CHAOS THEORY: TOPOLOGICAL THEORY

Book Review

Putney, Snell and Gail J. Putney (1965) NORMAL NEUROSIS, New York: Harper and Row

 

We revisit this social science best seller of many years ago. The original ideas came not only from the authors, but also G.A. “Bob” Young, M.D. One of the authors (jcs) along with an illustrious group would listen and interact with his psychiatric heresies. His position was that growth came from inside and connected with environmental triggers through the mechanism of projection. The group included a talk show host from Kansas City, an Anglican priest, a high school principal, and a cattleman from a western state.

We listened and talked about the issues discussed in this book. Incidentally, the time of these meetings was about the same era as GIRL INTERRUPTED. The difference is that most would grow and the emphasis was that medication for depression was important, but the other major consideration was how to grow and how to live in everyday society.

What is attractive to the authors about this book is that NORMAL NEUROSIS describes at the end, the “downward spiral.” Most would probably agree with this position but for different reasons and interpretations.

The basic premise is that we chase after the very things that we probably don’t want and project onto others that we should want them. Further, we act in ways that are probably not nurturing to ourselves or others. Americans are driven.

The Putneys describe this in ways that are topological, indirect, and evolutionary in content. We drift downward out of search for indirect self acceptance.

The goal was autonomy. However, we know now that this issue is not enough. We are still citizens of the world and not “unencumbered selves.” Thus, we are interconnected and there are certain “habits of the heart” that we should conduct even in the large post modern, global information society.

Without some commutarian ethic, we become a dustheap of social isolates, adrift in a wider world.