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Resisting Illegitimate Authority: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Being an Anti-Authoritarian—Strategies, Tools, and Models
The capacity to comply with abusive authority is humanity’s “fatal flaw.” Fortunately, there are anti-authoritarians—people comfortable questioning the legitimacy of authority and resisting its illegitimate forms. However, as Resisting Illegitimate Authority reveals, these rebels are regularly scorned, shunned, financially punished, psychopathologized, criminalized, and even assassinated.
Profiling a diverse group of US anti-authoritarians—from Thomas Paine to Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Lenny Bruce, and Noam Chomsky—in order to glean useful lessons from their lives, Resisting Illegitimate Authority provides political, spiritual, philosophical, and psychological tools to help those suffering violence and vilification in a society whose most ardent cheerleaders for “freedom” are often its most obedient and docile citizens. Discussing anti-authoritarian approaches to depression, relationships, and parenting, Levine makes it clear that far from being a disease, disobedience may be our last hope.
Profiling a diverse group of US anti-authoritarians—from Thomas Paine to Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Lenny Bruce, and Noam Chomsky—in order to glean useful lessons from their lives, Resisting Illegitimate Authority provides political, spiritual, philosophical, and psychological tools to help those suffering violence and vilification in a society whose most ardent cheerleaders for “freedom” are often its most obedient and docile citizens. Discussing anti-authoritarian approaches to depression, relationships, and parenting, Levine makes it clear that far from being a disease, disobedience may be our last hope.
220 pages, ebook
Published September 25, 2018
31 people are currently reading
1339 people want to read
About the author
Bruce E. Levine
9 books44 followersBruce E. Levine writes and speaks widely on how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. His latest book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (2011). Earlier books include Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (2007) and Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy (2003).
A practicing clinical psychologist often at odds with the mainstream of his profession, he is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, AlterNet, and Z Magazine. His articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, Truthout, The Ecologist, High Times, and numerous other magazines, and he has contributed chapters to Writing without Formula (2009), Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Depression (2009), and Alternatives beyond Psychiatry (2007).
Dr. Levine is on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and he is an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs. A longtime activist in the mental health treatment reform movement, he is a member of the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry as well as MindFreedom. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America.
Bruce E. Levine was born in 1956, grew up in Rockaway in New York City, graduated from Queens College of the City University, and received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati. He currently lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Bon.
A practicing clinical psychologist often at odds with the mainstream of his profession, he is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, AlterNet, and Z Magazine. His articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, Truthout, The Ecologist, High Times, and numerous other magazines, and he has contributed chapters to Writing without Formula (2009), Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Depression (2009), and Alternatives beyond Psychiatry (2007).
Dr. Levine is on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and he is an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs. A longtime activist in the mental health treatment reform movement, he is a member of the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry as well as MindFreedom. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America.
Bruce E. Levine was born in 1956, grew up in Rockaway in New York City, graduated from Queens College of the City University, and received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati. He currently lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Bon.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 7, 2024
3.5 stars. I really enjoyed reading sections of Bruce Levine's "Resisting Illegitimate Authority." The bios of famous anti-authoritarians was very good and the history of the anarchy movement in the US is one we don't hear about often. There is also an excellent reference section if you want more about a particular person or idea from the book.
I had some issues with other parts. In the section titled "Political, Spiritual, Philosophical and Psychological Lenses for Anti-Authoritarians" where he writes glowingly about enneagrams. Enneagrams, like other personality tests, is utter BS. It has no legitimacy whatsoever. Psydoscience.
He also gives non anti-authoritarians the degrading and insulting name "normies" and insists "normies" can never understand or support anti-authoritarians. The citing of "Native Americans" for what he claims is "their method of dealing with anti-authoritarians." First off, these First Peoples are not a monolith. How the Cree people and the Apache people dealt with anti-authoritarians was likely vastly different. To lump them all into a single group shows a lack of knowledge and respect for the dozens, if not hundreds, of First People cultures.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in anti-authoritarianism, particularly if you fall into that category. Also excellent if you have a child that's having authority issues. The determination of schools officials and psychologists to "patholigise" anti-authoritarian behavior in children and teens. Terming them "mentally ill" in some respect, they de-legitimize their anger and frustration, diagnosing them as "having Oppositional Defiance Disorder" or ADHD then coerce them and their parents into a drug and/or counseling routines that often cause greater harm in the long term.
I had some issues with other parts. In the section titled "Political, Spiritual, Philosophical and Psychological Lenses for Anti-Authoritarians" where he writes glowingly about enneagrams. Enneagrams, like other personality tests, is utter BS. It has no legitimacy whatsoever. Psydoscience.
