The Limits of Idealism When Good Intentions Go Bad /

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Fein, Melvyn L. (Συγγραφέας)
• Συγγραφή απο Οργανισμό/Αρχή: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Μορφή: Ηλεκτρονική πηγή Ηλ. βιβλίο
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: Boston, MA : Springer US, 1999.
• Σειρά: Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice,
• Θέματα: Social sciences.; Business.; Management science.; Public health.; Education.; Sociology.; Social Sciences.; Sociology, general.; Education, general.; Business and Management, general.; Public Health.

 If the truth be known, I am only a partially reformed idealist. In the secret depths of my soul, I still wish to make the world a better place and sometimes fantasize about heroically eradicating its faults. When I encounter its limitations, it is consequently with deep regret and continued surprise. How, I ask myself, is it possible that that which seems so fight can be a chimera? And why, I wonder, aren't people as courageous, smart, or nice as I would like? The pain of realizing these things is sometimes so intense that I want to close my eyes and lose myself in the kinds of daydreams that comforted me as a youngster. One thing is clear, my need to come to grips with my idealism had its origin in a lifetime of naivet6. From the beginning, I wanted to be a "good" person. Often when life was most treacherous, I retreated into a comer from whence I escaped into reveries of moral glory. When I was very young, my faith was in religion. In Hebrew school, I took my lessons seriously and tried to apply them at home. By my teen years, this had been replaced by an allegiance to socialism. In the Brooklyn where I grew up, my teachers and relatives made this seem the natural course. When I reached my twenties, however, and was obliged to confront a series of personal deficiencies, psychotherapy shouldered its way to the fore. 

 Idealism on Trial -- In the Name of Morality -- Messianic Stickball -- Dreams or Nightmares -- Extreme I: Radical Feminism -- Extreme II: Radical Civil Rights -- Extreme III: Radical Medicalism -- Luminosity Blindness -- No Respect.