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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seek Nonseeking,
By
This review is from: The Seeking Self: The Quest for Self Improvement and the Creation of Personal Suffering (Paperback)
Seeking is good because without it one would never actualize their goals and ideals, right? Wrong, says author and psychologist Richard Lind. Seeking (for perfection, self-improvement, transcendence, etc.) is the most common cause of chronic suffering and ruined lives throughout history. Instead of perfection, it results in various pathologies of the psyche. When self-transformation does occur, it is inspite of and not because of the seeking, made possible, in fact, by the failure of seeking. Seeking is resorted to when we take the self too seriously and are discontent with its present status. Lind echoes Buddhist, Taoist and ancient Greek conceptions of the self. The Stoic, Epicurean and Skeptic philosophers, for example, understood suffering to result from false beliefs and "empty striving." One must stop seeking after unrealistic ideals if one is to attain ataraxia or peace of mind.Lind finds nearly all goals of self-improvement to be "unrealistic" ideals. We have an epidemic of self-help schemes today and what they have in common, says the author, are claims and promised benefits that are overstated and misleading. They find ready suckers, however, because our western culture is suffused with the ideology of seeking. Our self concept is thoroughly conditioned by what Lind calls the ideology of progressive development. Even if we are not on a particular quest we still inherit the negative consequences of the seeking schema. Such consequences include avoidance (the seeker avoids his problems, the nonseeker avoids both the problems and the ideals of seeking through distractions), inevitable failure, obsessive self-criticism, confusions about ends and means, madness, pretense, narcissistic trauma and domination of others (especially one's children). The principal mechanism by which seeking operates is division of the self, resulting in a tripartite self: a polarization between a Shadow self that rebels against its opposite, the Tyrant conscience, leaving the unloved self in the struggle between them. As in depth psychology, Lind finds the cure to lie in reintegration with the Shadow self. But one can do so only by giving up one's ideals and seeking after them. That's the rub; few people are willing to pay the price. One thinks of Freudian pessimism here: since giving in to the id is unacceptable, civilized people are doomed to be discontent. That is not the only alternative, however. There's great benefit in store for one who turns to their dark side. Lind promotes the concept of "positive disintegration." In accepting the disintegration phase, one sees the futility of one's seeking and gives it up. It may feel like one is giving up on oneself for awhile, but that's not your real self you're giving up, only the socially conditioned one. You come out of the disintegration phase with the burden off your shoulders, the burden of self and all the seriousness it comes wrapped up in. Paradoxically, you are now at ease with yourself and the world (wasn't that what you were seeking for?), compassionate and loving. You might call it salvation, grace, rebirth, enlightenment or even cosmic consciousness. Lind's book is an insightful analysis of the pathologies inherent in seeking and, as such, I highly recommend it. I find some problems with it, however. The first is the apodictic tone of his diagnosis of the human condition: seeking is the main cause of and inevitably results in suffering (echoes of the Buddha); seeking can never be successful; only by giving up seeking can you find satisfaction; the progressive developmental paradigm is an "archetypal false belief." These absolutist statements are tempered by his own admission in several instances that seeking is necessary and does result in success for some individuals. These successes are all the more pernicious, however, because they sucker the majority of people who cannot possibly succeed into following the schemas of the self promoters. Lind's one-sided stance can easily slide into what Nietzsche and Scheler called <I>ressentiment</I>, i.e., proposing counter-ideals because one finds the ideals of the strivers too burdensome. What Lind fails to take into account is that there are not only pathologies of seeking, but there are pathologies of non-seeking (he briefly glosses over the danger of falling into depression). In fact, there are pathologies inherent at every level of development: that is no reason to disparage the idea of development. There is development: cognitive, moral, spiritual, psychological, etc. Our grasp of what constitutes development may still be immature at this point, but that is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. That there are pathologies common to seeking doesn't mean that there can't be healthy seeking. My second criticism of the book concerns the practical application of the theory. He makes some good suggestions. One should take a more philosophical stance and question one's ideals: "Is it working?" "How is it working?" "How much is enough?". We must objectively evaluate our seeking. One must learn to live with one's imperfections. One must discern when the utility of seeking has reached the point of diminishing returns. Discerning that point seems to be the key, but since every person is unique there can be no general prescription by which one can predict where or when that point is reached. All therapies are based on the seeking model and so there exists no current therapy in the West to guide those ready to give it up (although it seems to me that several therapies I am familiar with do deal with the problems of conscience: Psychosynthesis, Voice Dialogue, for example). He takes a position very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous in maintaining that we cannot end our striving voluntarily, that it comes by some sort of grace. Sorry, Rational-Emotive and Cognitive therapists, there can be no rational recovery! This book is especially of interest to those grappling with what it means to live in a postmodern era. Lind articulates a viewpoint that is postmodern in many respects. It takes a skeptical view not only of modernistic ideals, culture and psychotherapy but also of premodern religion. Nevertheless he obviously has respect for the spiritual, only not for the mindf*ers who have exploited it to control others. What does one do if one recognizes that we have a spiritual need but doesn't want to regress to outmoded religions and all the superstitious baggage that comes with it? Unfortunately, many new religions are old wine in new skins. So, if you want a contemporary enlightenment you've got to analyze the thinking process of failed religions and look to find it within yourself,
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Provides "wisdom samples" drawn from diverse traditions,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Seeking Self: The Quest for Self Improvement and the Creation of Personal Suffering (Paperback)
Psychologist Richard Lind's principle theses in The Seeking Self: The Quest For Self Improvement And The Creation Of Personal Suffering is that for most people seeking self-help, self-improvement advice and activities, the result is more often one of disappointment, frustration, and anguish than any sense of inner peace. After a thorough survey and assessment of this unfortunate phenomena, Lind provides "wisdom samples" drawn from diverse traditions ranging from Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam, to the Epicureanism, and Stoicism of the ancient Greeks. The Seeking Self is highly recommended reading for the non-specialist general reader who past attempts at seeking spiritual transcendence, self-realization, or self-fulfillment have resulted in inner conflict, self-denial, and other negative outcomes.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
This review is from: The Seeking Self: The Quest for Self Improvement and the Creation of Personal Suffering (Paperback)
Fresh perspective on the current state of individualism plauging America and the world. It ties it all together. The who what and why....pick it up. Don't be afraid to read it twice over and highlight.
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