He also gives non anti-authoritarians the degrading and insulting name "normies" and insists "normies" can never understand or support anti-authoritarians. The citing of "Native Americans" for what he claims is "their method of dealing with anti-authoritarians." First off, these First Peoples are not a monolith. How the Cree people and the Apache people dealt with anti-authoritarians was likely vastly different. To lump them all into a single group shows a lack of knowledge and respect for the dozens, if not hundreds, of First People cultures.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in anti-authoritarianism, particularly if you fall into that category. Also excellent if you have a child that's having authority issues. The determination of schools officials and psychologists to "patholigise" anti-authoritarian behavior in children and teens. Terming them "mentally ill" in some respect, they de-legitimize their anger and frustration, diagnosing them as "having Oppositional Defiance Disorder" or ADHD then coerce them and their parents into a drug and/or counseling routines that often cause greater harm in the long term.
May 20, 2021
This book is a mixed bag. I went to school for psychology and have remained interested in the topic throughout my life, so a book written by a psych professional about anti authoritarianism was intriguing to me. It's pretty clear from the beginning that Levine is ignorant of a lot of leftist and anti authoritarian philosophy and movements. But I can forgive that since his field is more psychology than activism.
Who and what living chooses to focus on is definitely influenced by what happened in his lifetime and what his interests are personally. That's not necessarily A bad thing. It means that this book can appeal to older audiences when a lot of books on this topic are often written for younger people. I think his take on political violence versus anti-violence for instance is very reductive and reminds me a bit of what further hippies say when they claim that the one kind of activism they did was what solved all the problems and was the only thing that worked. He reduces violent activism to pretty much being all detrimental due to optics alone and that non-violent activism is always the best choice across the board. He doesn't directly say that sentence but that's kind of his point which is a very common thing that many people believe but is not actually historically accurate.
That said, living offers a lot of interesting backgrounds on various anti authoritarian figures in history without choosing to cover only one ideology within those characters which helps the reader separate out anti-thoritarianism from other ideologies and helps one understand the importance of embodying both anti-authoritarianism and their other liberatory beliefs.
I also think that, for a book like this that is sort of more of a popsychology book than an anarchist theory book, that he does a good job describing the different ways that ideologies actually work versus the way they are portrayed in the media. He does well to describe anarchism as a liberatory philosophy including mutual aid rather than violent chaos that most of the more mainstream media depicts it as. He does well to discuss all of the ways that anti authoritarianism is punished from the time we are born to when we enter school to the workplace and society at large.
His explanations about how psychiatry has been used against those who dissent, particularly anti-authoritarians, was important and interesting. That's his field of expertise in many ways so that is to be expected. My only issue with it is that it falls into the same trap that some groups such as trans folks fall into when they claim that having mental illness is separate from what they are. It's true that we should not pathologize things like anti authoritarian thinking or activity, but at the same time we need to be wary of that whole "oh I'm not one of those crazy people I'm just an anti authoritarian" way of thinking. One can be both anti authoritarian and disabled. And a larger argument needs to be made about even if people have mental illness, they need to be still treated with respect and care and that's going to look different for different people. He also views dangerously into the realm of full on antipsychiatry. I have personally and vicariously witnessed the severe abuses of much of psychiatry. I'm not attempting to say that the field should be lifted up as a god. But mental illness is real, anguish and suffering and devastation that it can cause is real, and the Scientology level antipsychiatry movement can be very detrimental to disabled people in ironically similar ways that psychiatry has oppressive facets that can be detrimental to disabled people.
Levine comes back to this point multiple times about anti-thoritarians being pathologized. He often references the newer Advent of diseases like oppositional defiant disorder that are used against anti authoritarians. However it does a great disservice to history when he repeatedly claims that certain figures in history are lucky that they are alive today and able to be pathologized. He says this about people like John Brown whose history has been completely tainted by white racist who touted him as an insane madman for wanting slaves to be liberated. He says this about Emma Goldman who was regularly treated as crazy just like any woman in history who is ever fought for feminism, anti-thoritarianism, anarchism, and anything outside of the oppressive institutions that have existed against women since the start. I see what he was trying to do but I don't understand why he went about it this way. He instead should have said that the way we have pathologized resistance has changed over time rather than claiming that some of these things are new and they weren't there before so these people are lucky.
There are more things I could analyze in depth but you get the picture. This book is worth reading. I listen to the audiobook and I don't regret it. Levine is someone I would like to sit down and talk to. It's just the sum of the books imperfections do it a great disservice and sometimes go against the points he is trying to make there in.
Who and what living chooses to focus on is definitely influenced by what happened in his lifetime and what his interests are personally. That's not necessarily A bad thing. It means that this book can appeal to older audiences when a lot of books on this topic are often written for younger people. I think his take on political violence versus anti-violence for instance is very reductive and reminds me a bit of what further hippies say when they claim that the one kind of activism they did was what solved all the problems and was the only thing that worked. He reduces violent activism to pretty much being all detrimental due to optics alone and that non-violent activism is always the best choice across the board. He doesn't directly say that sentence but that's kind of his point which is a very common thing that many people believe but is not actually historically accurate.
