Night Call: Embracing Compassion and Hope in a Troubled World

by Robert J. Wicks

Caring for our family members, friends, and others is a central part of a rewarding life. For those in healing and helping professions such as medicine, nursing, education, psychotherapy, social work, ministry, and the military, the potential for a meaningful way of being may even become more possible. But, compassion is not easy. At times, concern for others can be personally devastating when we don't possess the right attitude and approach. Reaching out (and reflectively within) without being pulled down requires the wisdom that only arises out of the right combination of humility and knowledge.

Night Call offers the stories and principles gleaned over many years of writing and mentoring for those in the helping and healing professions. The stories are offered in ways that foster compassionate caring while encouraging initiative in those who seek to personally deepen and share their lives with others -- especially in times of significant need. With this in mind, Dr. Wicks presents information on:
- being a healing presence
- mining fruits of the failures all of us must experience at times
- the need to enjoy the daily "crumbs of alonetime"
- the importance of a spirit of "unlearning"
- developing a simple realistic self-care program
- valuing informal or formal mentoring
- recognizing the "3 calls" to which we must respond to as we psychologically develop
- honoring life's most elusive psychological virtue (humility)

Purposely brief, the chapters, as well as the sections in the "personal resiliency retreat" section at the end of the book, have as their goal a reconsideration of values, signature strengths, and simple approaches to living a resilient, rewarding life. Rather than presenting new breakthroughs, Night Call is designed to dust off what most of us already know, at some level, so we can freshly view the key approaches and techniques that provide increased psychological self-awareness and a potentially healthier sense of presence to others. The themes offered may have been forgotten, or become undervalued/set aside because of some of society's dysfunctional norms or unhelpful family influences. In response, this simple, countercultural book combines the value of essential self-compassion with caring for others in ways that provide the impetus for further exploration of a fuller narrative for both the readers of this work and unforeseen opportunities as well for those who are fortunate enough to cross their paths.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

Published October 2, 2017

About the author

There is more than one author with this name. See also: Robert Wicks & Robert Wicks.

Robert J. Wicks (born August 2, 1946 in Queens, New York) is a clinical psychologist and writer about the intersection of spirituality and psychology. Wicks is a well known speaker, therapist, and spiritual guide who has taught at universities and professional schools of psychology, medicine, nursing, theology, and social work for more than thirty years. He a Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Maryland

Reviews

[Jes · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Only read up to page 100) This book is poorly written. It’s truly very challenging to make sense of. This isn’t due to complex concepts, but rather to clunky sentence structure, and incomplete construction of through-lines. The concepts are in face, very straightforward and simple, and the author has done the unnecessary job of making it work to understand. To me, this book reads as though it wasn’t edited... as though this is a draft.

There are a variety of other issues as well (of the authors/teachers quoted in the book, they are all white, and a vast, vast majority are male) however, the lack of readability is the most glaring.

Also, it is not a “just pick it up and read any section” type book, as the introduction explicitly suggests. There are concepts in that are mentioned in isolation that will cause confusion - which will only be cleared up by continuing several more pages (into the next direct chapter).

I would actively recommend you read something else.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting tidbits in here but the writing style just wasn't for me.

[Kim Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good writer with good sense. A welcome combo.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Should have listened to my gut and stopped reading. Not great writing and sometimes even offensive (calling the unhoused “street people” was particularly jaw dropping).

[Kate Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solidly okay. His concepts are pretty sound as far as practices and virtues that support resilience, though I have strong feelings against his emphasis on humility and self-sacrifice/kenosis (seriously, why is that the only greek word that men use from scripture? It only appears once. That's not enough to base a life on.)

If you like lots of storied illustrations of concepts, you'd probably appreciate this more than I did - I found them unnecessary elaborations.

Also, this is perfect for people who love bulleted lists of things. There are times when his suggestions for practices or self-exploration questions are pages of bullets, which I found it hard to focus through.

In sum: good concepts, but in a format for someone with pedagogical preference for narrative and lists.