7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Professional Review of Zen in Psychotherapy, June 13, 2006
This review is from: Zen & Psychotherapy: Integrating Traditional and Nontraditional Approaches (Hardcover)
Zen and Psychotherapy: Integrating Traditional and Nontraditional Psychotherapies by Christopher J. Mruk with Joan Hartzell, published by Springer Publishing Company (2003) is a challenging book and makes a significant contribution to the field. The challenge is not it its writing style or readability as has been reported. In fact, objective evaluations for such things can be found by clicking on the link named "Concordance" in the first paragraph of the description of the book offered by Amazon.com. There one sees that the average of the three scales measuring readability clearly indicates that about 25% of books in general are more difficult to read. The same analysis reveals that although sentences are often long, they would not be a problem for anyone who has one year of college. This level of ability is quite appropriate for a book largely aimed at professional and academic audiences. Instead of focusing on such minor issues, professional reviews such as this one concentrate on more substantial matters. For another example, refer to the one found in the New Therapist at http://www.newtherapist.com/31mruk.html.
What really makes the book challenging is that it deals with two problems which are bound to generate serious thinking and meaningful debate. The first one concerns two points of view that characterize Western thought. They create the great debate between Idealism and Realism that goes back throughout our entire culture to the ancient Greeks. On the one hand, there are those who feel that certain ideals, such as an inner self or even a soul, are essential to understanding human beings. On the other hand, others believe that if something cannot be based on observation, measurement, or experimentation, then it should not be a part of modern science or therapy. Second, the book also must deal with another conflict of equal magnitude, namely the contradictory values of the West and East. For example, the Western inclination to seek objective knowledge in order to gain predictability and control stands in contrast to an Eastern preference to let things "be" and to let them "go." Although many disciplines and books can afford to ignore these two basic tensions as "merely" academic, those who want to understand human problems, reduce suffering, or help people improve their lives cannot.
Since the book seeks to achieve some degree of integration between these two basic positions, it cleverly takes the form of a dialog. Mruk, a professor of clinical psychology, eloquently speaks for traditional therapies, empirical research, and treatments that work. Hartzell, a nurse and counselor, insightfully presents the other side of the coin based on decades of practicing therapy from a Zen perspective. Mruk begins by describing the recent surge of interest in complementary and alternative medicine that is popular today and why the same thing is happening in mental health. For instance, he reports on research that says nearly two-thirds of mental health patients in treatment for anxiety or depression seek out alternative treatments. In chapter two Hartzell describes 10 basic Buddhist and Zen principles that have therapeutic implications for mental health work. Next, Mruk talks about where Zen may fit into the traditional scientific spectrum by convincingly taking a patient who suffers from depression through biological, cognitive, learning, humanistic and then Zen based therapies. In chapter 4, Hartzell presents actual clinical vignettes that show how she uses Zen principles to aid patients suffering from a wide range of mental health problems. She also discusses how Zen helps her deal with managed care, avoid burnout, and successfully practice for over 50 years now. In the last chapter, both authors effectively use dialogue to demonstrate that therapists, teachers, and others may incorporate Zen into their work and lives without compromising their professional or religious principles.
Of course, such different ideas and values cannot hope to be brought together in perfect harmony. Yet, Mruk and Hartzell do manage to create a serious, lively, and above all friendly dialog in which the reader may participate. Their attempt to come to terms with these issues is based on the concept of the "Middle Path." For Zen and Psychotherapy, this road is one that avoids extremes such as having to be a "true believer" or a "real" scientist by emphasizing basic principles, especially meditation. The result may not convince those who are hard and fast one way or the other, but it certainly gives the rest of us a clearer place to stand in regard to these powerful issues. Finally, the book offers several solid, practical suggestions that may benefit clients, clinicians, and their educators.
Mary Ann Salotti, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Counseling Center
California University of Pennsylvania
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6 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
zen and psychotherapy--unbelievably awful!, May 31, 2006
The book, Zen and Psychology, is unequivocally THE MOST POORLY WRITTEN BOOK I've ever read, bar none!
This book is so poorly written that it makes no sense. The authors write in run-on sentences, use comas when unnecessary and have forgotten what a period is intended for. I skimmed the book and from the horrid forward to the last page, it is the most tedious, confusing, unclear, muddled piece of egotistical name dropping book ever to be published. I found myself trying to rewrite each sentence, most of the sentences being six or seven lines long. The writing was so awful that I gave up and threw the book across the room. Not my job.