That said, living offers a lot of interesting backgrounds on various anti authoritarian figures in history without choosing to cover only one ideology within those characters which helps the reader separate out anti-thoritarianism from other ideologies and helps one understand the importance of embodying both anti-authoritarianism and their other liberatory beliefs.
I also think that, for a book like this that is sort of more of a popsychology book than an anarchist theory book, that he does a good job describing the different ways that ideologies actually work versus the way they are portrayed in the media. He does well to describe anarchism as a liberatory philosophy including mutual aid rather than violent chaos that most of the more mainstream media depicts it as. He does well to discuss all of the ways that anti authoritarianism is punished from the time we are born to when we enter school to the workplace and society at large.
His explanations about how psychiatry has been used against those who dissent, particularly anti-authoritarians, was important and interesting. That's his field of expertise in many ways so that is to be expected. My only issue with it is that it falls into the same trap that some groups such as trans folks fall into when they claim that having mental illness is separate from what they are. It's true that we should not pathologize things like anti authoritarian thinking or activity, but at the same time we need to be wary of that whole "oh I'm not one of those crazy people I'm just an anti authoritarian" way of thinking. One can be both anti authoritarian and disabled. And a larger argument needs to be made about even if people have mental illness, they need to be still treated with respect and care and that's going to look different for different people. He also views dangerously into the realm of full on antipsychiatry. I have personally and vicariously witnessed the severe abuses of much of psychiatry. I'm not attempting to say that the field should be lifted up as a god. But mental illness is real, anguish and suffering and devastation that it can cause is real, and the Scientology level antipsychiatry movement can be very detrimental to disabled people in ironically similar ways that psychiatry has oppressive facets that can be detrimental to disabled people.
Levine comes back to this point multiple times about anti-thoritarians being pathologized. He often references the newer Advent of diseases like oppositional defiant disorder that are used against anti authoritarians. However it does a great disservice to history when he repeatedly claims that certain figures in history are lucky that they are alive today and able to be pathologized. He says this about people like John Brown whose history has been completely tainted by white racist who touted him as an insane madman for wanting slaves to be liberated. He says this about Emma Goldman who was regularly treated as crazy just like any woman in history who is ever fought for feminism, anti-thoritarianism, anarchism, and anything outside of the oppressive institutions that have existed against women since the start. I see what he was trying to do but I don't understand why he went about it this way. He instead should have said that the way we have pathologized resistance has changed over time rather than claiming that some of these things are new and they weren't there before so these people are lucky.
There are more things I could analyze in depth but you get the picture. This book is worth reading. I listen to the audiobook and I don't regret it. Levine is someone I would like to sit down and talk to. It's just the sum of the books imperfections do it a great disservice and sometimes go against the points he is trying to make there in.
October 26, 2018
Bruce Levine's book explains the ways in which anti-authoritarians throughout history have gone about trying to change illegitimate authority in right and wrong ways. This is a thinking person's book. If you are a sheep, don't bother. He addresses how someone who doesn't go with the flow may be treated and what we can do differently as people who are in contact with or even in authority over those who question and doubt. As somewhat of a contrarian, I found it very interesting. If you understand what he's trying to reveal with this book, you have nothing to lose by reading it.
(I received this book in a goodreads giveaway.)
(I received this book in a goodreads giveaway.)
November 21, 2018
A very enjoyable and helpful read. While the author’s sympathetic view of anarchoprimitivism, Ted Kaczynski, and Alcoholics Anonymous and his view on the oppressive nature of schooling trumping the oppression youth oftentimes experience in the home were not points I agreed with, I liked this book a lot overall. It was clear, inspirational, and what I needed to read just now. It was a sort of Chicken Soup for the Anti-Authoritarian Soul book.
January 6, 2023
For all his accreditations, this author is grossly deliberate in his misconception of mental illness. For those who have never experienced suicidal depression, it is impossible to fully empathize with, but Levine blatantly ignores all of the human experience therewith. A major theme of the book is the illegitimacy of mental illness and it’s corresponding medications. He legitimately suggests having a good sense of humor as a cure for depression. How he could think this in a world where Robin Williams committed suicide is beyond me.
Additionally, the author completely disregarded the spiritual switch in platforms between Republicans and Democrats in the 1960s, using Woodrow Wilson as an example of Democrats behaving as poorly as Republicans vis-a-vis public policy.
Levine should be viewed as an illegitimate authority on par with the worst of which he speaks. The best I can say about this book is that the biographies were generally compelling and he chose some interesting historical figures to highlight.
