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The Climb is Russian mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev's account of the harrowing May 1996 Mount Everest attempt, a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of eight people. The book is also Boukreev's rebuttal to accusations from fellow climber and author Jon Krakauer, who, in his bestselling memoir, Into Thin Air, suggests that Boukreev forfeited the safety of his clients to achieve his own climbing goals. Investigative writer and Climb coauthor G. Weston DeWalt uses taped statements from the surviving climbers and translated interviews from Boukreev to piece together the events and prove to the reader that Boukreev's role was heroic, not opportunistic. Boukreev refers to the actions of expedition leader Scott Fischer throughout the ascent, implying that factors other than the fierce snowstorm may have caused this disaster. This new account sparks debate among both mountaineers and those who have followed the story through the media and Krakauer's book. Readers can decide for themselves whether Boukreev presents a laudable defense or merely assuages his own bruised ego.
Book Description
In May 1996 three expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Crowded conditions slowed their progress. Late in the day twenty-three men and women-including expedition leaders Scott Fischer and Rob Hall-were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disoriented and out of oxygen, climbers struggled to find their way down the mountain as darkness approached. Alone and climbing blind, Anatoli Boukreev brought climbers back from the edge of certain death. This new edition includes a transcript of the Mountain Madness expedition debriefing recorded five days after the tragedy, as well as G. Weston DeWalt's response to Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer.
Customer Reviews:
Into Thin Air take a back seat..........2007-09-09
Hands down beats out Into Thin Air. Thrash that 'other' novel and read this!
Far Superior to Into Thin Air!!.......2007-06-11
I've read most of the 96' Everest books and this phenomenal read surpasses Krakauer's slick narrative with simple language but raw and honest passion and consideration. If you have already read Into thin Air I strongly recommend reading this as well. It not only places the hyped 96' tragedy in better perspective, it also gives incredible insight into the Russian mindset.
Awesome book.......2007-05-10
I read this book after reading "Into Thin Air" (another excellent book). This is a highly recommended followup to "Into Thin Air". If you are interested in the business/logistics of an Everest expedition, as well as hearing about an amazing individual (Anatoli Boukreev), this book is highly recommended!
A great read.....very compelling........2007-02-12
What could have been written as an angry rebuttal to the slanted writings of Jon Krakauer's accountings of the 1996 Everest disaster, is actually a moving recounting of a tragedy that has no one single point of blame. Anatoli Boukreev details the series of fateful decisions made by the several parties involved, and drives home the ultimate message: Climbing Everest, and any peak above 8000 meters is, under the very best conditions, a life-threatening gamble with fate. This book is a must read for we armchair Everest buffs, and anyone who has read "Into Thin Air". Anatoli Boukreev was a legend and hero, and we are fortunate to have his words recorded before his tragic death .
The other side of a well-known story.......2007-01-01
Every story has two sides. In this book, readers of Jon Krakauer's best selling Into Thin Air can hear the other side of that particular tale. It's my opinion that no one ought to read one without also reading the other.
On May 10, 1996, a winter storm decided to attack the world's highest mountain in spring. Caught in the well-named Death Zone, so high above sea level that the bodies of climbers who linger there literally start to die, the members of two commercial expeditions fought desperately for survival. The leaders of both teams - New Zealander Rob Hall, and American Scott Fischer - died despite being world-class mountaineers and Everest veterans. So did three members of Hall's team, while a fourth barely got off the mountain alive. All of the Fischer guides and clients survived, though, and none suffered the kind of horrific frostbite that left Hall client Beck Weathers both maimed and disfigured. Why did things turn out so differently for the two teams, after both lost their leaders? Krakauer's book offers one answer. This book, co-authored by Scott Fischer's head guide, offers quite another.
Neither Anatoli Boukreev nor his co-author possesses Krakauer's well-honed journalistic skills. This is a much plainer work, in many ways; and it's definitely less readable. I found it just as compelling, though, and it's rich in source material. Thank goodness Boukreev completed it before his death, because his side of the story is well worth hearing.
Book Description
A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. "Absolutely spellbinding."—William Grimes, New York Times
As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work.
When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island, they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell.
The tree, a fascinating puzzle to scientists, was sacred to the Haida, a fierce seafaring tribe based in the Queen Charlottes. Vaillant recounts the bloody history of the Haida and the early fur trade, and provides harrowing details of the logging industry, whose omnivorous violence would claim both Hadwin and the golden spruce. 16 pages of illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant book.......2007-08-14
The Pacific Northwest is one of history and beauty, as told here it is also one of violence and savagry. The brilliant narrative tells the story of a mythis tree in the Canadian Galapagos. John Vaillant explains in true outdoorsmen style(Into the Wild) how Grant Hadwin came to cut down the Golden Spruce, a semi-mythic survivor, a massive tree.
