ISSN 033-2836

The LC 76.21889
PSREAJ 65(3) 353-504

Psychoanalytic Vol. 65,No. 3

Review Fall 1978

I

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT Of A C M E OF

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY Richad bsb

WE EFFECTS OF COUNTERIDENTIFICATION Erther Menaker

.TOWARD A REORIENTATION OF PSYCHOANALYTIC

LITERARY CRITICISM Alan Roland

AlllTUDES TOWARD DEATH Of SCIENTIFIC

AUTHORITIES ON DEATH Arthur Burton

NOTES FOR A HISTORY OF SPEECH PATHOLOGY Leon Bloom

__ -- ..

TOOTH SYMBOLISM IN HERODOTUS Justin 61mn

AN ANCIENT AND FAMOUS CAPITAL:

DELMORE SCHWARTZ'S DREAM Robert J. Klorr

. . ..
. : - ,'. . . .

. . BOOK REVIEW
by S
Jean Ikenkrry. Lou Conino, Leo Sshneidrrman,
Robert W. Daly. b e Minoff, and Charles T. Tart

An American journal of ~sychoanalytic psychology devoted t o the understanding o f behavior and culture. Founded 1913.
 BOOK REVIEWS
IS;,.> such questionr o l R i e l l
t1lnic g r o u p , a n d gcc)gr:!phical
rc-crnt yrnrs to b r nttributcd
m p h of the thcrnpcutic! " W r
c v r y t h i n p t h a t is rroinr: o n
laracrc-r, a n cccrntric qu,illtY
noni)" ( p . 148).
s t a n d sidr. by sidr in t l ~ rcasc
.rails of r q u n l intrrr-st l o stu-
Ricff c l s i n ~ s ,o r n r r tht.1,. r\,i-
previous c i \ i l i z n t ~ o l ~ c ?
a s u i s ~ r y .a n d t h ( . c a r c of souls
of moral airns a n d doctrines
!. t o yirld to n kind of pathos
l d ? Should \vr not also srarch
-ast minimal strilrturrs i n thr.
red by Nelson and l l ' r o n ~
by . participants i n this
describing the origins and
I v e ~ I Ipl-oc-t.s>" are more
enomena in question than
l a t matter? by Erikson. \Ve
.leaning of particular struc-
ning how, t l ~ r o u g l ~ o ulife.
t third "by just being left alone to work out their own problems."
shaped Lj dii-cit, i ~ r ~ i n i d t c
rids must be employed if
understood : the feelings,
ilso shaped by social reali-
processes; and by civiliza-
.generational i orientations,
Velson, Rieff's diagnosis of
ppreciated against horizons
ociology a n d psychology of
sciousness acrosq times a n d
implied, will yield a more
our individual arld collec-
Rieff.
1 of essays on the relation-
d historical processes, the
ems of modern therapists,
BOOK REVIEWS 50 1
W I N G CRAZY: A N INQUIRY I N T O MADNESS IN O U R TIME. O t t o Friedrich.
New York: Sion and Schuster, 1975. 384 pp.
Going Crazy reads like a Who's Who in Madness, or better, a 384-page
Time Magazine cover story on the subject. This is not surprising, because
author Otto Friedrich is a senior editor at Time. He admits a bias
against psychiatry, claims no expertise on "craziness," and purposely
uses this term because it is the least scientific and least amenable to
rigid definition. "I can't explain it to you," he says, "I can only show
you a variety of scenes of what it looks like."
Variety is certainly what we get. Personal tape-recorded accounts of
breakdowns from Friedrich's friends and friends of friends, and a welter
of stories of celebrities and personages in real life and fiction whose
crackups have been described by themselves elsewhere or have been
pieced together by Friedrich. Such accounts are, of course, as fascinating
to read as they are often heart-rendering. Still, one feels a curious lack
of compassion in this book. Friedrich, in his endless spectacle, wants-
needs?-to show that "madness is part of all of us, all the time, that it
comes and goes, waxes and wanes." His definition is so broad as to in-
clude Norman Mailer, Joe Louis, George 111, Jack London, Arthur
Bremer, King Lear, Buzz Aldrin, Ernest Herningway, Robert Lowell
(how did he miss Anne Sexton?), Lance Rentzel (where is Jimmy
Piersall?), Jean Seberg, Scott Joplin, William Burroughs, Seymour Krim,
Dostoyevsky, Eldridge Cleaver, James Forrestal, Sylvia Plath, Thomas
Eagleton, Mark Vonnegut, Lenny Bruce, and nine million alcoholics,
to name but a few. After talking with people who have gone crazy,
Friedrich concludes that about one third were cured mainly by psychia-
try, another third by drugs and vitamins ,and probably more than a
His final paragraph is typical of the smugness that informs this
book :
I too have gone fairly crazy often, sometimes in ways that nobody ever
suspected. I have never consulted the psychiatrists nor taken their drugs.
But like millions of other people, I am still here to tell the tale.
I t makes one want to say Mazel tov. LEE MINOFF
PSYCHIATRY A N D MYSTICISM. Ed. by Stanley R. Dean. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
1975. xxii + 424 pp.
Popular and professional interest in areas that are usually pejoratively
labeled "occult" or "mystical" has risen enormously in the last fifteen
years. As William Roll tells us at the beginning of his contribution to this
book, "In 1967 the Ouija board surpassed Monopoly as America's fav-
orite board game." Since Monopoly can symbolize so many traditional
American values, this is indeed a large-scale development.
Psychiatry and Mysticism represents a start by its editor, Stanley
Dean, and many distinguished contributors to gather together some
scientific knowledge of a large, amorphously bounded area that Dean
502 BOOK REVIEWS