My husband would agree. He bought me the book as a gift because he knew I was interested in the subject. He purchased the book at the recent Association for Psychological Science Conference held in NYC last week (May 24-27). He suggests this book never saw an editor. If it did, the editor needs to be fired.
The whole book is so poorly written that it is hard to believe it would have ever been published. Some of the worst examples follow, although it is difficult to single them out, there are so many of them. All one has to do is pick any page and start reading.
pg 55 "This endurance is where the people introduce themselves to the Spirit World." (I didn't know endurance could be introduced to people.)
"At the conclusion of the ceremony, we left the Sweat Lodge, beginning with the first person to the right of the entrance." (Really? The first person to the right of the entrance?)
Throughout the book you get, ad nauseum, unnecessary prefaces to sentences:
In addition; At any rate; Indeed; Although; Of course; Although; Another; In addition: However; Of course; For example; By contrast; On the other hand; Therefore; Next. This style alone would wear a reader out. Those phrases are unnecessary and add nothing of any value to the text. These phrases, repeated over and over again, creates a flawed style. This alone is all one would need to put the book down and not pick it up again. But worse than that, the book is unreadable in its present unedited form. Count all of the "In addition's" in the book!
Beginning at the bottom of page 20:
"The 1960s are history now and some would say, "Thank goodness." However, as I just mentioned, more recently people seem to be looking toward religion and to spiritually oriented psychotherapies in an attempt to find something that traditional approaches do not seem to provide." (What?) "In addition to the forces just described, this longing for alternatives may also be tied to what David Myers...calls a ... pg 22 ."In addition, these forces that pay far too much attention to the individual...Finally, perhaps Myers suggests, the interest in searching for deeper values and nontraditional sources of meaning reflects some sort of a collective mid-life crisis the boomers are experiencing as their mortality becomes a central psychological issue." pg 24. "In addition, no matter how a society..."
Here's a typical sentence, fortunately, shorter than most: "They may even place them in reverse order of what we are used to doing in the West and work from the top down rather than the bottom up as our allopathic medicine typically does."
How about two sentences for clarity? And who are "they"?
How about this run-on sentence:
"For example, in this framework it is quite possible for someone to learn about and to adopt values that motivate him or her to transcend personal satisfaction, or even personal existence, for the love of another person or for the greater good of a group." (What?!)
"For example, in this framework" is totally redundant. Are we trying to adopt values or transcend personal satisfaction? My husband and I worked on this sentence for ten minutes and gave up.
From page 28-29 there are five prefacing beginnings: "Lest we seem..."; "There is another.." "On one hand, the mind or the human spirit"; ..."For example;" On the other hand; To some degree. . .
Moving on to page 49: "Like many others who do our kind of work, the beginning of my path in this field started with my own therapy." She can make a simple sentence wordy. He/she leaves nothing up to the reader. Rewritten: My path started with my own therapy.
pg 84: "In the extreme, the excessive pursuit of success, wealth, power, prestige, physical beauty, are obvious forms of attachments to the worldly objects that doom us to unhappiness because there is always more to possess and possession of such things is only temporary at best." Whew!
When the authors get to "Basic Principles of Zen and Their Psychotherapeutic Implications" chapter, they throw in the kitchen sink, Joan Halifax, Ram Dass, the lord of materialism, the lord of speech, Chodron, the lord of form, on and on. Too much irrelevant information! Who really cares who they've hung out with? It doesn't make the book more readable.
"Moreover, ego attachments can also be unconscious and 'neurotic,' such as refusing to deal with pain in our lives and continuing the role of a victim, not seeing the need to let go of a painful past or a perceived injury and thereby keeping its pain alive, avoiding situations that might help us deal with our aloneness, anger, fear, or even clinging on to hopes or goals that are so unrealistic they can only keep us feeling miserable".
(pg 85) And this isn't atypical. That was one hell of a sentence! I'd feel miserable, too.
In closing, I am not unfamiliar with the literature of Zen and psychotherapy. As a Zen student and a Buddhist practitioner for over 30 years, I subscribe to current publications and professional journals. I have over 500 Buddhist books, books on therapies, healing modalities, poetry. I'm well read, well educated, and disgusted with this book! If you like self flagellation, buy this book!
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