Additionally, the author completely disregarded the spiritual switch in platforms between Republicans and Democrats in the 1960s, using Woodrow Wilson as an example of Democrats behaving as poorly as Republicans vis-a-vis public policy.
Levine should be viewed as an illegitimate authority on par with the worst of which he speaks. The best I can say about this book is that the biographies were generally compelling and he chose some interesting historical figures to highlight.
March 26, 2021
In elementary school, though I was in what was then called the “Intellectually Gifted Class” (IGC) always earning high academic marks, my report cards (kept by my mother so I saw them after decades had passed while cleaning out her house) clearly showed that I got many demerits for “misbehavior.” Clinical psychologist Bruce E. Levine suggests in this fascinating survey of anti-authoritarians that in today’s world my behavior would be pathologized. I mean, according to him, by today’s “standards,” even a young Albert Einstein would be diagnosed with ADHD and “most likely ODD as well.” He quotes dissident educator John Holt who wrote: “Children come to school curious; within a few years most of that curiosity is dead, or at least silent.” But not us anti-authoritarians: one teacher comment on my report card notes “Frank Jude is overly enthusiastic. He has to learn to sit still and raise his hand in class.”
No surprise then that I bristled at the authoritarianism of the Thich Nhat Hanh community that actively marginalized any individual questioning of the teachings of Thay. Barry Magid points out in Ending the Pursuit of Happiness something I experienced in that sangha: “That cultural tendency to suppress difference in the service of social harmony may all too easily become a formula of repression. One person’s (or one culture’s) harmony may be another’s conformity…. Compliance masquerades as no-self.” The emphasis on harmony in that sangha led to what I saw as much repression, and when my questions were dismissed as “not open to discussion” I left.
In my formal training with Samu Sunim, though he too led a typically Asian hierarchal, authoritarian sangha, unlike the Plum Village sangha, Sunim allowed me a wide intellectual berth. Despite all the papers written during my seminary training in which I criticized the Zen mythos of “lineage” and “mind-to-mind transmission” and in which I pointed out the illegitimacy of an authoritarian system that granted authority to alleged “enlightened masters” – some, as Magid writes: “with the most impeccable credentials” (what Levine dismissively refers to as “stinkin’ badges”) “and long years of monastic training that" sexually and financially abused their students, Sunim still found it fit to ordain me as a Dharma Teacher.
Resisting Illegitimate Authority is a survey of an incredibly diverse group of anti-authoritarians from Thomas Paine to Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Lenny Bruce, Noam Chomsky, and George Carlin. In presenting this survey, Levine begins with detailed definitions of the “compliant, the noncompliant, and the anti-authoritarian. He then presents profiles of Thomas Paine, Ralph Nader, and Malcom X as examples of those who made great contributions resisting American authoritarianism.
In the second section, “The Assault on U.S. Anti-Authoritarians” he offers the examples of Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and Edward Snowden followed by the genocide of Native Americans as an anti-authoritarian culture, the use of psychiatry to marginalize anti-authoritarians (“Not Just Frances Farmer”) and the typical schooling model that marginalizes anti-authoritarian students.
In Section Three, Levine offers “Lessons from Anti-Authoritarians Who Have Hurt Themselves, Others, or the Cause” by profiling the self-destructive type as represented by Phil Ochs, Lenny Bruce and Ida Lupino as well as those who became violent like Alexander Berkman and Ted Kaczynski.
This section also offers an interesting perspective on Anarchism, Buddhism, The God of Spinoza and Einstein, and The Enneagram as examples of political, philosophical, and psychological lenses for anti-authoritarians.
It wouldn’t be a balanced survey without looking into “Lessons from Anti-Authoritarians Who Have Helped Themselves and the Cause” where his examples include Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Jane Jacobs, and Noam Chomsky.
In today’s world, there are authoritarians on both sides of the political divide that demands “blind submission” to ideology. A “bad seed” anti-authoritarian Leftist such as myself finds himself critically rejecting the so-called “woke” progressivism of a segment on the Left that bases itself on Critical Race Theory, assuming an unearned and unwarranted academic and activist authority it doesn’t deserve. The embedded authoritarianism is seen in their rhetoric and denial of any dissent. Such a totalitarian authoritarianism is the very antithesis of progressivism.
No surprise then that I bristled at the authoritarianism of the Thich Nhat Hanh community that actively marginalized any individual questioning of the teachings of Thay. Barry Magid points out in Ending the Pursuit of Happiness something I experienced in that sangha: “That cultural tendency to suppress difference in the service of social harmony may all too easily become a formula of repression. One person’s (or one culture’s) harmony may be another’s conformity…. Compliance masquerades as no-self.” The emphasis on harmony in that sangha led to what I saw as much repression, and when my questions were dismissed as “not open to discussion” I left.