But this is not just a murder, this is an act of protest by a man who loves the forest and hates what man has done to it, the coprorations, the government, everyone. He is a latter-day Edward Abbey, in the spirit of Crazy Horse and the Monkey Wrench Gang.The Monkey Wrench Gang (P.S.).
The history is as brilliant as the story. The author also describes the rich evology of the Northwest Coastal forest of British Columbis. The Queen Charlotte Islands are also home to the Haida Gwaii, a native people. For them the Spruce was K'iid K'iyaas, as Everest is Sagarmatha to the Sherpas.
Hadwin was a woodcutter and road builder, a man who also loved nature. But as in 'Into the Wild' he left his family and went mad, and committed a great crime.
A brilliant read.
Seth J. Frantzman
Here's a MALE Annie Dillard..........2007-07-28
I checked this book out of local public library because I am interested
in the subject. Never did I expect such fine, concise, and insightful--
not to mention lucid and expressive --writing! Mister Vaillant is
a joy to read... even though the subject is so depressing. He somehow
managed to bring the great American Northwest and the great Canadian
Southwest into vivid, living perspective for me! Thanks, John.
Potential Reference Document - Not a Structured Read.......2007-04-10
This book tried to force a story line in where there was not one to be had. The structure of the book was impossible to follow and there was no flow whatsoever. Before finishing the first chapter, I was skipping paragraphs and a third of the way through the book I was skimming through chapters. If this book had removed the choppy story line about Hadwin, hired a competent editor and then included a complete index, you would have a solid reference document about the natural and cultural history of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Instead you have a longwinded, well referenced mess. I just finished reading a book about the history of the Dust Bowl "The worse hard time". Now you would think, here is a subject that just could not be made interesting, but the power of a good writer made the book both interesting, informative, and just an overall enjoyable read. In ending - Let me save you some money and summarize the whole book for you - The Pacific Northwest has been deforested, local native people of the region are rich in culture, some nutcase cuts down a Sitka spruce with golden needles because he wants to stop deforestation (what? - don't bother asking why because you will not get the answer), and environmentalist are all good.
The Golden Boy - Vailant.......2007-02-23
Golden Spruce, by John Vaillant, is a book about many things. It is quite a few history and biology lessons, an example of how people can be driven to want to destroy something they love, and a damnned good story - all at the same time. The last book that I can think of that I thought I was reading for a good story and not only got the story but ended up knowing a lot more about nature and my own self in the process was Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. Vailant was praised in reviews by authors who have a lot of nature cred (get it? Not street cred, nature cred - I think it is funny...), such as Sebastian Junger and his storytelling was compared to John Krakauer.
Vailant's primary theme throughout the book seems to be pain. He argues that humans can cause themselves less in the long run by aiming towards sustainability and living off the resources available to them at the time rather than depleting what is around them for export and profit. The context of this message in Vailant's book is timber, but can be applied to a broader range when the reader starts to think about the moral dillemas that Vailant describes loggers and the Haiida face.
What stood out most in Vailant's book is the imagry. As a native Northerwestern myself I often times wanted to put down the book and go for a walk in the woods. There is passage in the begining of the book that I sent to a friend of mine who is now living in Europe because I knew when she read it she could be standing in a patch of Oregon old growth.
Little of the book focuses on Grant Hadwin, the man who fell the Golden Spruce. What is mentioned of him gives the reader a sight of a man determined, perhaps mentally ill, and with a passionate yet skewed cause. He is compared to Timothy McVeigh.
Vailant's research into multiple disciplines makes for a comprehensive picture of the dense Pacific Northwest. Readers are schooled in botany, marine biology and climatology - all in the context of the story being told. Never did it feel like a lecture, like a tangent or like Vailant was trying to make his research count for something. It was all relative and helpful to what he was trying to explain to us, which he said best in one sentence towards the end of the book, "Most of us are led to believe that we have more freedom and choice than ever before when in fact we are driven by the real, if short-sighted, demands of our wallets, sophisticated advertisers, increasingly large and powerful conglomerates, and a reactive response to the clock."
Lack of Direction.......2007-01-30
I got this book because the cover said it was like Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Well, it isn't - in my opinion, not anywhere close to it. Krakauer, for the most part, focused on one main subject / storyline and when he did deviate, his stories were always entertaining. John Vaillant, on the other hand, goes on and on about several different subjects. Now, don't get me wrong - I love to learn about history and facts about people and nature. All of his story lines started out interesting, but got boring and tedious after a while and I even started to get the feeling he was repeating himself. I found the background information about the Haida and Haida Gwaii interesting, but I think it would have better if he had made it shorter and written a seperate book about it instead. I got irritated several times throughout the book because I just wanted him to get back to the main story.
