I don’t know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, the depictions of violence and its physical aftermath were gripping and convincing, but something about the internal lives of Therese and Laurent felt off. I don’t know if Emile Zola was intending to moralize, or to present their guilt as the inevitable …
Category: Psychology
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/19/therese-raquin-by-emile-zola/
Dec 23 2014
Alias: Grace by Margaret Atwood
In the interest of disclosure, I have to say that I have never read a Margaret Atwood book that I didn’t like. There were some that disturbed me, made me think, made me wish such things didn’t exist to be written about, but I have always been glad for the experience. Part of her charm …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/23/alias-grace-by-margaret-atwood/
Oct 19 2014
Life-Span Development by John Santrock
I took a correspondence course in developmental psychology many years ago, and I managed to hang on to the textbook in case I should ever get a desire to reread it. Very good decision. This book provides a wealth of information on the human stages of development based on current and historical research. Particularly interesting, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/19/life-span-development-by-john-santrock/
Oct 20 2013
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders by Aaron Beck
The central idea of cognitive therapy is that mood disorders are caused by internal delusions or self-deceptions, and that it you can correct the delusional perception, you will correct the the disorder. Beck argues in effect that people can be talked out of their mental illnesses, and as naive as this idea sounds in the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/10/20/cognitive-therapy-and-the-emotional-disorders-by-aaron-beck/
Apr 15 2012
The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz
Dr. Szasz seems to regard mental illness as a moral failure rather than a genuine illness, and he seems to think the mentally ill deserve judgment rather than treatment. Most mentally ill patients, he believes, are merely social misfits and malingerers rather than people suffering from a disease. His arguments are philosophical rather than scientific, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/04/15/the-myth-of-mental-illness-by-thomas-szasz/
Jan 11 2011
Dreams by C.G. Jung
I made a good faith effort to read this book from beginning to end, and I feel severely taxed for having endured such a load of nonsense. The idea of the unconscious is not altogether implausible, but Jung takes it to levels that Freud never dreamed of. Jung’s pretense to “science” is outrageous; there is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/01/11/dreams-by-c-g-jungi-made-a-good-faith-effort-to-read-this-book-from-beginning-to-end-and-i-feel-severely-taxed-for-having-endured-such-a-load-of-nonsense-the-idea-of-the-unconscious-is-not-altoget/
Jul 18 2009
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
Freud doesn’t get a lot of respect these days, but I found this book for the most part lucid and rational, if not exactly scientific. Part of Freud’s thesis borrows from Rousseau in arguing that civilization represents a compromise with the individual for the sake of preserving security, but for Freud this is problematic, because …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/07/18/civilization-and-its-discontents-by-sigmund-freud-2/
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