In my formal training with Samu Sunim, though he too led a typically Asian hierarchal, authoritarian sangha, unlike the Plum Village sangha, Sunim allowed me a wide intellectual berth. Despite all the papers written during my seminary training in which I criticized the Zen mythos of “lineage” and “mind-to-mind transmission” and in which I pointed out the illegitimacy of an authoritarian system that granted authority to alleged “enlightened masters” – some, as Magid writes: “with the most impeccable credentials” (what Levine dismissively refers to as “stinkin’ badges”) “and long years of monastic training that" sexually and financially abused their students, Sunim still found it fit to ordain me as a Dharma Teacher.
Resisting Illegitimate Authority is a survey of an incredibly diverse group of anti-authoritarians from Thomas Paine to Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Lenny Bruce, Noam Chomsky, and George Carlin. In presenting this survey, Levine begins with detailed definitions of the “compliant, the noncompliant, and the anti-authoritarian. He then presents profiles of Thomas Paine, Ralph Nader, and Malcom X as examples of those who made great contributions resisting American authoritarianism.
In the second section, “The Assault on U.S. Anti-Authoritarians” he offers the examples of Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and Edward Snowden followed by the genocide of Native Americans as an anti-authoritarian culture, the use of psychiatry to marginalize anti-authoritarians (“Not Just Frances Farmer”) and the typical schooling model that marginalizes anti-authoritarian students.
In Section Three, Levine offers “Lessons from Anti-Authoritarians Who Have Hurt Themselves, Others, or the Cause” by profiling the self-destructive type as represented by Phil Ochs, Lenny Bruce and Ida Lupino as well as those who became violent like Alexander Berkman and Ted Kaczynski.
This section also offers an interesting perspective on Anarchism, Buddhism, The God of Spinoza and Einstein, and The Enneagram as examples of political, philosophical, and psychological lenses for anti-authoritarians.
It wouldn’t be a balanced survey without looking into “Lessons from Anti-Authoritarians Who Have Helped Themselves and the Cause” where his examples include Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Jane Jacobs, and Noam Chomsky.
In today’s world, there are authoritarians on both sides of the political divide that demands “blind submission” to ideology. A “bad seed” anti-authoritarian Leftist such as myself finds himself critically rejecting the so-called “woke” progressivism of a segment on the Left that bases itself on Critical Race Theory, assuming an unearned and unwarranted academic and activist authority it doesn’t deserve. The embedded authoritarianism is seen in their rhetoric and denial of any dissent. Such a totalitarian authoritarianism is the very antithesis of progressivism.
August 14, 2022
I chose this book to read on a plane. I’d been meaning to read it for a while, but kept choosing the fun and fluffy over this one.
As I read, I sensed that something was off. There was a lot of negative editorializing about psychiatry, including repeated assertions that if certain people were alive today, they would have been pathologized, medicated, and shut up in mental wards.
As someone who knows folks with mental illness, I find these assertions to be specious at best.
I wondered what the heck was up with this author, so I googled his name. He’s a clinical psychologist who despises the psychiatric profession and seems to believe that the mentally ill receive little to no benefit from medication or any other kind of treatment.
Really. I was stunned.
That is his axe to grind, and it’s on every third page. I got about halfway through the book before I suspected that this guy was a nutter, and my googling confirmed it. Of course, he or any true believer would probably respond that my opinion of his work proves that I am an actually an authoritarian who believes everything she’s told. Or something. I dunno.
I’m putting this one down, and never picking it up again. What a waste of a plane ride.
As I read, I sensed that something was off. There was a lot of negative editorializing about psychiatry, including repeated assertions that if certain people were alive today, they would have been pathologized, medicated, and shut up in mental wards.
As someone who knows folks with mental illness, I find these assertions to be specious at best.
I wondered what the heck was up with this author, so I googled his name. He’s a clinical psychologist who despises the psychiatric profession and seems to believe that the mentally ill receive little to no benefit from medication or any other kind of treatment.
Really. I was stunned.
That is his axe to grind, and it’s on every third page. I got about halfway through the book before I suspected that this guy was a nutter, and my googling confirmed it. Of course, he or any true believer would probably respond that my opinion of his work proves that I am an actually an authoritarian who believes everything she’s told. Or something. I dunno.
I’m putting this one down, and never picking it up again. What a waste of a plane ride.
May 7, 2025
The profiles in this book are wonderful, and this author does seem to understand the nature of anti-authoritarianism. Many of his points about the mental health industry and the school system are well taken, but he writes off the entire psychiatry profession as bullshit because he doesn't like psychiatric medications.
