By the 1700s the “correctional” metaphor prevails and most of them are placed in moral and physical restraints in order to correct their aberrant attitudes or behaviors. Many of these souls were chained as animals in appalling conditions which would get us convicted if we treated our dogs similarly today. Such unfortunates included those convicted of debauchery, crime, and sexual license “where reason was the slave of desire and a servant of the heart.” (I suppose all of us would require sequestration under those criteria).

This article is filed under Classics, History, Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology, Sociology.

“When I finally encountered the concept of ‘agoraphobia’, I recognized myself. I have an intense fear of being trapped or isolated.”

This article is filed under Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology.

Imagine, for a second, that instead of claiming the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Declaration of Independence promised happiness itself, whatever that might be, as a guaranteed right. In a sense, that subtle shift in language would be a promise of utopia—you will be happy—where the burdens and difficulties of life simply melt away.

This article is filed under Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology.

At turns erudite and droll, it reads like the collaborative effort of Harold Bloom and Dave Barry.

This article is filed under Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology.

All parents of adolescents despair of them, particularly those with teenage daughters. Endless hours on the telephone, picky eating habits, emotional outbursts.

This article is filed under Biography, Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology.

According to Becker, man is torn between his symbolic, self-conscious awareness and his animal nature. The same creature that names himself, imagines, explores and speculates is in the end, food for insects.

This article is filed under Classics, Death, Non-Fiction Reviews, Philosophy, Psychology.

“In a brief biography, a writer needs to set himself a limited question. I chose this one: given Freud’s shortcomings as a scientist, many of them evident in his day, how did he achieve his enormous cultural impact?”

This article is filed under Biography, Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology.

James Hollis James Hollis, Ph. D. is Executive Director of the Jung Center of Houston, TX, a practicing Jungian Analyst, and author of eleven books, including the most recent Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up. Why is Jungian psychology so dominant today? Why is Freud in eclipse? [...]

This article is filed under Non-Fiction Reviews, Psychology, Writers.