The book just seemed to have no direction and was, in my opinion, just a big mess. It gave the impression that he had done a lot of research and just wanted to give you every single solitary detail and fact that he had read. I felt like I was reading a really long high school book report. He should have focused on the story of the Golden Spruce and given short side stories about logging, the Haida, Haida Gwaii, and Hadwin, where applicable, but left the in depth details for another book.
Customer Reviews:
Development of Scientific Methodology in the 19th Century.......2005-09-28
_Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral_, David Dobbs
One gets the impression that the author didn't have enough material to fill a book adhering strictly to the title topic, and so padded it with fully 150 pages of material on Louis Agassiz's (Alexander's father) life and work.
No matter, the result is a fascinating study of the change in scientific methodology over the course of the 19th century, using the specific controversy over formation of coral reefs to illustrate opposing conceptions of what it means to "conduct science". What constitutes a scientific theory, and what is the acceptable way to formulate one? Is it necessary to gather a mountain of evidence until an explanatory theory emerges -- as Baconian inductivists would hold -- or is it ok to make a speculative deduction based on a handful of facts, and challenge others to disprove it?
Alexander was very much in the inductivist camp, having observed the downfall of his bombastic father and thereby moved to the opposite conservative pole, in his later years visited more coral reefs than any man before or since in his attempt to falsify Darwin's coral formation theory. He knew that Darwin had been proved spectacularly wrong at Glen Roy by his father, and saw that his coral reef theory was based on circular reasoning: coral reefs were to be attributed to widespread subsidence (which was only a speculative occurrence), while the proof of subsidence was....coral reefs. As a confirmed plodder, I found myself rooting for Alexander, that he would be proved triumphant over his brilliant competitor after so many years of hard work.
Darwin on the other hand (the author argues) was much more in the mold of today's scientists in his approach. More willing to make leaps of the imagination in formulating an hypothesis, to "tell a story", and "focus on dynamic natural processes of change rather than fixed descriptions of static things", before following it up with detailed experimentation and data gathering. Glen Roy taught him "a vital lesson: Productive observation actually rises from sound theory -- not the opposite, as Louis would assert". But his coral reef theory belonged to his early years as well, and was vulnerable to criticism of being too speculative by conservative scientists with Alexander's cast of mind.
The coral reef debate also included aspects familiar to those following the current breuhaha over Intelligent Design. Proponents of Murray's alternative reef theory argued aggressively that those championing Darwin's coral reef theory were "atheistic churchmen and closet idealists, pseudoempiricists who would adore a theory because....they worshipped not thoughts of God but those of man -- and particularly of the man named Darwin." Sound familiar?
Anyway, not to drag on too much, this is a very enjoyable and informative choice for the popular science reader. Islands, island formation and island ecology, are all wonderful topics in themselves, and this book provides insight into those topics, while opening a window onto how science itself works, and how men of science have struggled to define their profession; not at all an easy task when the seemingly contradictory requirements of imagination and rigorous adherence to -- often spotty and incomplete -- fact are called for. Highly recommended.
Atoll times .......2005-08-13
This book is fascinating on many fronts. First, it is a quite readable and informative biography of Louis Agassiz and his son Alexander. Second, it is an account of one of the longest-running controversies in the history of science. And, finally, it gives great insights to the current debate in the US over the teaching of "intelligent design."
Louis Agassiz was considered one of the world's greatest scientists (or natural philosophers as they were called at the time), and, after his migration to the United States from his native Switzerland, was viewed as America's greatest naturalist. He was a shrewd self-promoter who parlayed his explanation of glaciation and ice ages, and his encyclopedic knowledge of animal taxonomy, into a position of power and influence. However, he was a follower of Cuvier, and believed that species were created immutably by God. The fossil record was explained by a series of catastrophic annihilations (floods, ice ages) followed by divine creation of completely new species. Needless to say, he did not accept the theory of the origin of species by natural selection as propounded by Darwin. He and Darwin's followers engaged in heated, personal exchanges and attacks. In the end, however, Agassiz was nearly destroyed by the ensuing controversy, and his reputation and influence suffered severely.
Alexander, on the other hand was more mild-mannered and consciously avoided being drawn into his father's fights. He was a widely respected naturalist and an expert on marine zoology, and privately accepted the truth of evolution. He had his own disagreement with Darwin, however, over Darwin's widely-accepted theory of the formation of coral reefs. While not nearly as destructive as his father's evolution dispute, the disagreement involved much publishing, many attacks, and the accumulation of reams of data supporting each side. The fact that this controversy was not settled authoritatively until core samples were taken on Eniwetok atoll before the nuclear tests of the 1950's, long after the protagonists were dead and buried, makes for an almost mystery novel-like tale.