He states his reasons for this as well, saying that "It's actually society that's the problem, we wouldn't need psychiatry if we were more anti-authoritarian." This is absolutely true, but it's not a reason to discount the psychiatry profession wholesale. As someone who suffered from clinical depression/anxiety for over a decade, I can 100% say that my depression would have been cured by being allowed to nurture relationships with people I liked. But first school and then my job did not allow me to do that, so I felt shitty for a long time and society wasn't going to be fixed quickly enough for my personal taste. So I went on an SSRI, and I don't regret it.
I don't know any psychiatrist that would say that an SSRI can cure depression. What they actually do, though, is mute the symptoms just enough to give your mind breathing room. I had a lot of problems with racing thoughts, and my SSRI allowed me to slow down and think about those thoughts at a reasonable pace. Similarly, I began to have the energy to get out of bed and interact with people (even though I might not have wanted to do so at the time). The negative side effects were non-existent, outside of perhaps being a bit more tired than usual for the first couple of weeks.
So, there are certainly cases where psychiatric medicine can be useful, as it was in mine. The tirade against these medicines in this book should be taken with a grain of salt, because the author does not include cases where this medicine has been beneficial for anti-authoritarians like myself. Yes, authoritarian society is the root of depression/anxiety for many people. No, we don't need to throw out advances in psychiatric medicine that are meant to alleviate symptoms in the short term. I can't give this book a higher rating because of this.
He states his reasons for this as well, saying that "It's actually society that's the problem, we wouldn't need psychiatry if we were more anti-authoritarian." This is absolutely true, but it's not a reason to discount the psychiatry profession wholesale. As someone who suffered from clinical depression/anxiety for over a decade, I can 100% say that my depression would have been cured by being allowed to nurture relationships with people I liked. But first school and then my job did not allow me to do that, so I felt shitty for a long time and society wasn't going to be fixed quickly enough for my personal taste. So I went on an SSRI, and I don't regret it.
I don't know any psychiatrist that would say that an SSRI can cure depression. What they actually do, though, is mute the symptoms just enough to give your mind breathing room. I had a lot of problems with racing thoughts, and my SSRI allowed me to slow down and think about those thoughts at a reasonable pace. Similarly, I began to have the energy to get out of bed and interact with people (even though I might not have wanted to do so at the time). The negative side effects were non-existent, outside of perhaps being a bit more tired than usual for the first couple of weeks.
So, there are certainly cases where psychiatric medicine can be useful, as it was in mine. The tirade against these medicines in this book should be taken with a grain of salt, because the author does not include cases where this medicine has been beneficial for anti-authoritarians like myself. Yes, authoritarian society is the root of depression/anxiety for many people. No, we don't need to throw out advances in psychiatric medicine that are meant to alleviate symptoms in the short term. I can't give this book a higher rating because of this.
December 26, 2024
As someone diagnosed with "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" and struggled with lifelong existential depression combined with a fascination for all things outlier-- especially the marginalized and misunderstood, this book is a balm for me.
The numerous distinctions of violent versus nonviolent anti-authoritarians were particularly compelling. I appreciated bios on figures that seldom get press (has anyone else not thought much about Thomas Paine since high school?) and the subsequent pillorying of leaders who later become pop idols had me nodding my head in familiarity. Another point of appreciation-- those who did their best to correct their mistakes and learn from misguided beliefs. I've never loved George Carlin or Malcolm X more than I did after finishing this.
I disagree with several reviewers that he is dangerously close to anti-psychiatry or an illegitimate authority himself. His lens is pretty wide and certainly shaped in a different time, but the emphasis that we need to categorically farm our nonconformists to pathology is very necessary. It's also necessary to temper that with having some trust in medical and/or psychiatric interventions, and having lived for decades with suicidal ideation and regular old intrusive thoughts, medicated, treated and in a much better place, it's refreshing to revise what I thought was broken was partially being woefully misunderstood as a prescience and predisposition to sniffing out bullshit.
People need to know there's health possible on the other side of mental illness, and it's no easy road to be sure, but this book served as part cautionary tale as much as it edified my suspicions and inspires more embodied action. And my little "no system but ecosystem" anarchist heart needs that in these times so rife with binary extremes and pathology of every personality trait.
The numerous distinctions of violent versus nonviolent anti-authoritarians were particularly compelling. I appreciated bios on figures that seldom get press (has anyone else not thought much about Thomas Paine since high school?) and the subsequent pillorying of leaders who later become pop idols had me nodding my head in familiarity. Another point of appreciation-- those who did their best to correct their mistakes and learn from misguided beliefs. I've never loved George Carlin or Malcolm X more than I did after finishing this.
