Man Against Himself (Paperback)

~ Karl Menninger (Author) "Try as we may, it is difficult to conceive of our universe in terms of concord; instead, we are faced everywhere with the evidences of..." (more)
Key Phrases: receptive tendencies, neurotic character, erotic instinct, United States, New York, Psychoanalytic Quarterly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this landmark book, the impulse toward self-destructiveness is examined as a misdirection of the instinct for survival, a turning inward of the aggressive behavior developed for self-preservation. "One of the most absorbing books I have read in recent years" (Joseph Wood Krutch, The Nation). Index.

About the Author

Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 - July 18, 1990), born in Topeka, Kansas, was an American psychiatrist and a member of the famous Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.

During his career, Menninger wrote a number of influential books. In his first book, The Human Mind, Menninger argued that psychiatry was a science and that the mentally ill were only slightly different than healthy individuals. In The Crime of Punishment, Menninger argued that crime was preventable through psychiatric treatment; punishment was a brutal and inefficient relic of the past. He advocated treating offenders like the mentally ill.

His subsequent books include The Vital Balance, Man Against Himself and Love Against Hate.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 14, 1956)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156565145
• ISBN-13: 978-0156565141
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #632,851 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book change my life - literally, March 18, 2006

By	Anonymous "Anonymous" (Withheld (for obvious reasons)) - See all my reviews

This review is not a hoax: I read this book while in solitary confinement for assaulting another prisoner. It was my first exposure to analysis of self-destructive behavior and its damning cyclical pattern. I was a two-time loser. A career criminal who had followed the all too familiar progression from juvenile home, jail, to prison. This book change my life. After serving a decade and a half in prison, I am now at the top of my class in graduate school. It is never too late to pick up the pieces, but we must first learn what those pieces are and how and why they were smashed into pieces in the first place. This book will teach you how to do just that.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the Usual Psycho-babble; A sensible look at self-violenc, July 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Man Against Himself (Hardcover)

Menninger discusses suicide and other forms
of self-directed violence. Although he
neatly categorizes motivations for suicide
(1. the wish to kill, 2. the wish to be killed
3. the wish to no longer exist),
he does not deny the complexity and
mystery of many of the extreme acts
used as examples. Whether or not
one agrees with his point of view,
the book provides well reasoned opinions
and a calm look at a subject that can
be too overwhelming to deal with plainly.

The book is also fascinating from a historical
perspective. It contains a zillion examples
of horrifying & bizarre self-destructive acts
that were collected from national magazines & newspapers
several decades ago (e.g. 30's & 40's).
It's enough to make one think that the "talk
show" culture of today is not something new
but just the pendulum swinging back to a place it's been before.<BR

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even more essential than when it was written in the 1930s, May 23, 2000

By	Doug Briggs (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I recall smiling complacently (stupidly) at the old German saying: "I grew too soon old and too late smart." That's when I was young and "smart".

Then there was the one where the speaker recalled that when he was young his father was dumb. "It was amazing how much Dad learned by the time I was grown." I wasn't all that impressed with my dad's wisdom when I was a young punk. It was amazing how he wised up along with my growing up.

I was a corporate pilot when I first read "Man Against Himself". Karl Menninger's warning played itself out many times before my eyes as some of my businessmen passengers warred against themselves.

Want a deserved raise? Pick a day when the company stock just jumped 10%, or a good earnings statement is issued. Or ...

Gritted teeth and jutted jaws. Men against themselves stalk into the company president's office knowing in advance he's on a tear, a rampage, and demand a raise at the very WORST of moments. Sometimes they are fired. On other occasions they are earmarked for replacement. Not once have I ever seen a man get a raise on a day that the boss had Baker flying.

Why did they pick that day? "By God, I've sat here waiting for a raise all this time ..." I tried to caution a vice president once: "Jimmy, wait another day, another MONTH."

"No, by God, I've waited as long as I'm going to ..."

Nice knowing you, Jimmy. He was gone.

At some point I began to wonder -- just barely, and not seriously -- if it could happen that I would ever be a man against himself.

Yes, I had done so, and would do so again. "How," I once asked, and not idly, "did Menninger know me before I was born?" Men are just too alike for comfort.

Menninger describes that it can happen in ways that range from subtle to suicidal. Forewarned by Menninger's advice, we can do something about the phenomenon, pull a ripcord, don a life preserver, put on a gas mask ...

Do you know a good friend who is destroying himself? Give him this book, which he won't read. But then go over and discuss it with him. Friends divorcing? Perfect candidates for this book. They probably aren't in a mental state to read or understand it, but you tried. AND, it just might hit a vein in one of them.

The chances aren't much better than finding gold in the Klondike. But I've seen it work one time. Only once. But that once was worth a thousand tries.