proposes calling "metapsychiatry," and to think about some of its pos-

sible implications and applications. Metapsychiatry
is a term born of necessity to designate the important but hitherto unclassi-
fied interface between psychiatry and mysticism . . . metapsychiatry may be
conceptualized as the base of a pyramid whoac other aides arc psychiatry,
parapsychology, philosophy, and mysticism.
Almost half of the contributions are focused on scientific para-
psychology, i.e., studies dealing with the existence, nature, and function-
ing of psi phenomena such a s telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and
psychokinesis. Especially noteworthy are the contributions of Jan Ehren-
wald, Jule Eisenbud, Lawrence LeShan, Edgar Mitchell, J. B. Rhine,
William Roll, and Berthold Schwartz. A few chapters touching on para-
psychology fail, unfortunately, to reflect the rigorous scientific standards
that have been normative in this field for several decades, although they
illustrate some ways of conceptualizing paranormal phenomena.
A large number of chapters deal with consciousness and altered
states of consciousness, with stimulating contributions by the editor, Paul
Adams, James Beal, Stanislav Grof, Gary Schwartz, and others.
Many contributions deal with potential therapeutic applications of
paranormal and metapsychiatric phenomena. Particularly stimulating
are Carl Simmonton's chapter on mental factors in cancer therapy and
Lawrence LeShan's chaptdr on a general theory by psychic heal&. T o
illustrate, LeShan conceptualized psychic healing as of two main types:
Type I primarily involves the attainment of an altered state of con-
sciousness by the healer, in which he can experience himself and the
patient as part of the cosmic unity, without specific attention to symp-
toms, as opposed to Type 11, where specific symptoms are focused on.
-
LeShan t&lc the unusual ster, of reasonina that if his theory were cor-
rect, he himself ought to be able to pactice it and become a successful
psychic healer! His intriguing results are described in his chapter.
The chief difficulty with this book is the heterogeneity of the sub-
ject matter. Some contributions, like the experimental parapsychological
material, are based on solid scientific footings, while other contributions
draw on much more questionable material. Questionable or not, the
possibilities raised are fascinating and mav result in advances of great
significance. Anyone could with the editor's particular set of
selections, but all in all he has done an excellent and stimulating job.
We have just emerged from a long period of irrational rejection of
metapsychiatric areas. There is a real danger of overenthusiastic (and
just as irrational) overacceptance. Many of Dean's contributors r e c v i z e
this and point out potent,ial dangers of altered states and paranormal
processes. Particularly outstanding is Elmer and Alyce ~ & n s ' report
on the all-too-popular mind control courses. This book is an important
contribution toward a more balanced understanding of these important
areas of human experience. CHARLES T. TART