I disagree with several reviewers that he is dangerously close to anti-psychiatry or an illegitimate authority himself. His lens is pretty wide and certainly shaped in a different time, but the emphasis that we need to categorically farm our nonconformists to pathology is very necessary. It's also necessary to temper that with having some trust in medical and/or psychiatric interventions, and having lived for decades with suicidal ideation and regular old intrusive thoughts, medicated, treated and in a much better place, it's refreshing to revise what I thought was broken was partially being woefully misunderstood as a prescience and predisposition to sniffing out bullshit.
People need to know there's health possible on the other side of mental illness, and it's no easy road to be sure, but this book served as part cautionary tale as much as it edified my suspicions and inspires more embodied action. And my little "no system but ecosystem" anarchist heart needs that in these times so rife with binary extremes and pathology of every personality trait.
January 4, 2026
Have a lot of thoughts on this one.
Just logging it now. Will expand thoughts later. A practical guide to anti-authoritarianism built from the profiles of some very solid American examples spanning from comedians, the politicians, to assassins, to advocates, to teachers. This book is non exhaustive, but it’s definitely a good personal guide to understanding how to navigate the world as an anti-authoritarian.
Not so much interested in the politics of anti-authoritarianism, so much as the psychological effects being an antiauthoritarian has on a person. It’s not dogma, it’s not about a political opinion, it’s just very practically trying to build the profile of how you, yes you can best live as an anti-authoritarian. (It is very political in some ways tho lol)
Deeply, fanatically anti-psychiatry and I would assume, that is the main reason this book was written. Dude has a vendetta against psychiatrists and frankly, despite my own mostly positive experiences with psychiatry and the mental healthcare professionals I’ve consulted with, he build a convincing argument on how those fields have contributed to stigmatizing and silencing anti-authoritarians throughout history. Still I found this throughline humorously distracting.
I really enjoyed this read. Going to reread the last couple chapters with my girlfriend tho, because I read ahead lol
3.5
Just logging it now. Will expand thoughts later. A practical guide to anti-authoritarianism built from the profiles of some very solid American examples spanning from comedians, the politicians, to assassins, to advocates, to teachers. This book is non exhaustive, but it’s definitely a good personal guide to understanding how to navigate the world as an anti-authoritarian.
Not so much interested in the politics of anti-authoritarianism, so much as the psychological effects being an antiauthoritarian has on a person. It’s not dogma, it’s not about a political opinion, it’s just very practically trying to build the profile of how you, yes you can best live as an anti-authoritarian. (It is very political in some ways tho lol)
Deeply, fanatically anti-psychiatry and I would assume, that is the main reason this book was written. Dude has a vendetta against psychiatrists and frankly, despite my own mostly positive experiences with psychiatry and the mental healthcare professionals I’ve consulted with, he build a convincing argument on how those fields have contributed to stigmatizing and silencing anti-authoritarians throughout history. Still I found this throughline humorously distracting.
I really enjoyed this read. Going to reread the last couple chapters with my girlfriend tho, because I read ahead lol
3.5
June 13, 2021
While I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is an actual guide to being an anti-authoritarian, it was an entertaining and interesting look at the lives of people who have bucked the system. Not so sure the author's definition of authoritarian is the same as mine, though, and I strongly disagree with the author that educators are authoritarian proselytizers. While authoritarian teachers do exist, in my experience, they are not the majority. Further, the most reliable path towards gaining critical thinking skills and thwarting authoritarianism lies in education according to the research of the extraordinary authoritarianism expert, Bob Altemeyer. The harping on education as a system for creating authoritarian followers, which is patently incorrect, caused me to question his other claims. As a collection of mini-biographies, it is worth reading. As a book about authoritarianism, not so much.
August 12, 2020
This important book is like an "Anti-Authoritarianism 101" containing brief profiles of prominent anti-authoritarians throughout history, an overview of anti-authoritarian philosophy, what exactly constitutes "illegitimate authority" and some practical lifestyle and wellbeing tips for modern anti-authoritarians. While itself a brief primer, it leads the reader to further in-depth reading if you want to know more.
July 1, 2023
Extremely approachable and reads well to someone not very familiar with academic works. I am familiar with academic or heavily political content, and I recommend this one frequently to people who are just kind of getting into it.
The content is as complex as it should be and well grounded, while maintaining approachability. This is someone who understands how to explain complex issues to a green and heavily indoctrinated audience.
The content is as complex as it should be and well grounded, while maintaining approachability. This is someone who understands how to explain complex issues to a green and heavily indoctrinated audience.
January 13, 2020
Interesting snapshots of famous anti-authoritarians combined with some shade thrown at modern day psychology for wrongfully pathologizing people with this personality type. I'm just glad that my direct supervisor turns out to be a legitimate authority figure. I would've hated to have to start an uprising...
March 9, 2019
Helpful in a practical fashion. A very good read. Kudos!
