posits that humanistic psychology is arrogant because it believes that a theory of the universe can be deduced from a person's own experience; and that it is socially irresponsible because it advises us to keep our eyes on the weather vane of our own conflicting feelings rather than on the lives of those around us. No society can function effectively under such a regime.

This whole project of humanistic psyche is being shown as "the emperor who is wearing no clothes" and with that behind us the world might perhaps get back to the real science of why we're the way we are. This is an excellent book that should at least be read by every college freshman.

26 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about American History., February 16, 2003

By 

William C. Beatty MD (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents (Hardcover)

As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst I have been exposed to many theories about the human mind. I have had ample opportunity to see which of these theories when applied to a given situation is most likely to be of help. It has been startling to me how many elaborate models of the mind and corresponding therapies are not only obscure but disorganized, unverifiable, and unaccountable. Joyce Milton's fast paced book is clear and concise in examining the parents of Humanistic Psychology and its theories. (I had not known where all that silly stuff about encounter groups,
LSD, etc. came from but now I do.) In examining this movement Ms. Milton suggests origins for many of the cultural and political aberancies which have been so antithetical to the best of American institutions and values.

The Humanistic Psychology Movement seemed to assert that the highest form of human mental activity was the quest for the Ecstacy of Self-Congratulation. Ms. Milton wryly describes the resultant frenetic, self-deluded, and self-serving Flakiness which often passed for Advanced Deep Thought and which justified in the mind of the affected the wholesale overhaul of everything. The ability to discern Nonsense in our culture has been greatly enhanced by this book. Another great part of this lively book is the dark humor to be continuously found in the absurdities of popular Psycholgy. I highly recommend The Road to Malpsychia...

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A flawed but important work, November 21, 2003

By 

Werner Cohn (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents (Paperback)

It's easy enough to find fault with this book: it's poorly organized, there is a lot of material in it (on Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, for instance) that does not belong, and there is a lot that belongs but is not in it (many of the lesser lights of the T-group movement, for example). It's very gossipy ways that will offend even those with a prurient interest. Much of what the author claims is not documented. And so forth. But with all that, I found it a valuable book. Its overall story is valuable and persuasive. The T-groups, the Encounter movement, EST, the Esalen crowd, they are all shown for what they are, and convincingly so. The "humanistic psychology" movement was ( is ?) deplorable and a bit of a menace, and Joyce Milton, with all the faults of this book, has shown how and why this is so.