Szasz (Emeritus, Psychiatry/SUNY Syracuse; The Meaning of Mind, 1996, etc.) has produced an intelligent critique of the cultural misunderstanding of suicide without providing a positive description that might give readers a reason to let suicidal loved ones alone. Contemporary Western culture, Szasz contends, has stigmatized suicide in ways that surely are not historically universal, and may not be instinctive. The sense that suicide is wrong is a religious-philosophical position articulated by Plato and adopted by the Christian Church. Saint Augustine formulated what is known as the —double effect— theory of sin: When an act has one beneficial and one malicious consequence, only the intent of the actor is liable to ethical judgment. This theory, in Szasz’s view, laid the foundation for later Western ethics to characterize the act of suicide as symptomatic of something else—most often, insanity. Anyone who commits suicide is divided into the component who receives the lethal wound and the (insane) component who inflicts it. This confusion of moral agency, moral consequence, and the nature of the self leads to a dozen legal and ethical contradictions, and Szasz is particularly persuasive in hacking through the thicket of medical ethics in —right-to-die— circumstances. How can it enhance patients— rights, he asks, to have death induced by a doctor alone, when a genuine right would leave access to suicide unrestricted? Szasz waxes impatient with our refusal to acknowledge the integrity of suicide, and recommends the ’suicidal— be left alone. Although he admits some suicides may be symptoms of something else, he offers no way to distinguish the acid tripper flying off a rooftop from the philosopher who contemplatively decides to end her life. Szasz cogently argues that we are wrong to call all suicides —victims— of something else. But until we can tell the reasonable self-extinction from the ghastly mistake, we—ll probably continue to err on the side of caution.
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-275-96646-1
Page Count: 177
Publisher: Praeger
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
A lively and well-written survey, spiced up with incidents from recent headlines.
It isn’t only computers that have memory problems. Just ask anyone over a certain age—or take a look at this entertaining new book.
As the title indicates, Schachter (Psychology/Harvard Univ.) describes seven generic failings to which everyone’s memory is prone. Transience is the loss of details over time; everyone remembers last night’s dinner better than that of a week ago, and that of a year ago is often entirely forgotten. Absentmindedness is the familiar inability to remember where you left your car keys or whether you took your medicine. One of the most frustrating is blocking (the “it’s right on the tip of my tongue”) phenomenon, in which a familiar word or name refuses to emerge from memory (often coming back in the middle of the night). Also common is misattribution, for example crediting Sean Connery for a role played by some other actor. Suggestibility is the tendency to adopt and hold onto false memories suggested by some other outside influence (such as a leading question) or to recall feeling at the time of a past event an emotion only experienced much later. A variety of biases lead us to reconstruct the past to match current beliefs, or to place ourselves at the center of events in which we were minor participants. Finally, there is persistence, the inability to forget even years later some traumatic event such as a rejection or a faux pas. For each of these traits, the author suggests causes as well as potential remedies: gingko biloba for transience, for example. In a summary chapter, Schacter argues that each of these failures is in fact an aspect of some positive trait without which memory would be far less valuable.
A lively and well-written survey, spiced up with incidents from recent headlines.Pub Date: May 7, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-04019-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
Non-sensationalist religious food for thought.
A scholarly examination of the theory that Hebrew versions of the Book of Matthew indicate that Jesus, or Yeshua, had beliefs similar to that of the Karaites.
Gordon, a Karaite Jew or Hebrew Scripturalist, lays out the necessary background of Pharisaic Judaism and the basic tenets of Karaite Judaism, and outlines previous scholarship on Shem-Tov’s medieval copy of an ancient Hebrew text of Matthew. He also presents linguistic support for Hebrew as the original language for the Gospel of Matthew, then picks apart minor differences between the Hebrew and Greek in several key verses. These slight differences could lead to major new interpretations of Jesus’s directives, namely that he was upholding Old Testament law and speaking against the “reforms” of the Pharisees, not attempting to replace the laws of Moses. Gordon’s discussion of Jesus’s beliefs touches on one of the earliest issues facing the Christian church–whether or not Mosaic law remains applicable post-Messiah. The author’s neutrality in such a touchy subject area is admirable, although not entirely surprising considering that the outcome of the Christian debate doesn’t directly affect him. Gordon focuses on Jesus as a Jew, not his finding’s implications for the Christian church. While the author’s research stands on its own, his conclusions are open to debate. Those with little background in Judaism and biblical study will likely be overwhelmed, but Gordon’s experience as a lecturer comes through as he attempts to make a difficult topic accessible. Extensive indices, appendices, glossary and bibliography provide guidance through the pages of Hebrew history and Talmud-filled footnotes. However, the author’s study is better suited for groups of Karaite Jews, Messianic Jews and scholars interested in studying who Jesus was as a man.
Non-sensationalist religious food for thought.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-0-976-263-708
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
