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.

[Alex Delogu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great second-hand find. Smail's main criticism of therapy is that people's unwellness stems from the systemic structures we are subjected to, structures created and enforced by other people who have particular interests. He calls for a shift towards changing these very conditions, by first becoming aware of them, so that we exist in an environment that fosters love instead of brutal competition.