This is a book about the effects of child abuse so extreme that it "murders the soul". Written by a Freudian doctor, the book comprises of case studies (complete with ridiculous analysis) and examples from literature and poetry. It's an odd mix that is entertaining, if not dry.

People who enjoy reading case studies about people with extremely messed up childhoods.

Honestly, the Freudian foundation here is just laughable. Everything is stated as fact, which makes it that much funnier. And considering the topics in the book are quite serious, it's ridiculous to attribute LITERALLY every single thing that happens in a family to Oedipal Complex and Penis Envy. Really? Mom got mad at Dad because she is angry that she's sleeping with him and not her own father while also harboring guilt over the knowledge that her son wants to bone her? Puhlease. The analysis is so ridiculously simple and repetitive when it's based on the primordial concepts-- we're hard-wired to want to sleep with our parents (despite biology hard-wiring us to NOT inbreed).

Basically, the case studies are interesting, but the "science" here is basically a joke, like so much of the soft-science of psychology and psychotherapy. The literature is also rather... haphazard. Analyzing poetry and coming to the conclusion that some insanely famous poet had an oedipal obsession with his mother? It's... sort of a "Why am I reading this again?" situation.

Honestly, I felt bad for laughing. The stories are truly heartbreaking... but the analysis is so predictably ridiculous that I couldn't help it.

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Created Jun 30, 2016 at 2:26pm • Submit your own review...