At times, the book reads like today's newspaper accounts of groups trying promote the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in our children's classrooms. Even though this debate was seemingly settled nearly 150 years ago, some ideas die hard.
This is quite an enjoyable read.
GREAT SCIENCE WRITING!.......2005-04-09
Reef Madness is a fascinating look at the transformation of scientific thought in the 19th century, and the intrigues, controversies, and plain old trash-talking between the major players in one of the era's biggest mysteries. Although the book concentrates on the theories of coral reef formation, it necessarily also covers the fights over natural selection (evolutionary theory) and geologic history.
Dobbs writes like a novelist, so a potentially dry narrative comes alive with the life of Alexander Agassiz, an intelligent, cautious explorer caught up in the ironies of his birthright, and in the ideological struggles of his famous father and his father's nemesis, Charles Darwin. There's even a surprise ending! It's a brilliant bit of scientific reporting, and also nicely illustrates why the scientific method, despite being messy and contentious, ultimately advances our understanding of our universe (sorry, religious dogmatists!). An excellent book. Also recommended for scuba divers and others interested in coral reefs.
Historical Science at its Best..........2005-02-01
This is a superb work of historical science, a gripping story, well-told. And it has everything... Father-son dynamics, the history of science, and the rise of Darwinism, as the story is played out through a profile of Alexander Agassiz and his dad, Louis, one of the last Lamarckians. The main reason I liked the book was the quality, drive, and consistent voice of the insightful prose. The writing is simply lyric! If you liked books like Dava Sobel's book "Longitude" or Mark Kurlansky's "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World" -- you'll LOVE this book.
Average customer rating:
- Strong Imagination, Madness, and Creativity.
- Bring your brain
- grasping at non-existent justifications...
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Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature
Daniel Nettle
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198507062 |
Book Description
Madness is the central mystery of the human psyche. Our minds evolved to give us a faithful understanding of reality, to allow us to integrate into our communities, and to help us adapt our behaviour to our environment. Yet in serious mental illness, the mind does exactly the opposite of these things. The sufferer builds castles of imaginative delusion, fails to adapt, and becomes a stranger among his own people. Yet mental illness is no marginal phenomenon: it is found in all societies and all historical epochs, and the genes that underlie it are quite common. Furthermore, the traits that identify the madman are found in attenuated form in normal thinking and feeling. The persistence of madness, then, is a terrible puzzle from both an evolutionary and a human point of view. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare suggested a link between madness and artistic creativity: 'The lunatic, the lover, and the poet', he wrote, 'Are of imagination all compact'. Recent studies have shown that there is indeed a connection. Rates of mental illness are hugely elevated in the families of poets, writers and artists, suggesting that the same genes, the same temperaments, and the same imaginative capacities are at work in insanity and in creative ability. Thus the reason madness continues to exist is that the traits behind it have psychological benefits as well as psychological costs. In Strong Imagination, Daniel Nettle explores the nature of mental illness, the biological mechanisms that underlie it, and its link to creative genius. He goes on to consider the place of both madness and creative imagination in the evolution of our species.
Customer Reviews:
Strong Imagination, Madness, and Creativity........2006-10-05
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
- _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, William Shakespeare.
_Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity, and Human Nature_ by anthropologist Daniel Nettle is a fascinating account of the intertwining relationship between madness (mental illness), creativity, and human nature all linked together through the notion of "strong imagination". As the author points out, "strong imagination" was recognized by William Shakespeare who noted three things about it: that it is an inherent aspect of human nature, that it is highly developed in madness and creativity, and that it may be associated with love or sexual attraction. The author also states later in the book that what he means by madness is really "psychosis", "the state where the sufferer passes beyond the bounds of reality, intelligibility, and rationality as defined by the bulk of society". Psychosis is mostly seen in the more extreme forms of depression, manic depression, and schizophrenia (formerly known as "dementia praecox"). The author also brings up a fourth category: the "schizoaffective" (shading between depression and/or mania and schizophrenia), although the usefulness of these categories remains a matter of some debate. Of course the very notion of mental illness and psychosis remains extremely controversial, and the author must spend a great deal of the earlier parts of this book defining exactly what he means, answering possible objections, and ultimately defending his viewpoint that mental illness is a brain disorder and results from either a chemical imbalance in the brain, an "organic" disturbance, or an atrophy in certain parts of the brain. The author also contends that medication that works on neurotransmitters in the brain (in particular antidepressants such as Prozac for minor and major depression, lithium for manic depression, and anti-psychotics for schizophrenia) dampens the effects of mood swings and may be useful for alleviating thought disorder, psychosis, or the so-called positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Furthermore, the author contends that tendencies towards psychosis (or affective disorder) are hereditary. All of this of course remains extremely controversial.
