Seeking the Compassionate Life

The Moral Crisis for Psychotherapy and Society

Carl Goldberg, Virginia Crespo

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN:
  9780275981969
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780313057830
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Morality is a subject most ignored and little understood by modern psychological investigation. Why a person acts honorably, or heinously, is one of the most puzzling and least answered questions regarding human behavior. Here the authors posit that despite the fact that hatred and arrogance continually battle compassion and decency as humanity's driving force, people continue to develop altruism, empathy, and concern for others. Goldberg and Crespo demonstrate seven factors crucial to achieving a compassionate life.

Goldberg and Crespo take us inside their treatment rooms, through history, across cultures and into their own personal worlds-at-large to meet clients and acquaintances including a would-be rapist, a virtuous stalker, an adulterous minister, and a young boy with little more than a matchbook and some pride to call his own. Together, the stories of these clients and historical figures including Nazis at Nuremberg reflect a vital theme: Virtuous behavior should not be a mystery. Morality is a subject most ignored and little understood by modern psychological investigation. Why a person acts honorably or heinously is one of the most puzzling and least answered questions regarding human behavior. The authors demonstrate that although within every human breast hatred and arrogance battle compassion and decency as a driving force, people do indeed develop altruism, empathy, and concern for others. Goldberg and Crespo outline seven crucial factors in the achievement of a compassionate life.

This book addresses two audiences. First, it questions modern psychological scientists who have ignored the importance of compassion, virtue, and morality, focusing instead on contrived experimental situations rather than pursuing investigations in—as part of—the actual world in which we live. Yet it is also written for all people concerned with the moral crisis in comtemporary society, and all people seeking personal and social solutions to deal with this crisis.

Table of contents

• Series Foreword by J. Harold Ellens
• Advisory Board
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Constructive Shame: An Encounter with an Unfortunate Child
• 2. Healing Suffering and Despair through Communion: The Remarkable Psychiatric Case Conference
• 3. Moral Inquiry: The Investigation of Human Suffering and Personal Agency
• 4. The Mortal Storm: The Struggle between Righteousness and Compassion
• 5. A Critical Examination of the Problems of Self-Examination
• 6. The Dark Side of Curiosity: A Violent Client Who Read Camus
• 7. An Exploration of Impeded Curiosity: The Boy Who Was His Own Therapist
• 8. Existential Anguish: The Would-Be Rapist Trapped in the Present
• 9. Loneliness and Dread: The Woman Who Tried to Escape Time
• 10. A Mirror of the Soul: Re.ections of a Virtuous Stalker
• 11. The Invented Self: The General’s Abduction by Aliens from a UFO
• 12. A Clinical Perspective on Terrorism: The Failed Courage of the Fanatic
• 13. The Personal Story Approach: Reaching a Client Who Did Not Trust
• 14. The Adulterous Minister: A Clinical Examination of Moral Responsibility
• References
• Index
• About the Series Editor and Advisors