Recommended for those tackling this ubiquitous derivative of our society. Insights and inferred solutions for the young as well as the mature.
Recommended for those tackling this ubiquitous derivative of our society. Insights and inferred solutions for the young as well as the mature.
December 14, 2020
An interesting and valuable compilation of stories of American anti-authoritarian radicals, how they agitated against systems of oppression in their time as well as lessons for us to learn. Not that long or detailed, but an interesting starting off point for many.
June 10, 2021
Great meditation on the dynamics and use of power, (far removed from virtue signaling), ‘as the ability to reward people who advance your interests and punish who disrupt, interrupt, challenge your interests’
July 22, 2019
A bit over-promising but a good introduction to apolitical anti-authoritarians to mutual aid and other LibSoc concepts
December 25, 2020
I really enjoyed the profiles of anti-authoritarians.
September 15, 2021
Entertaining, lots of inspiring stories about anti-authoritarian historical and contemporary figures... but I was expecting more practical strategies, given the promises of the cover.
June 17, 2022
found the little biographical overviews of different anarchists and socialists useful
October 14, 2022
2.5 stars. Some helpful points
April 27, 2023
Ehhhh. I feel like this book had its ups and downs. The author has a REAL vendetta against psychiatric medicine and especially prescription psychiatric drugs. Like, I would be sitting there enjoying an overview of the early life of Emma Goldman and suddenly he's like, "If Emma were around today she'd be ZONKED OUT ON RITALIN" and I'm like. OK my guy. Maybe?
I get the lines he's trying to draw, but when I went into this book I had not anticipated it would be bent towards those aims... I feel you could have made a much better book if you'd stuck with either the overview history OR trying to make a MODERN theory of psychiatric care having a direct influence on anti-authoritarian views/actions... But trying to take the lives of folks who were not directly affected by these drugs and slapping a "what if" on them is pretty weak in my opinion.
I get the lines he's trying to draw, but when I went into this book I had not anticipated it would be bent towards those aims... I feel you could have made a much better book if you'd stuck with either the overview history OR trying to make a MODERN theory of psychiatric care having a direct influence on anti-authoritarian views/actions... But trying to take the lives of folks who were not directly affected by these drugs and slapping a "what if" on them is pretty weak in my opinion.
August 26, 2019
Although I believe the book was a tad unpolished, Levine’s overall message was so enjoyable and relatable that I would feel bad giving the book anything under a five-star rating.
As an anti-authoritarian teenager diagnosed with many of the mental “illnesses” and “disorders” described in the book, his criticism of coercive psychiatry and prominent American institutions in general bears an uncanny resemblance to my experiences within the mental health treatment and schooling systems. I’ve had a bone to pick with much of my education so far, and the unfathomable travesty of a bright teenage boy caring more about shooting hoops than ingesting corporate propaganda in classrooms is apparently a huge cause for concern for neurotic upper-middle class parents.
Last year, I got “depressed” and read lots of philosophy and psychology books as Levine had done when he was about my age, except I ended up voluntarily committing myself to a psychiatric ward (of course, this decision wasn’t exactly opposed by my parents...), and as he described, I left inpatient treatment worse than I came in. Looking back, I wish I had discovered Bruce Levine’s writing earlier, but nevertheless I am grateful for finding out about him.
Great book, and anyone who is curious about this kind of subject matter should look into getting a copy of this book.
As an anti-authoritarian teenager diagnosed with many of the mental “illnesses” and “disorders” described in the book, his criticism of coercive psychiatry and prominent American institutions in general bears an uncanny resemblance to my experiences within the mental health treatment and schooling systems. I’ve had a bone to pick with much of my education so far, and the unfathomable travesty of a bright teenage boy caring more about shooting hoops than ingesting corporate propaganda in classrooms is apparently a huge cause for concern for neurotic upper-middle class parents.
Last year, I got “depressed” and read lots of philosophy and psychology books as Levine had done when he was about my age, except I ended up voluntarily committing myself to a psychiatric ward (of course, this decision wasn’t exactly opposed by my parents...), and as he described, I left inpatient treatment worse than I came in. Looking back, I wish I had discovered Bruce Levine’s writing earlier, but nevertheless I am grateful for finding out about him.
Great book, and anyone who is curious about this kind of subject matter should look into getting a copy of this book.
December 14, 2024
Excellent. Great critique of authoritarianism and the many pitfall confronting anti-authoritarians as they struggle to better the world and are undermined at every step.
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December 30, 2018It is good if you want concise histories of several famous people.
As a psychological text, I recommend 'Lost Connections' over this. I would have liked to hear more about the ex-psychiatrist patient groups.
As a psychological text, I recommend 'Lost Connections' over this. I would have liked to hear more about the ex-psychiatrist patient groups.
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