The author begins by showing what he means by "strong imagination" and its interaction with madness, especially in his comparisons of Shakespeare's plays and the bizarre delusions of an apparently schizophrenic man, Mr. Matthews, in Eighteenth century London who believed that a "gang of seven" was plotting against him and devised all sorts of explanations for their nefarious schemes. The author next explains what he means by psychosis. Important distinctions arise at this point, first between the outdated categories of neurosis (minor mental complaint) and psychosis, and secondly between two forms of psychosis (organic and functional). The distinction between organic and functional psychosis highlights two different methods of understanding mental illness (one rooted in dualism between mind and body and the other rooted in biological materialism). The author highlights some of the earlier means of treating mental illness that were rooted in this dualistic understanding, including psychotherapy and mentioning in particular Freud. The alternative approach was to treat mental illness as a form of brain disorder (and this is the dominant approach today), and thus a search for appropriate medications began. Other more radical thinkers such as Thomas Szasz have argued that mental illness does not exist at all, and that the mentally ill merely have different or unpopular beliefs, comparing schizophrenics to conscientious objectors and separatists. While there is some truth in Szasz's arguments, they ultimately rest on a misunderstanding of the concept of disease and the resulting social implications that we should not attempt to treat schizophrenics or the severely depressed are horrendous and cruel. A second distinction arises between "nature and nurture". The nature position having its roots in Galton for example, contended that mental illness was a hereditary disease and biological in nature. The nurture position which was defended by Freud, but also in a particularly extreme form by R. D. Laing, contended that mental illness arose as a result of family difficulties (or was the only rational response to the inherent contradictions of modern capitalist society) and particularly blamed the mother for them. The author will contend that the nature position has largely been vindicated and provides much evidence to show this. The author next turns his attention to manic depression and schizophrenia, attempting to show how these disorders arise and the biological basis for them. The author contends that it is useful to think of manic depression and schizophrenia as two separate entities (though the separation is fuzzy and this remains a controversial point). The author also contends that manic depressive moods (in particular the high moods of hypomania) are particularly inducive to creative work. The author also contends that schizophrenic thinking (the thought disorder of psychosis) is also inducive to creative thinking. The author proposes two distinct personality dimensions (thymotypy and schizotypy) to indicate individuals who are prone to psychosis but who may also be particularly creative. The author shows how many creative geniuses of eminence (particularly in the creative arts, though I suspect also in mathematics and philosophy) had these traits. The author also shows how these traits might have been selected for evolutionarily. Here he discusses not only their role in modern societies, but also their role in "primitive" cultures, emphasizing for example the role of shaman and bard. The author contends that the creative process may have been selected for in a similar manner to the way the peacock's beautiful tail was selected for, as part of sexual selection. The author also considers the possibility that mental illness is increasing in modern civilization. Finally, the author explains the need for creative individuals to "keep sane" and not seek out psychosis, because though thymotypy and schizotypy may be indicative of creative tendencies, outright psychosis largely interferes with creative work.
This book offers a fascinating study of the relationship between madness and creative thinking as part of "strong imagination". The author's theories are certainly interesting and backed up with much evidence to support them. As someone who has experienced both mental illness (manic depression including some psychosis) and highly creative states, I found this book to be particularly insightful.
Bring your brain.......2004-12-08
I'm a writer with manic depression who is bothered by the way mental illness is romanticized within the writing community. So many people I know believe that writers with manic depression should not take medication because it will "kill" their creativity. I find this attitude really offensive -- not just because it is false -- but also because it puts manic-depressive writers and artists in danger. I have found very few resources that adequately address this issue, very few books that explain why allowing full blown psychosis to developed is a bad idea, not just for the health of the person in question, but for his or her creativity as well. Daniel Nettle really hit this one it on the head as far as I'm concerned.
I was particularly drawn into the parts of the book that dealt with the "nature vs. nuture" argument, and the history behind each way of thinking. This information is complex but assessable. I read the book in just a few sittings.
Don't get me wrong -- this is no dumbed down self-help book. This is a heady and academic work, full of carefully thought out arguments. Bring your brain and a lot of sticky arrows to mark your favorite passages. My book is now full of them.
grasping at non-existent justifications..........2002-12-09
I respect the author's intentions to provide a form of consolation for troubled individuals like myself. However, the attempt falls short in the too-real context of inevitable aging and death. Assuming that personal efficacy in ordinary matters is self-evidently a cure simply loses sight of the fact that concentrating on mundane matters must be conducted without any form of external justification.
I recommend readers interested in this subject turn to different techniques of being resigned to the purposelessness and meaninglessness that scientific investigations continually reveal. In particular, I recommend the scientifically grounded "cosmic spirituality" as described by Milton Munitz in books such as The Question of Reality; Cosmic Understanding and Does Life Have A Meaning?. Owen Flanagan also provides comfort in his discussions, including The Problem of the Soul.
