The Myth of Self-Help: The Dumbing Down of Complexity

Gerald Alper is the author of eleven books including Portrait of the Artist as a Young Patient: Psychodynamic Studies of the Creative Personality, The Puppeteers: Studies of Obsessive Control, Narcissistic Giving: A Study of People Who Cheat in Relationships, and Control Games: Avoiding Intimacy on the Singles Scene. He is a psychotherapist who has been in private practice in Manhattan the past twenty years. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Contemporary Psychology and a Fellow of The American Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
New York City based psychotherapist Gerald Alper adeptly filters materials glean from clinical vignettes through a discerning screen of psychoanalysis. In this manner, Alper’s sharp blade of psychoanalytic acumen cuts deeply into the core of a self help ethos which strives futilely to force the square of complexity into a circle of simplicity. The self help industry’s flawed attempt to dumb down human complexity is examined in the context of the medium of film and with a regard to a multitude of power transactions. Cinema is only one of a number of media that Alper uses as he adroitly discuses contemporary psycho dynamics. Practitioners, students and general readers will be fascinated and informed by this psychologically insightful and thought provoking book Leo Uzych, JD, MPH