BLACK RAGE

Not anger in the streets but the rage within, as analyzed by two Negro psychiatrists who see the black man of today as at one end of a psychological continuum that reaches back in time to his enslaved ancestors. Through case studies and frequent referral to individuals, they explore the difficulty of attaining man- or womanhood as a Negro; the special problems involved in love and marriage (reversing Moynihan, they regard the family as weakened by its inability to protect its members); the character traits that can be traced to survival mechanisms as a subjugated people; the inefficacy of education; the distinctive sexual relations between black and black, between black and white. Even mental illness is different: the therapist must question whether it is a sick person or a sick society he faces. Personal and direct; this first psychiatric study of the Negro per se recognizes rage, offers ""simple"" solutions: to the white--""get off his back""; to the Negro--be black. It should (both senses) be widely read.