Psychotherapy of Everyday Life

In this book East and West are united in a total vision which gives the reader an expansive view of inner lives and behaviors, some of which are healthy and some not. The author presents an analysis of contemporary social relationships and the attitudes associated with them. But he does far more than this. He also vividly describes the "primary" and "secondary" capabili­ ties of the psyche, capabilities that are valid for all times and all situations. Peseschkian draws on his experiences in the Middle Eastern homeland of his youth and also on the insights he has gained through his psychotherapeutic practice. He does not stop with special examples, but draws conclusions that are valid for people everywhere. He then molds these conclusions into an illustrative system. Uniquely interesting are the passages where the author describes errors in the development of a child and erroneous attitudes on the part of the educator, such as when he characterizes the punitive behavior of parents: "Right from the start a child must learn to obeYi" "There must be punishmenti" and "You have to break the child's wilL" Or when he shows how tensions between the parents are transferred to their children: "You're just like your father. He doesn't know what punctuality is either. " The author attempts to integrate his faith in psychotherapy with his vision of the world and also tries to understand the world's religions as an expression of their times.