CREATIVE COPING: A Guide to Positive Living

Another product from the Fast fodder-for-thought factory, as quick and unnourishing as a McDonald's shake. Well folks, there are ways of coping with stress: aggression (not too much, not too little); recognizing crutches like alcohol, pills, etc. (as long as you know when to throw them away); flexibility; use of ""reason"" (neatly broken down here into ""ambiguity, objectivity, discrimination, detachment and logic"". . . this is reason?); fantasies and dreams (not too much, not too little); masking and controlling of emotions (not too much, not too little), etc., etc. There are life-stress profiles grouped by age with informal case histories and anecdotes. At the close there is a list of steps for coping. No. 2 reads: ""We must organize ourselves within ourselves."" Uh huh. Nothing here is inherently wrong--but like so many similar self-help cheerios, it will be out of sight and out of mind when life's little bombshells hit the fan.