Man Against Himself

This review is not a hoax: I read this book while in solitary confinement for assaulting another prisoner. It was my first exposure to analysis of self-destructive behavior and its damning cyclical pattern. I was a two-time loser. A career criminal who had followed the all too familiar progression from juvenile home, jail, to prison. This book change my life. After serving a decade and a half in prison, I am now at the top of my class in graduate school. It is never too late to pick up the pieces, but we must first learn what those pieces are and how and why they were smashed into pieces in the first place. This book will teach you how to do just that.

Not exactly the place to start but for those interested in an easier read this is it. Karl Menninger is awfully Freudian but this becomes a bit of a page turner. Introspective, incredibly insightful and definitely worth the time and money. This is an essential for your collection. If you like this one you will love his "Love Against Hate" (but it may be out of print).

I recall smiling complacently (stupidly) at the old German saying: "I grew too soon old and too late smart." That's when I was young and "smart".Then there was the one where the speaker recalled that when he was young his father was dumb. "It was amazing how much Dad learned by the time I was grown." I wasn't all that impressed with my dad's wisdom when I was a young punk. It was amazing how he wised up along with my growing up.I was a corporate pilot when I first read "Man Against Himself". Karl Menninger's warning played itself out many times before my eyes as some of my businessmen passengers warred against themselves.Want a deserved raise? Pick a day when the company stock just jumped 10%, or a good earnings statement is issued. Or ...Gritted teeth and jutted jaws. Men against themselves stalk into the company president's office knowing in advance he's on a tear, a rampage, and demand a raise at the very WORST of moments. Sometimes they are fired. On other occasions they are earmarked for replacement. Not once have I ever seen a man get a raise on a day that the boss had Baker flying.Why did they pick that day? "By God, I've sat here waiting for a raise all this time ..." I tried to caution a vice president once: "Jimmy, wait another day, another MONTH.""No, by God, I've waited as long as I'm going to ..."Nice knowing you, Jimmy. He was gone.At some point I began to wonder -- just barely, and not seriously -- if it could happen that I would ever be a man against himself.Yes, I had done so, and would do so again. "How," I once asked, and not idly, "did Menninger know me before I was born?" Men are just too alike for comfort.Menninger describes that it can happen in ways that range from subtle to suicidal. Forewarned by Menninger's advice, we can do something about the phenomenon, pull a ripcord, don a life preserver, put on a gas mask ...Do you know a good friend who is destroying himself? Give him this book, which he won't read. But then go over and discuss it with him. Friends divorcing? Perfect candidates for this book. They probably aren't in a mental state to read or understand it, but you tried. AND, it just might hit a vein in one of them.The chances aren't much better than finding gold in the Klondike. But I've seen it work one time. Only once. But that once was worth a thousand tries.

I really enjoyed reading this book ,it has very good readability value and is easy to follow .Good bedtime reading for the budding psychotherapist! and also for anyone interested in reading about the mind.

Menninger discusses suicide and other forms of self-directed violence. Although he neatly categorizes motivations for suicide (1. the wish to kill, 2. the wish to be killed 3. the wish to no longer exist), he does not deny the complexity and mystery of many of the extreme acts used as examples. Whether or not one agrees with his point of view, the book provides well reasoned opinions and a calm look at a subject that can be too overwhelming to deal with plainly. The book is also fascinating from a historical perspective. It contains a zillion examples of horrifying & bizarre self-destructive actsthat were collected from national magazines & newspapers several decades ago (e.g. 30's & 40's). It's enough to make one think that the "talk show" culture of today is not something new but just the pendulum swinging back to a place it's been before.<BR