Reviews for Continuity and Adaptation in Aging: Creating Positive Experiences

The average rating for Continuity and Adaptation in Aging: Creating Positive Experiences based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-08-19 00:00:00 Dexter Davis I love the idea of dream interpretation, but to me it feels a little too much like using tarot in a therapeutic context. Additionally, the basically psychodynamic bent of this book had me squirming in discomfort for much of it. One impression I had was that the majority of the authors seemed to overinterpret dreams as having to do with therapy, particularly with transference. To me that just seems like hubris. Do you really think that all pts are dreaming about you? I particularly liked that the lack of dreaming was interpreted as resistance to tx. I know that when I am stressed or am not getting enough sleep I don't dream. Could it be that when pts are getting better and are sleeping better they suddenly remember their dreams. Lo and behold, treatment success. The chapter that appealed to me the most was the one dealing with a "phemonenological" approach to dream interpretation. It seemed like the least filled with random complexity. Maybe there is something to be learned from our dreams, and I will continue to think about my own dreams, but I'm not going to use this in psychotherapy any time soon.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-16 00:00:00 Andrew Lee Definitely one of my personal top 100 books, and I think one of the most important books of the decade. Natan Sharansky alerts us to the urgency of a strong national identity for survival. Without this, we will be absorbed by an agency with stronger identity. For example, the eruption of political Islam around the world succeeds to the extent that it is advancing a strong sense of identity. This aggressive assurance easily overcomes Western equivocation, despite otherwise superior wealth and arms. A fact I learned recently that reinforces Sharansky on the point of successive resistance to political Islam is the story put forth in PEPIN'S BASTARD: THE STORY OF CHARLES MARTEL. The ruling class of Europe was ready to make terms with the army of the Umayyad Caliphate. Much like the Biblical bastard Jephthah (Judges 11), the invasion was resisted by the bastard son of Pepin de Gros. Sharansky first learned the primacy of a sense of identity to survival as a prisoner in Russia under interrogation. He disappointed himself when he failed to withstand the intimidation. As a well-educated young man, he expected more of himself. He puzzled over the inner resilience of commoners who held up under the same pressures. This was his introduction to identity, and his turn from secular rationalism to his Jewish roots. Following two world wars, the world perceived nationalism as a root cause. Sharansky advocates the opposite -- healthy nationalism in a free world community.