The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents

by Joyce Milton

Book Overview

Joyce Milton's fascinating narrative begins in the early 1960s with psychologist Abraham Maslow's prediction that psychologists would soon seize control of values from religion and be able to create... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893554465
• ISBN13: 9781893554467
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Get a better understanding of the society in which we live.

How many of us had to go through "Diversity Training" or "DARE" or other groups and didn't feel quite right about it? Everyone should read this book. It connects a lot of dots. The people discussed in this book may not be known by everyone, but everyone feels the effects of their ideas. Just knowing the origins of some of the revolutionary cultural influences in our society may be enough to somewhat innoculate you from the effects.

A great book about American History.

As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst I have been exposed to many theories about the human mind. I have had ample opportunity to see which of these theories when applied to a given situation is most likely to be of help. It has been startling to me how many elaborate models of the mind and corresponding therapies are not only obscure but disorganized, unverifiable, and unaccountable. Joyce Milton's fast paced book is clear and concise in examining the parents of Humanistic Psychology and its theories. (I had not known where all that silly stuff about encounter groups, LSD, etc. came from but now I do.) In examining this movement Ms. Milton suggests origins for many of the cultural and political aberancies which have been so antithetical to the best of American institutions and values.The Humanistic Psychology Movement seemed to assert that the highest form of human mental activity was the quest for the Ecstacy of Self-Congratulation. Ms. Milton wryly describes the resultant frenetic, self-deluded, and self-serving Flakiness which often passed for Advanced Deep Thought and which justified in the mind of the affected the wholesale overhaul of everything. The ability to discern Nonsense in our culture has been greatly enhanced by this book. Another great part of this lively book is the dark humor to be continuously found in the absurdities of popular Psycholgy. I highly recommend The Road to Malpsychia...

It's about time

This book reflects on pop culture and the way it developed from the Progressive era of the late 1800's into the 60's. These poisonous theories embrace by humanistic psychology sought to undermine an Anglo-American culture that had made America the greatest and fairest nation in recorded human history. In that vein this book is like "Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson in the way it contrasts the way self anointed guru's of the last half of the 20th century live their own lives versus the way they recommend other's live theirs. By citing pseudo-intellectuals like Abe Maslow, Tim Leary, Carl Rogers, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Richard Alpert, the author reveals what many of us thought all along, these people are frauds who have perpetrated their absurd theories of human behavior by masquerading them as science. Recall that thousands of intellectuals were gulled into believing that Marxism was scientifically determined and that its conclusions were inevitable. All of it turned out to be nonsense on stilts, but we should use it as a lesson where we never forget that we can never dismiss man's incredible capacity for self-deception. Joyce Milton outlines the central tenets of her subjects by citing their disdain for the family, religion and private property. It is interesting that Hanna Arendt, in her book "the Origins of Totalitarianism", recounts these themes as ones so destructive to what has made western culture preeminent in human history. Did this all just happen by accident? No. Joshua Muravchik covers this ground well in his book "Heaven on Earth; the decline and fall of socialism". Milton explains New-Age spirituality, radical feminism and self-esteem psychology, and its origination of the hot tub, group hug societies so in evidence in many parts of America (such as Marin County California where anti-Americanism is a virtue.) She cites an interesting example of the confusion these people might possibly feel if they take their beliefs to a logical conclusion by quoting their intellectual guru, Karl Marx, who says at the end of his life, "I am not a Marxist". Who knew?Milton posits that humanistic psychology is arrogant because it believes that a theory of the universe can be deduced from a person's own experience; and that it is socially irresponsible because it advises us to keep our eyes on the weather vane of our own conflicting feelings rather than on the lives of those around us. No society can function effectively under such a regime. This whole project of humanistic psyche is being shown as "the emperor who is wearing no clothes" and with that behind us the world might perhaps get back to the real science of why we're the way we are. This is an excellent book that should at least be read by every college freshman.

One of the most important books of the decade

Humanistic psychology rolled over American culture like a vast tidal wave, leaving every school awash in classes on self-esteem, and every starlet appearing on Leno babbling about how this or that made her feel better about herself. What Milton points out in The Road to Malpsychia is the cost of our national fixation with narcissim. She also reveals a lot of ugly truths about the founders of our curent culture. Margaret Mead and Kinsey are proven to be charlatans and liars. Carl Rogers, pop guru the inner self, couldn't translate his intense love for himself into caring for another person. And best of all, Milton writes well. This book deserves more than 5 stars.

how we got from there to here

This is a wonderful book. The author tells the story of the rise and fall of the "human potential" movement of the 60s and 70s through portraits of the men and women who made it happen--Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead who were unofficial mentors to psychologist Abraham Maslow, who was the true prophet of the movement to build "a religion of the self," and Carl Rogers of the encounter groups and Timothy Leary, who carried the quest for selfhood into the psychedelic stratosphere after leaving Harvard to spread the good (secular) word. All of these people are given incisive portraits by Milton, who uses them to tell the story of how we got all balled up in what Lasch later called "a culture of narcissism." Milton's book explains a lot. Reading it gives you a feeling that you're looking at American culture in a time lapse mirror over the last 30 years. A classic.