WHEN SOCIETY BECOMES AN ADDICT

by Anne Wilson Schaef ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 25, 1986

In this circumlocutory little volume, Schaef, author of Co-Dependence and Women's Reality, attempts to equate the personality flaws of addicted individuals to those of society at large. What she ends up doing is re-wrapping her Women's Reality (which, in brief, identified and described three systems: ""the White Male System,"" ""the Reactive Female System,"" and ""the Emerging Female System"") in a new package. Her old ""White Male"" and ""Reactive Female"" systems now become ""The Addictive System,"" while her ""Emerging Female System"" becomes the ""Living Process System."" Anyone who has ever been frustrated by the intangible vapidity of ""New Age"" rhetoric will find puzzling through this to be the equivalent of being sentenced to an eternity of reading EST newsletters. What this book is in reality is an outdated feminist tract that decries a white male system supposedly responsible for everything from personal despondency to international terrorism. But Schaeif's charges are rendered unanswerable, for in her own specialized vocabulary even an unfavorable review (like this) is attributable ultimately to this base system. However, Schaef tells us that a forthcoming book, Living in Process, will describe the ""Saviour System"" in detail. Life by the system. Believers only.

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 1986

ISBN: 0062548549

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION