This is the remarkable story of an individual who experienced severe stress starting in the womb. Growing up in a highly dysfunctional family, he used intellectualization as a defense against overwhelming emotional pain. A high academic achiever, this young man was on the Dean’s List at Brown University when he suffered a catastrophic neurological collapse. Labeled as schizophrenic, he was on the verge of death as his twentieth birthday approached.

Starting to jog, he avoided his demise. Four years later, this individual found psychoanalyst Erich Fromm’s The Sane Society while browsing in a bookstore. Unable to work or communicate normally with people, he began a long intellectual odyssey which ultimately involved the reading of thousands of books about American society.

Miraculously transformed by a bodywork technique developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, he continued to live with severe stress due to his lack of social skills and the crazy-making institutions of an aggressive society. Nine years after relearning to use his body properly, this man discovered psychoanalyst Alice Miller’s For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-rearing and The Roots of Violence. Reading many other books about child abuse and human development, he began to understand the reasons which had caused his ordeal. This engrossing story is a unique combination of memoir and academic study. People interested in psychology, education, human development, American culture, and social criticism will find much to ponder in it.

Larry Polin