WHERE'S YOUR HEAD?

by Dale Carlson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1977

The first half of this is a simplistic digest of Freudian theory, made all the more annoying by Carlson's bandwagon colloquialisms (where you're at, change your head, up the walls) and execrable usage (""Another thing society does to you is sex""-?)--and by her second-person presumption that you needed lots of sucking, were shocked by toilet training, are about to be zapped by puberty, etc. Through it all Carlson comes on like a Rose Franzblau, with long and, from the evidence, far-fetched analyses of skimpy and often inapt examples. But despite her orthodoxy Carlson can get hung up (a favorite phrase here) on contradictions--especially on the subject of sublimation, which gets mixed up with the penis envy/castration anxiety muddle and with the creative personality where ""obviously there is a fixation at the oral stage""--and the anal and oedipal. Just as simplistic is the disparaging review of ""other theories"" (especially behaviorism and Szasz) and Carlson ends with a breezy description of neuroses, psychoses, and other problems, complete with cautionary tags: ""Be a little wary. . . .Avoid like a poisoned mushroom. . . ."" But fools will persist in rushing in.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION