Reviews for Constructal theory of social dynamics

The average rating for Constructal theory of social dynamics based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-20 00:00:00 Ross Waldner This book was written nearly ninety years ago, and yet it still avant garde. This book should be required reading in every medical school. Groddeck's main thesis is that we are animated by a powerful unconscious process he calls the IT. Illness is not some unwanted accident, but an expression of some inner need of the It. The cure to any illness must come from the patient who must understand the role of these unconscious forces in the expression of the illness. Unlike our sick culture's view of the doctor as technician, Groddeck saw his role as a physician to be more akin to a midwife, who helps the patient bring out these unconscious drives and so find healing. Groddeck was both influenced by and also influenced Freud who developed the idea of the It into the Id. But Groddeck was more compassionate and modest than Freud. He also ridiculed our dualistic separation between mind and body, and saw analysis as a tool to cure "physical" illnesses, and good diet and care as a cure for "mental" illnesses. Those who have been brainwashed by rigid and mindless scientism might scoff at Groddeck. However, anyone with an open mind and heart must be impressed by his profound humanism and deep insights into the human condition.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-07-23 00:00:00 Dick Turpin i picked up this book from my favorite book sale outlet because the words "health and disease" leaped out to me from the blurb which said: "[Groddeck} discusses the whole problem of health and disease from a metaphysical point of view, and with an ironic refusal to dogmatize or tidy his views into a system". and when i read the introduction by Lawrence Durell, i was all the more enticed to read the thesis of Groddeck, whom Durell seemed to be describe as a self-effacing, self-aware man, whose "first job, he considered, was to heal." (Durell thinks that the obscurity of the author's works and teachings was self-imposed) at the risk of you thinking that i only really read the introduction, i am again going to quote Durell: " He (Groddeck) took the view that the doctor really knows nothing, and of himself can do nothing, that he should therefore interfere as little as possible..." this depiction of the author, i find, is consistent with the author's words and writing style - of course, i only read a translation. now i wish i could have read and understood the original and german. i used to think that nothing i read, or see or hear can shake my faith, but this book had me having second thoughts on my moral and spiritual beliefs. i had to deliberately stop reading halfway through it because i was beginning to be bothered by the way i understood the author's ideas and discussions on the complexes - electra, oedipus and on onanism, etc. i can imagine this book (again, the way i understood it) being banned by the church, if it weren't for its obscurity (thank God). i am contemplating on picking the book up again and finishing it - in the hope of finding something that would someone very dear to me. i went to the marked page where i stopped reading, and there was groddeck's engaging writing style, and picking up the book was like seeing a dear friend again.