Having to face reality is always a difficult task. And Daniel Nettle courageously takes up this task with all good intention to alert troubled individuals to NOT indulge in nihilistic self-destruction for the sake of "art" or other means to attention and notoriety. This is sound advice. As is Nettle's advice to pursue robust health. These are all necessary but ultimately insufficient steps on the way to a comfortable avoidance of insanity. For a self-sufficient presence, one still must face one's personal orientation to the totality of reality.
The over-arching issue remains the absence of external justification of one's actions and one's presence. And for this there is no simple fix. Making oneself at home in the universe remains an extremely elusive destination...
Average customer rating:
- Outstanding, well-researched treatise
- Insights From Experimental Clinical Psychology
- Lunatic Or Just A little "Touched"?
- A very human presentation of madness
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Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature
Richard P. Bentall
Manufacturer: Penguin Global
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Binding: Hardcover
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Book Description
Today most of us accept the consensus that madness is a medical condition: an illness, which can be identified, classified and treated with drugs like any other.
In this ground breaking and controversial work Richard Bentall shatters the myths that surround madness. He shows there is no reassuring dividing line between mental health and mental illness. Severe mental disorders can no longer be reduced to brain chemistry, but must be understood psychologically, as part of normal behaviour and human nature.
Bentall argues that we need a radically new way of thinking about psychosis and its treatment. Could it be that it is a fear of madness, rather than the madness itself, that is our problem?
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding, well-researched treatise.......2006-11-02
An outstanding, research-based treatise exploring the precise mechanisms of mental illness, and the thin line separating "normal" from "abnormal" functioning. Bentall meticulously debunks the labels upon which the dominant understanding of mental illness rely, such as "schizophrenia" and "manic depression." Experiences such as delusions and voices are things to which we are all vulnerable, and Bentall explains just why and how this is so. I really enjoyed the chapters exploring research on depression, mania, delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations.
This book is a dense 640 pages, so it is not for the casual reader. For a lighter reading on much the same topics, I would also recommend Bentall's co-authored text, Models of Madness: Psychological, Social, and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia.
Insights From Experimental Clinical Psychology.......2006-02-27
The philosopher Karl Jaspers, who was trained as a psychiatrist, made a distinction between `understanding' and `explaining' madness. He argued that in the case of psychoses, the most severe form of mental illness, no attempt should be made at understanding what appears as incoherent speech or meaningless behavior by investigating a patient's background and making sense of what he has to say. Rather, psychologists should try to explain psychotic behavior by dividing patients into discrete categories and establishing causal links that should ultimately point towards brain malfunctions or genetic defects.
Richard Bentall shows us that attempts to explain and to understand mental symptoms are inextricably linked. Rather than postulating an unambiguous dividing line between the mentally sane and the insane, he proposes that irrational beliefs and abnormal behaviors manifested by psychotic patients can be seen as the far end of a continuum on which people are distributed. The differences between those who are diagnosed as suffering from a psychiatric disorder and those who are not amount to relatively little, and these differences appear to be understandable when viewed in the context of what we know about normal human psychology.
The classification of psychiatric disorders into neuroses (such as benign forms of depression or phobias) and psychoses (such as manic depression and schizophrenia) dates back to Emil Kraepelin and a number of Karl Jaspers' contemporaries. Although the concepts originally formulated by German psychiatrists at the turn of the twentieth century underwent a series of transformations, the idea that psychiatric disorders fall into a finite number of categories remain the organizing principle for psychiatric practice and research, as evidenced by the successive editions of the DSM diagnostic manual. For Bentall, these classifications have little more scientific value than astrological predictions based on zodiac signs. According to his rather extreme contention, we should abandon psychiatric diagnoses altogether and instead try to explain and understand the actual experiences and behaviors of psychotic people.
Bentall then moves on to show how psychological research can cast light on phenomena such as hallucinatory voices, depressed mood, delusional beliefs, manic episodes and incoherent speech. For each of these `complaints', he provides simple models or psychological mechanisms framed in ways that can be tested experimentally. Once the various psychotic complaints have been explained in this way, Bentall claims that the ghostly conundrum of madness evaporates: the complaints (particular classes of behaviors and experiences that have been singled out because they sometimes cause distress) are all there is. Madness is explained.
Or is it? Some readers may argue that experimental clinical psychology only scratches the surface and does not allow us to delve into the depths of the human psyche, as psychoanalysis has accustomed us to do. To this, Bentall would object, first, that he uses some of the insights of psychoanalysis as working hypotheses in his models and, second, that theories that cannot be tested experimentally are not worth considering. Karl Popper, not Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung, is his intellectual hero.
