Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology
by Stewart Justman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stewart JustmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-25
ISBN: 1566636280
Number of pages: 276
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Book Reviews of Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology
Book Review: Easy target
Summary: 2 Stars
The author takes a shot at a rather easy target: pop psychology; the self-help industry; Dr. Phil and company. But he also attacks psychology in general as something that is turning America into a narcissistic culture. I started out interested in the book, but then it started to repeat and repeat the same things over and over agian. Also, parts of the book were rather esoteric.
In terms of psychotherapy, there have of course, been misuses of it. But some people genuinely need it. I have worked in teh feild of mental health. I have known people with addictions, depression, anger issues, personality disorders, and so forth.
Most people are not in therapy for "fun and games"; they not their to be "babied"; if someone needs help, life is too short not to get it.
This book might make someone think that they are wrong to do so.
Of course, Dr. Phil and the self-help book industry is nonsense. That goes without saying. It is the deeper, cultural issues where I think teh author has become too simplistic; especially in regard to psychology in general.
Summary of Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology
Award-winning essayist Stewart Justman traces the inspiration of the pop psychology movement to the utopianism of the 1960s and argues that it consistently misuses the rhetoric that grew out of the civil rights movement. Speaking as it does in the name of our right to happiness, pop psychology promises liberation from all that interferes with our power to create the selves we want. In so doing, Mr. Justman writes, it not only defies reality but corrodes the traditions and attachments that give depth and richness to human life.History Books
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