Customer Reviews

The Sword of Laban: Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Dissociated Mind

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a quick and easy read, perfect for after dinner reading. The argument is intriguing, but one shouldn't take it so seriously. It's best to read this book with the same healthy skepticism one would bring to a "JFK assassination conspiracy" book. The author is simply connecting dots in Joseph Smith's life to construct his theory that Smith had a personality disorder, and that this disorder was the essence of his religious genius. The book's critical flaw is methodological: Morain never really compares Smith with other case studies from the literature on dissociative disorders, rendering his conclusions pure speculation. Still, Morain scores a few interesting points, and made me say "hmmmmmmmm" more than once. Five stars for readability. Three stars for scholarship. That's an average of 4.

Dr. Morain presents a professionally done work with plausible explanations of the internal motivations of Joseph Smith, Jr.

Anyone who has dealt with Post Traumatic Stress professionally or personally realizes the long term and powerful impact that trauma can have upon human beings, especially the young and impressionable.

The book is as vivid in its descriptions as it is in its theory and hypothesis.

Dr. Morains's book actually makes more sense and seems much more plausible than angels from heaven visiting Joseph Smith and giving him golden plates. One wonders why readers who so readily accept the angel stories, scoff at Dr. Morain's reasonable and scientific approach.

Ardent believers of Joseph Smith and readers of the Book of Mormon be wary of the mythical Sword of Laban cutting both ways, leaving logic and reason decapitated from the body of truth.

Many books present a "factual" history of Mormonism that rebuts the "official" Church version of it's origns. This book is the first attempt to present a realistic thesis that explains how such a bizarre phenomenon could logically occur. Even Joseph Smith would find this analysis very compelling. Dr. Morain has done a splendid job of integrating historical facts with modern research and medical practice. Of course, all historical analysis as well as any medical diagnosis requires some degree of speculation, but this diagnosis seems to logically tie all of the loose ends together. This may not be the final word, but such excellent research and creative analysis will stimulate fresh debate for many years.

Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.
Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks.

On "The Sword of Laban": Morain has established beyond all doubt that Joseph Smith was not your "average man." For example, Morain's observations about Joseph Smith's two leg-bone operations as a child (age 7) are compelling. The affects extreme pain (burns and other injuries) is well known and does change the child's personality and way of looking at the world.
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When Joseph Smith set out to compose the Book of Mormon at age twenty-two, he was far from an average person in his depth of experience. He had moved some seven times before age twelve; he had been a Bible reader from age twelve; he had suffered two horrific leg operations without anesthetic; he had also suffered the death of his beloved brother, Alvin.

When Joseph Smith began composing the Book of Mormon at age twenty-two, he was a married man (a maturing factor). Then just after composing 116 pages of the Book of Mormon (which were lost), his infant son died (another maturing factor). Then Joseph Smith waited some nine months (planning time) before he began again on the Book of Mormon (a little work in between).

From first line to last line, the Book of Mormon was a year-long project that Joseph Smith completed at age twenty three. Thus, Joseph Smith was in no sense a "farm boy," as is often claimed by Mormon writers, who also confuse his teenage visions with his dictating of the Book of Mormon as a mature adult.

Morain's book is highly recommended, especially for its insights into the affects of extreme pain on children and how such events influenced Joseph Smith's view of the world.

Check out my one-star reviews of books written by Mormons in defense of the Book of Mormon. Your comments on this review or my other reviews are appreciated. Thanks.

See my one-star review of "Echoes and Evidences for the Book of Mormon." Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon

Dr. Morain, a plastic surgeon, wanders far afield from his specialty in taking on the complicated psyche of Joseph Smith. This isn't the first time somebody has attempted to psychoanalyze Smith from a distance. Indeed, the first effort of which I'm aware is Woodbridge Riley's 1902 effort, The Founder of Mormonism: A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1903). In the intervening 100 years, the psychological diagnoses of Smith haven't changed much: Joseph Smith suffered childhood traumas that produced in later years the delusions upon which Mormonism is based. That argument is old news; Dr. Morain doesn't add much to the discussion.
But rather than summarize the book or re-argue the points other reviewers have made, let me simply quote from a review of this book in the Spring, 2004 issue of the "Journal of Mormon History," which (despite its name) is not an apologetic journal produced by the LDS Church, but an independent academic journal from the academic body known as the Mormon History Association (of which I'm a lay member), edited by Mormon and non-Mormon historians, experts all in the field of Mormon history. The reviewers state: "Morain's work suffers from [these] weaknesses: Morain (1) draws upon noticeably biased research (relying almost exclusively on E.D. Howe's "Mormonism Unvailed" in interpreting early Mormon history); (2) diagnoses psychological disorders without sufficient documentation; and (3) uses the psychoanalytical approach that entails a significant amount of conjecture. . . . Until psychobiographers use the surviving sources more responsibly and avoid speculating beyond the available data, they will fail to be accepted by the historical community."
That's the verdict of competent historians on this work. It's also my own. People who recommend this book appear to have an axe to grind--they are antagonistic to Mormonism and to the Mormons' founder, Joseph Smith. Thus, they come to the book with certain preconceptions and biases in place, expecting this book to support those preconceptions and biases. And that's exactly what happens! One can scarcely expect a careful, disinterested review from such folks: To quote Paul Simon, "A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest."
As for me, I heartily recommend this book to people who enjoy fantasy. It has no historical value. Just as I wouldn't trust an historian to perform complicated surgery on me, so I don't trust a surgeon to render a competent historical verdict on evidence that has befuddled professional historians for decades. It's a question of scientific competence; Dr. Morain may be a great surgeon, but he's not much of an historian.
If you want to read psychobiography of Joseph Smith, try Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon by Robert Anderson. It's a little better; not a lot, but a little--it's also written by a physician (in this case a retired psychiatrist) who's antagonistic to Mormonism's truth claims. The very best biography of Joseph Smith remains No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, by Fawn M. Brodie. You'll learn more from one or two of her paragraphs than you will from Dr. Morain's complete work!

One of the most interesting books I've read this year. Clearly not the "end all" in Joseph Smith bigraphical material but a major addition to naturalistic studies of Joseph's creative mind. I had a very hard time putting this book down. And a harder time not talking about it after. Not a "warm fuzzy" book but a very thought provoking read. I think Morain is uniquely qualified as a plastic surgeon on children to write about the several operations on Joseph's leg and how that might have effected him later in life.

My best to he Author

William Morain, a Dartmouth professor trained in plastic surgery, attempts in this small volume to "read" the life, writings, and ministry of Joseph Smith through the lens of psychoanalysis, specifically trauma theory. According to trauma theory, traumatic events (e.g., a parent's death, intrusive surgery) occurring in childhood can, and often do, deeply impact a person's later life. Such events can powerfully shape thinking, behavior, and actions. Though not trained in the fields normally requisite for such a study (history and psychology), Morain presses ahead, apparently convinced that his readings in the secondary literature will suffice. (Morain notes in his preface that reaction to prepublication drafts were split along the lines of psychologists and historians.) While an argument certainly can be made that history can be learned through extensive readings (historiography, however, is not easily learned), the very nature of psychology suggests something else. Without adequate training in the field, one is liable to commit serious errors and misjudgments in attempting to analyze someone's life or mindset. Add to this the fact that the present subject (Joseph Smith) has been dead for more than 150 years, and we have a much bigger problem. Unfortunately, Morain's solution to this quandary is not reassuring. Basically, he operates with the assumption that he can apply relatively modern psychological theories (certainly postdating Joseph Smith's time) to what he can piece together of Joseph Smith's life and motivations. Thus, where the record is fairly complete, Morain's analysis is attractive and compelling. Events early in Joseph Smith's life that are well documented (e.g., intrusive leg surgery) do hold out promise for legitimate psychoanalysis. But where the record is incomplete or silent, Morain must lapse into mindreading and guessing (Morain's reading of the Book of Mormon, for this latter reason, is unconvincing). Similarly, in areas where other studies have offered more plausible readings (e.g., plural marriage), Morain's narrow insistence on using psychological theory as an analytic tool exposes the hollowness of his arguments. The historical Joseph Smith resists such facile readings. In short, while Morain offers some promising ideas and approaches for studying Joseph Smith, I am not convinced that this book will be anything more than a historiographical blip. Those trained in the fields Morain plays around in will need to do the real labor.

