THE FLESH-COLORED CAGE

Alas and alack, this is only our skin. The fact that we can't get out of it is the basis for a ""fleshed-out"" book that rates (maybe) article status. This existentialist psychologist writes about the strategies people use to overcome the loneliness that is our human legacy -- either incorporation (bringing the world into oneself) or decapsulation (extending oneself into the world) -- fancy words to separate the grabbers from those who reach out. When the primary strategy fails (and part of his theory is that it always will, since we can never permanently unite with another) we revert to the opposite strategy. Other people (ordinary folk call them procrastinators) have no strategy; they're even worse off. This is a plausible, if obvious idea. A brief table at the end compares this to other motivational theories (Freudian, Adlerian, Sullivanian, stimulus-response), from which the author insists it differs in essence rather than terminology. Despite Howard's pretensions, this is but one more addition to the self-help shrink game -- the case histories and cures are simplistic; even the fancy terminology may not fool the sophisticated layman who has breezed through Berkowitz, Berne, and Comfort.