Lunatic Or Just A little "Touched"?.......2005-03-20
There is an awful lot of terminology in psychiatry such as "neurotransmitters", "dopamine, blockage of seratonin receptors", and "misfiring" of the brain. However, in good faith these professional mental curers will openly admit that they don't know how any of these connections or "misfires" of the brain work as they hand out little pills that are experimental ( I come from a medical background, father retired pharmacist, sibling a psych nurse, and late grandfather an M.D., so I hear about this).
Bentall brings up a good point regarding madness and how society views it and treats it.
1) This is another subject that no one wants to really talk about, and find it bothersome.
2) One can run to a doctor and get an easy cure pill that if you do not research it, you will gain about 40 lbs within six months.
3) You can choose to go to therapy and talk about it, and dig into your problem/s (Hopefully you have good insurance that covers this sort of treatment).
Bentall also argues that maybe there is perhaps nothing really serious going on, perhaps it is just human nature. Some people are just erratic by nature, but then what is erratic? What is considered normal to someone or what is considered mad is the question. There is the old cliché of the mentally ill person begging on the street, or directing traffic in a busy intersection, but surely there are "mentally ill" well dressed people working in large offices holding prestigious titles or big celebrities that are "acting that way".
Think about the great geniuses that were considered "mad" such as Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton, E. Hemingway, Allen Poe, Mary Shelly, Mozart, and many more.
Was it just human nature?
I found this book very helpful.
A very human presentation of madness.......2005-01-18
I found this book very nice mainly because it demystifies the topic of madness. The book starts with a little of history about psychology, giving the reader enough context to build up a critical view of psychology. Throughout the book, the author tries to disentangle many biases in psychology and psychiatry to show that madness is not that bad, and that many behaviors we take as common are very close to that. The book is quite long and involved, i think it is its main drawback. However, it is worth reading as it provides a lot of examples of everyday behaviors that might easily lead to some form of madness. Personally, i cannot consider madness as being anything else tham simply a "socially annoying" thing. People considered as "mad" are sometimes less mad than supposedly normal persons, most people just don't want to try to understand them.
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- Nature and Madness
- Society is Immature
- Not his best
- extending the legacy of Paul Shepard
- The disjunction from our past and our modern dilemma
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Nature and Madness
Paul Shepard
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
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Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
ASIN: 0820319805 |
Amazon.com
Does any species other than the human befoul its nest, destroy the habitat on which it depends? Strangely, yes; such shortsightedness happens in the natural world all the time. But no species does so with as much conscious awareness, a matter that fascinated the philosopher Paul Shepard. In Nature and Madness he examines the human animal in relation to the natural environment, showing the kinds of psychic disjunctions and troubles that have developed over the generations that humans have been seeking to distance themselves from the world. Shepard locates the source of much of those troubles in the invention of agriculture, an act that gave humans the false idea that nature can be controlled and micromanaged in every detail--an idea that has found modern fruit in such things as dam-building and genetic engineering. Environmental destruction, writes Shepard, is a "mutilation of personal maturity," a failure of emotional development; continuing the metaphor, he adds that "the only society more frightful than one run by children ... might be one run by childish adults." Shepard calls on his readers to establish a meaningful, mature connection with the earth, to cultivate a sense of stewardship and responsibility. It is a welcome call. --Gregory McNamee
Customer Reviews:
Nature and Madness.......2006-07-25
One of the most compelling expositions on the subject in the ecological literature genre, this is a powerful work. Explaining in passionate detail, Shepard observes how the further human culture draws away from the nurturance of the natural world, the more pathological it becomes. If there are any doubts, just look at us!
While dense and obscure at times, a careful and patient reading illuminates truths in the clearest light possible. These may not be what we want to hear, but they certainly are what we must learn if we are to thrive with a measure of vibrant health and spirit.
Bernie Krause, PhD
Society is Immature.......2003-06-08
For those interested in studies of western culture's destructive relationship with nature, this treatise from Paul Shepard is certainly a rewarding read, though I recommend it with some reservations. Shepard starts with the Mother Earth concept and takes it to great psychological lengths, then applies this psychology to all of mankind. It's certainly a radical thesis, but it's worth thinking about. In what he calls variously ontogenetic regression, unaltered immaturity, and other labels, Shepard makes the case that humans have been torn from their true mother, the Earth, as the unfortunate outcome of modern civilization and social constructs. Thus, society behaves in pathological ways similar to what can be seen from children who are torn away from their mothers before the onset of maturity. Therefore, our society's attitude toward nature is perpetually immature, underdeveloped, and undernourished, with all the destructiveness and disrespect that results from such a dysfunctional childhood.
While this thesis has its various strengths and weaknesses that can be discovered by the reader, there's not enough meat to it to round out an entire book, even a very short one like this. Shepard's most glaring weakness is in psychology, as he offers little more than extremely basic Freud (with the associated sexism and dubious ideas on infancy and childhood), and then makes unconvincing attempts to extend this psychology to society as a whole. Meanwhile, Shepard's writing gets buried in academic dogma that is a real slog for non-professors who don't speak in non-stop technical jargon all day. Watch for arcane terms like methectic, kerygmatic, neoteny, or autochthonous; along with brain-drain sentences like "...amputate and cauterize pubertal epigenesis because they would further transform the relationship of the infant to its mother." Add all this to Shepard's rather self-righteous speculations and you are in for an exasperating read, although the basic thesis of this book definitely offers food for thought.
Not his best.......2002-11-11
I am a big Paul Shepard fan but this book was a disappointment. The book starts off well investigating the thesis that natural selection has left the human mind with a set series of developmental events that must take place between childhood and adulthood by which the child comes to understand its place in both the human community and the natural world. This sequence was built into human psychology during hundred of thousands of years of living as hunter-gatherers. When we adopted large-scale agriculture a mere 10.000 years ago this sequence was radically disrupted as the sphere of the childs interaction with both the naturl world around it and it human community was contracted drastically. Many of the ills of modern life stem from this disruption.
Shepard presentation of his basic thesis is compelling. But he then goes on to psycho-historical explorations of how this disruption takes different shapes in different historical epochs. This constitutes the bulk of the book. The psycho-history pieces I found unsatisfying, full of very broad generalizations about the psychological effect of various cultural trends. There is no way to tell what is just psychobabble and what is not. If you are new to Shepard I would recommend the Tender Carnivore instead, or for a nice summary of his whole line of thought Coming Home to the Pleistocene.
extending the legacy of Paul Shepard.......2000-10-29
This is a really impressive, powerful and inspiring book, which investigates neurotic behavior of the individual and collective societies as a result of alienation and separation fom our natural impulses, nature itself and our "co inhabitants" of the planet earth.Those interested in further investigating these themes are advised to check out John Zerzan's excellent "Against Civilization"(surely a pun on Huysmans classic portrayal of dissatisfied and empty urban neurosis, "Against Nature"), a collection of essays devoted to the "wrong thnking" and negative effects of civilization and the disastrous implications of man's separation from nature. In a similar vein, his "Elements of Refusal" should find a sympahetic readership amongst those impressed by Shepard's work. Gregdada from Korea.
The disjunction from our past and our modern dilemma.......2000-07-04
Paul Shepard is the seminal thinker/writer in the field of human ecology. His works have been widely influential and caused some distress amongst environmental groups. This work was originally published by Sierra Club books, but withdrawn in two years because of the controversial ideas.
In this, the final volume of a trilogy (The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game and Thinking Animals being the first two) he furthers his thesis that seperation from our pleistocene past has caused a modern disjunction with nature and may be the most important cause of modern problems.
His indictment of history; "(history) is itself a Western invention whose central theme is the rejection of habitat. It formulates experience outside of nature and tends to reduce place to location.... It seeks causality in the conscious, spiritual, ambitious character of men and memorializes them in writing" (page 47), is one aspect of Shepard's view that modern human culture is pathological.
Paul Shepard is not easy to read. His ideas are unsettling and his writing style is dense at times. However, it seems that he is a philosopher who will influence thinking not only about nature and human relationships with nature, but about society and "progress."
"Nature and Madness" will upset your view of the world you live in, which is probably the main reason for reading it.
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Snow Problem: The Case of the Mushing Madness
Marianne Meyer
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ASIN: 0070066930 |
Book Description
Bumbling stuntman Arnold Ruttabega has landed a job in Alaska alongside film idol John Clod Van dumb. But thats cold comfort for Arnold, who's frozen stiff! That insular Crew is off to thaw out their old friend. . .along with sled team and home decorating expert Musher Stewart.
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Joan of Arc's legend has been embraced by diverse worldly ideologies, all competing for her meaning---icon, lunatic, early feminist, possibly a man? In this book Joan of Arc's trials and imagery are traced through the centuries, leading to modern scientific research to explain what is considered, or dismissed, as miraculous. Preston Russell examines the three trials of Joan; Joan's transformation in history and literature; and, as a physician, the evolution of insanity from antiquity to current brain research, presently probing the origins of consciousness to higher sources---opening up avenues that a few decades ago would have been dismissed as scientific madness. Does God speak to individuals directly? Are some human beings born with such a keen intuitive power that they can communicate with supernatural beings? Does God use otherwise ordinary people as the conduits for his miracles? And can science provide an answer to mankind's eternal search for God? Through Joan of Arc, Preston Russell provides a startling conclusion, achieving a reconciliation of science and religion, uniting the physical and the metaphysical.
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