I give the book two stars because the some of the work about the young Smith's trauma is fascinating and creative.

But about Joseph Smith and his remarkable work, I expected much more analysis. Smith, with no formal education, wrote a book in his early 20s that millions two centuries later revere as others do the Bible or the Koran. He single handedly conceived, designed, initiated, recruited leadership for, and wrote policies and standards for a whole new religion with few subsequent changes that has flourished for two centuries and seems destined in this century to become the third largest Christian religion in North America(after Catholics and Baptists). Great leaders such as Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and intellectuals like Eliza R. Snow and John Taylor looked up to him and revered him. He may yet be widely regarded as the most influential man of his time.

To write Smith and the Book of Mormon off as shallow and simply a result of an excruciating childhood trauma seems itself shallow and may reveal Morian's own psychological anxiety regarding his own roots. Morian's roots trace back to Smith, at least indirectly, as a multi generational descendant of the church founded by Joseph Smith's wife and son.

Smith's childhood trauma was important and no doubt did influence his subsequent psyche and behavior to some extent but to suppose that it defined his whole life or explained his extraordinary capability is a great overstatement. Smith is one of the few young people in history to create a whole new philosophy, let alone one that has moved millions for centuries.

Morian does little or nothing to explain the psychological underpinnings of how the man was able to do that. Rather he says the Book of Mormon is shallow and that Smith's work was driven by the horror from a sharp blade and his responses and family relationships associated with that experience.

Morian may have a valid point about the trauma, but, like the people who think birth order explains everything, this is WAY overblown! Its worth a few pages, not a book!

some of the stalwarts of the Protestant Reformation:

Maybe he should begin with Martin Luther who advised the use of the sword to exterminate the Anabaptists whose biggest "sins" were not believing in infant baptism, and, as concientious objectors, refusing to serve in the military. By 1530 over 2000 Anabaptists had suffered cruel and inhuman deaths. Is this not insanity? From several encyclopedias we learn that Luther rejected all who disagreed with him and branded them as heretics. He was the victim of an interior struggle that made him writhe in the throes of racking anxiety, distressing doubts and agonizing reproaches of conscience. He also had an irrepressible outbreak of sensuality which assailed him with unbridled fury, to which was added the intensifying stimulus of his imprudent gratification of his appetite for eating and drinking. In addition to his horror, his temptations, moral and spiritual, becamme vivid realities; satanic manifestations were frequent and alarming. And this author has the unmitigated gall to accuse Joseph Smith of a mental disorder?

Then there's that "wonderful" relationship between Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli, like Luther, resorted to use of force, submission, and death of his opponents, committing the same atrocities for which he condemned the papacy of committing. Zwingli was slain at age 47. The Catholics quartered his body and burned it on a dung pyre. Luther remarked that it was "the judgement of heaven on a heathen....." Sweet Christian love, huh? Joseph Smith never had such 'love' for those who disagreed with him.

How about John Calvin who hated everyone who disagreed with him and subjected them to reproof, excommunication, banishment, and death. Calvin practiced strict non-toleration practices and his controls over his "subjects" of his "City of God", as he called Geneva. There he forced his religion on all the inhabitants of Geneva. Between 1542 and 1564 there were 76 banishments and 58 executions. You, dear reader, might want to read upon the murder of Michael Severtus, which Calvin was responsible for http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/servetus.html Now, that's a mental case.

I could go on and on about the witch hunts, burnings at the stake, burning of homes, persecution of anyone who disagreed with various Protestant sects, and so on.... These are historical facts, not some rantings by a wacked-out mental case. Check it out before you say this review didn't help you. Mormon-bashers beware, the truth will out....

Its been years since I have been praying for a book like this. In my mind, I see that this books is swell and it swells in my mind. It finally discusses Joseph Smith's psychology (I didn't think they had the DSM back in 1830's and 1840's to read the lumps on his head).

I make all people (members of the Moron Faith) read book because it gets the heart of the matter and the mind of Joseph Smith

By the way, didn't Fawn Brodie do this last year-or maybe it was tomorrow?