Man Against Himself

MAN against HIMSELF BY KARL A. MENNINGER Harcourt, Brace World, Inc. - New York CO YR. IG JEL T, XQ3S, BY MKIC 1STINGER. or portions th reof in cti-iy form - IX. by TNT THOSE WHO WOULD USE INTELLIGENCE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST DEATH TO STRENGTHEN THE WILL TO LIVE AGAINST THE WISH TO DIE, AND TO REPLACE WITH LOVE THE BLIND COMPULSION TO GIVE HOSTAGES TO HATRED AS THE PRICE OF LIVING Preface IT IS nothing new that the world is full o hate, that men destroy one another, and that our civilization has arisen from the ashes of despoiled peoples and decimated natural resources. But to relate this destructiveness, this evidence of a spiritual malignancy within us, to an instinct, and to correlate this instinct with the beneficent and fruitful instinct associated with love, this was one of the later flowers of the genius of Freud. We have come to see that just as the child must learn to love wisely, so he must learn to hate expedi tiously, to turn destructive tendencies away from himself toward enemies that actually threaten him rather than toward the friendly and the defenseless, the more usual victims of destructive energy. It js true, nevertheless, that in the end each man kills himself in his own selecte3 way, nEasf or slow, soon or late. We all feel this, vaguely j there are solHany occasions to witness it before our eyes. The methods are legion and it is these which attract our attention. Some of them interest surgeons, some of them interest lawyers and priests, some of them interest heart specialists, some of them interest sociologists. All of them must interest the man who sees the personality as a totality and medicine as the healing of the nations. I believe that our best defenseagainst self-destructiveness lies in the courageous application of intelligence to human phenom enology. If such is our nature, it were better that we knew it and knew it in all its protean manifestations. To see all forms of self destruction from the standpoint of their dominant principles would seem to be logical progress toward self-preservation and toward a unified view of medical science. This book is an attempt to synthesize and to carry forward, in that direction, the work begun by Ferenczi, Groddeck, Jelliffe, White, Alexander, Simmel, and others who have consistently ap vii Vlll PREFACE plied these principles to the understanding of human sickness and all those failures and capitulations that we propose to regard as variant forms of suicide. No one is more aware than I of the un evenness of the evidence to follow and of the speculative nature of some of the theory, but in this I beg the indulgence of the reader to whom I submit that to have a theory, even a false one, is better than to attribute events to pure chance. Chance explanations leave us in the dark 5 a theory will lead to confirmation or rejection. K. A. M. Acknowledgments I AM indebted to many people for help in the recording and exposition of the views in this book. I am indebted for an early reading of the manuscript and for valuable suggestions resulting therefrom to my colleague and former teacher, Dr. Franz Alexander of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, to Dr. Franklin C. McLean of the University of Chicago, to Dr. J. F. Brown of the University of Kansas also research associate in psychology at our Clinic and to Nelson Antrim Crawford of Topeka, editor of The Household Magazine. In a more general way, Iam indebted also to my colleagues of the Menninger Clinic with all of whom I have discussed the ideas herein expressed and some of whom read the manuscript in its first draft. From the late Dr. William A. White we received in 1933 a grant of 2,500 for some special studies of suicidally inclined persons, a gift on behalf of an anonymous donor. These studies formed a part of the clinical basis for the general theory of suicide elaborated in Part II of this book...

In this landmark book, the impulse toward self-destructiveness is examined as a misdirection of the instinct for survival, a turning inward of the aggressive behavior developed for self-preservation. "One of the most absorbing books I have read in recent years" (Joseph Wood Krutch, The Nation). Index.

Narcissistic men seem like the ultimate catch: self-confident, attractive, charming individuals who are often the life of the party. The narcissist always knows the place to be and who to be seen with. His attention is initially very flattering, but eventually his behavior is not: he becomes aloof and controlling and may cheat. He still seems somewhat interested, however, and often makes enough nice gestures to maintain a girl's interest, leaving all but him to wonder: what is going on? The country's leading expert on narcissism, Dr. W. Keith Campbell, explains how to identify a narcissist, what it means to love a man who loves himself and how to break the cycle of dating men with this personality disorder.

This is Volume VIII of thirty-eight of collection of works on General Psychology. Initially published in 1947, it offers an enquiry into the psychology of ethics and forms a continuation of the author's other work 'Escape from Freedom’ in which he attempted to analyse modern man's escape from himself and his freedom. This book discusses the problem of ethics, of norms and values leading to the realisation of man's self and of his potential.

If ever a subject and a writer were perfectly matched it is here. The fated voyage of the Titanic, with its heroics and horror, has been dramatized many times before, but never by an artist with the skills and sensibility of Beryl Bainbridge. Bainbridge vividly recreates each scene of the voyage, from the suspicious fire in the Number 10 coal bunker, to the champange and crystal of the first-class public rooms, to that terrible midnight chaos in the frigid North Atlantic. This is remarkable, haunting tale substantiates Bainbridge as a consummate observer of the human condition.

The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author delivers a collection of essays that serve as the perfect “antidote to mansplaining” (The Stranger). In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women. “In this series of personal but unsentimental essays, Solnit gives succinct shorthand to a familiar female experience that before had gone unarticulated, perhaps even unrecognized.” —The New York Times “Essential feminist reading.” —The New Republic “This slim book hums with power and wit.” —Boston Globe “Solnit tackles big themes of gender and power in these accessible essays. Honest and full of wit, this is an integral read that furthers the conversation on feminism and contemporary society.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Essential.” —Marketplace “Feminist, frequently funny, unflinchingly honest and often scathing in its conclusions.” —Salon

This classic work of science fiction is widely considered to be the ultimate time-travel novel. When Daniel Eakins inherits a time machine, he soon realizes that he has enormous power to shape the course of history. He can foil terrorists, prevent assassinations, or just make some fast money at the racetrack. And if he doesn't like the results of the change, he can simply go back in time and talk himself out of making it! But Dan soon finds that there are limits to his powers and forces beyond his control.