Arnogruen.net Website Review

the enormous obstacles that people in modern societies must overcome in their quest This landmark book on the origins of violence is now available in paperback.   the as*umption, made popular by Freud in the twentieth century, that humans are born with an innate tendency to destruction and violence.  Gruen argues instead that at the root of evil lies self-hatred, a rage originating in a self-betrayal that begins in childhood, when autonomy is surrendered in exchange for the love of those who wield power over us. To share in that subjugating power, we create a false self, a pleasing- to-others image of ourselves that springs from powerful and de*p-seated hopes of being loved and fears of being Gruen traces this pattern of over-adaptation and smolder- ing rebellion through a number of case studies, sociological phenomena - from Nazism to Reaganomics - and literary works. The insanity this attitude produces, unfortunately, goes widely unrecognized precisely because it is the same cold, manipulative realism that modern society inculcates into its members. Gruen warns, however, that escape from this pattern lies not simply in rebellion, for the rebel remains emotionally tied to the object of his rebellion, but in the development of a personal autonomy. His elegant and far-reaching conclusion is that while autonomy is not easily attained, its absence With compas*ion and conviction Dr. Gruen carefully exposes the undiagnosed and undisclosed insanity unwittingly accepted as normality.. This is a text for leaders and followers, for conformists and rebels alike, for members of the healing professions who seek to repair the destructive fallout from our pursuit of normality and for all who strive for a more compas*ionate and saner social order.   Dr. Arno Gruen was born in Berlin in 1923 and emigrated to the United States as a child in 1936. After completing his graduate studies in psychology at New York University, he trained in psychoan*lysis under Theodor Reik. Dr. Gruen has held many teaching posts, including