EDA LESHAN ON LIVING YOUR LIFE

Nearly 200 transcripts taken from popular-psychologist LeShan's radio talks on CBS over the last year or so: brief, modest, and, in most cases, moderately educational and/or entertaining. Topics range from the over-general--the healthy aspects of anxiety, the benefits of a strong imagination--to the more mundane and specific. To get through long waits at the airport, feign dizziness and you'll be allowed some shut-eye on a cot (or bring correspondence to catch up on). Forget insomnia and it will cure itself. Don't overlook the need for dignity in a nursing-home environment. LeShan is a thoughtful and quietly persuasive advocate of what one might term the human values. She decries the emphasis on intelligence and IQ tests for kids (better that they be decent human beings); she hates the idea of hurting others in a misguided quest for ""self-fulfillment."" Yet she repeatedly stresses the need for self-love if one is to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. Some of her more specific prescriptions, however, oversimplify common problems. Overweight is characterized as the result of ""guilt and self-hatred,"" since they're ""a direct line to a hotfudge sundae""; taking pity on oneself is seen as the antidote--with no thought whether self-pity might not already be part of the compulsive eater's problem. Still, what a book like this offers is a little bit of education about psychological issues (depression, marital problems, etc.) without a lot of jargon--plus some insights into the whys and wherefores of human relationships without a lot of pretentiousness. A representative LeShan reader, then: for the listenership, and others.