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The Human Side of Human Beings: The Theory of Re-Evaluation Counseling
Pages clean and unmarked. Slight wear from time on shelf like you would see on a major chain. Immediate shipping
- GenresPsychologyNonfiction
114 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 13, 2022
Get past the initial frontloading of two millennia old unsubstantiated claims by male philosophers about human exceptionalism over unthinking animals and you have a stock regurgitation of Pierre Janet's trauma theory from six decades before this book's publication, coupled to Sigmund Freud's catharsis model of recovery (which Janet retroactively superseded with his phase-oriented treatment).
Honestly, Jackins has a very good understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. His humanist framework mirrors existential psychotherapy. For Jackins, intelligence is the capacity to take in information and act on it spontaneously. Everyone has the capacity for intelligence and from the way he writes intelligence clearly includes the processing of feelings. Intelligence is full immersion in the present, an integration of self-reflection and emotional reciprocity.
For Jackins, what destroys intelligence is distress (i.e. pain or trauma). Here, Jackins aligns with the trauma and neurosis theories of Janet, Wilheim Reich, and Erving & Miriam Polster. Distress blocks information processing. If a similar distressing situation arises later in life, either we enact a canned response because we know we won't get what we want responding sincerely like we did in the past (e.g. replying with "Good" whenever anyone asks "How are you?"), or the distressing situation throws us into a traumatic response that plays us like a record (i.e. Freud's death drive or Janet's maladaptive coping). We are thrown back into the traumatic past, reacting to perpetrators long gone. These moments appear irrational to observers because they are, because an ossified piece of the past has prevented the proper processing of present information.
This shit is good. Trauma research from the 1990s onwards has confirmed Jackins' musings and connected them to specific neurological pathways and cognitive functions. Such researchers have also differentiated the many forms of trauma responses apart, from depression, to anxiety, to depersonalisation, to borderline, to dissociative identity disorder, to schizophrenia. For example, depersonalisation involves a failure to recognise existentially meaningful information in one's environment, while dissociation involves a failure to recall meaningful information that has been recognised but cannot be accessed. Both produce similar phenomena (amnesia), but should be treated differently.
For Jackins, however, treatment is simply catharsis, letting the distressing moment (which had previously been interrupted by invalidating phrases like "cheer up", "boys don't cry", "you think you've got it bad?" or outright violence) unfurl to completion. The issue with catharsis models of treatment is that they don't last. They're ephemeral releases that don't lead to permanent changes in the person suffering (let alone changes in their material circumstances). Many people who go to therapy don't have the skills or relationships they need to live gratifying lives. They're hurt and lost and desperate. They need to learn how to articulate their pain and vulnerability, how to communicate interpersonal issues without blame or shame, how to identify their triggers, how to cope with PTSD, depressive and manic episodes, delusions, shame spirals, how to self-soothe, how to validate and be validated by others, how to develop self-love and self-compassion, and what community groups are available when they need material or psychological support. These various cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal skills require far more than catharsis to develop. They require changes to one's personal habits and social environment.
A final nitpick is Jackins pseudoscientific jargon and truisms. There's one part where he legit says the successful person only uses 10% of their intelligence and that the other 90% is inhibited. A little later he says that since no one uses 100% of their intelligence (everyone is inhibited in one way or another), there is no way to measure anyone's intelligence. Cool.
Some more up-to-date resources that are backed up by scientific studies, as well as phenomenological and philosophical interrogations of selfhood and trauma:
Intimacy and Alienation: Memory, Trauma and Personal Being
Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy
Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy with Individuals, Couples, and Families
Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Relational Approach
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Easy Ego State Interventions: Strategies for Working With Parts
Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self
Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy
Honestly, Jackins has a very good understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. His humanist framework mirrors existential psychotherapy. For Jackins, intelligence is the capacity to take in information and act on it spontaneously. Everyone has the capacity for intelligence and from the way he writes intelligence clearly includes the processing of feelings. Intelligence is full immersion in the present, an integration of self-reflection and emotional reciprocity.
For Jackins, what destroys intelligence is distress (i.e. pain or trauma). Here, Jackins aligns with the trauma and neurosis theories of Janet, Wilheim Reich, and Erving & Miriam Polster. Distress blocks information processing. If a similar distressing situation arises later in life, either we enact a canned response because we know we won't get what we want responding sincerely like we did in the past (e.g. replying with "Good" whenever anyone asks "How are you?"), or the distressing situation throws us into a traumatic response that plays us like a record (i.e. Freud's death drive or Janet's maladaptive coping). We are thrown back into the traumatic past, reacting to perpetrators long gone. These moments appear irrational to observers because they are, because an ossified piece of the past has prevented the proper processing of present information.
This shit is good. Trauma research from the 1990s onwards has confirmed Jackins' musings and connected them to specific neurological pathways and cognitive functions. Such researchers have also differentiated the many forms of trauma responses apart, from depression, to anxiety, to depersonalisation, to borderline, to dissociative identity disorder, to schizophrenia. For example, depersonalisation involves a failure to recognise existentially meaningful information in one's environment, while dissociation involves a failure to recall meaningful information that has been recognised but cannot be accessed. Both produce similar phenomena (amnesia), but should be treated differently.
For Jackins, however, treatment is simply catharsis, letting the distressing moment (which had previously been interrupted by invalidating phrases like "cheer up", "boys don't cry", "you think you've got it bad?" or outright violence) unfurl to completion. The issue with catharsis models of treatment is that they don't last. They're ephemeral releases that don't lead to permanent changes in the person suffering (let alone changes in their material circumstances). Many people who go to therapy don't have the skills or relationships they need to live gratifying lives. They're hurt and lost and desperate. They need to learn how to articulate their pain and vulnerability, how to communicate interpersonal issues without blame or shame, how to identify their triggers, how to cope with PTSD, depressive and manic episodes, delusions, shame spirals, how to self-soothe, how to validate and be validated by others, how to develop self-love and self-compassion, and what community groups are available when they need material or psychological support. These various cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal skills require far more than catharsis to develop. They require changes to one's personal habits and social environment.
A final nitpick is Jackins pseudoscientific jargon and truisms. There's one part where he legit says the successful person only uses 10% of their intelligence and that the other 90% is inhibited. A little later he says that since no one uses 100% of their intelligence (everyone is inhibited in one way or another), there is no way to measure anyone's intelligence. Cool.
Some more up-to-date resources that are backed up by scientific studies, as well as phenomenological and philosophical interrogations of selfhood and trauma:
Intimacy and Alienation: Memory, Trauma and Personal Being
Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy
Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy with Individuals, Couples, and Families
Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Relational Approach
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Easy Ego State Interventions: Strategies for Working With Parts
Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self
Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy
December 2, 2025
I liked the premise here; that unresolved trauma and squelched feelings are a big cause of human distress and dysfunction, causing scars which then cause us to do the same thing to others, especially to children. The solution, according to this author, is for adults to allow children to feel whatever they are feeling until they are finished with it. And for adults, find another adult who will deeply listen to your own history of trauma/unresolved feelings, and then trade off with that person and deeply listen to them in turn. The author calls this “co-counseling.” The diagrams didn’t really speak to me, and there are some very old ideas in here; it’s very human-centric, but it was interesting and I’m glad I read this book I gave to my mother on her birthday in 1976.
May 7, 2020
Harvey Jackins, author, definitely a Visionary. Harvey Jackins books serve in this day and time of Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis as the better advice and advocate for Professional Humanitarians.
Respectfully Submitted
Gloria J Hunt Keith
ACTION SPEAKS HERITAGE EXCELLENCE EDUCATION JOURNAL
May 2020
Respectfully Submitted
Gloria J Hunt Keith
ACTION SPEAKS HERITAGE EXCELLENCE EDUCATION JOURNAL
May 2020
December 12, 2024
Классическая и очень влиятельная психологическая книженция про то, что у людей накапливается стресс, и надо уметь быть активным и неосуждающим слушателем и давать разрядку. Когда происходит разрядка от эмоционального стресса, люди способны переоценить свои слова и действия, и это единственный верный путь для личного исцеления, по Джекинсу
July 16, 2020
The most no-nonsense approach to peer counseling I've yet to encounter. This book literally changed my life. Jackin's theories have stood the test of time and helped me move through an extremely traumatic life to a thriving adulthood.
August 29, 2025
RC was referenced in a trans rights book I read recently. I’m always struck by how normal cult reading materials sound. I’ve read Koresh, Moonies, and Aum Shinryko. I know ex- johos and ex- Forever Family. MAGA doesn’t quite have that, contrary to popular belief.
May 19, 2020
This was quite insightful. It was a bit hard to get into but once I got through the haze of phycological jargon it had a good evaluation of why humans behave the way we do.
July 21, 2008
informative and easy to read
March 19, 2010
If you want to be accountable for your thoughts and behavior, read this, then do it.
May 20, 2012
tough style to get through, but good info.
February 13, 2014
It was okay, I'm taking the RC course along with reading the book and it seems to me "cultish." There are a few really great concepts that I intend to apply, though.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews