Taking Care: An Alternative to Therapy

by David Smail (Contributor)

This book offers a refreshing and modern perspective on personal distress.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

Reviews

[Paul Bard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The meme says “So the whole idea of therapy is you go talk to a liberal until you agree with them right?”

In this case, it’s a Marxist. And they diagnose your problem as Margaret Thatcher. Or downsizing. Or hookup culture. Or - basically - any form of alienation due to incursions of capitalism into personal life.

And therapy doesn’t work. Because it’s just friendship when it works.

The organic, private, personal, faith-based aspect of the book is most helpful. I’m sure he was a wonderful therapist.

Taking care means seeing people as ends in themselves, not means to social good. It’s a kind of epistemic humility that engages wisely. Smail’s solution is organic embodiedness and an ethic of generosity love justice equality and truth.

It’s nice that humanism can find expression in a Marxist form.

[RPlumtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been interested in psychology and psychotherapy and I often asked myself what is the validity of such therapeutic approaches" embued in our western cultures. After a long and fruitless search on books that could answer this question I finally came across this book.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good primer connecting individual "pathologies" to systemic causes

[Zohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wakeup! You've been commoditized

David Smail , clinical psychotherapist, levels his sights on the etiology of mental health. Smail points out, the individual seeking treatment is the exploited victim of a commercialized culture which renders us all as a useful sources of goods and services. This subliminal and cold arrangement creates distress to the human organism manifesting as symptoms in need of care.