Book Review
I must begin this review by acknowledging my bias toward this book. The book was published by the University of the Rockies Press, of which I am Editor-in-Chief. When I first received the manuscript for Ethics and Lao-Tzu, I was quickly impressed. Mendelowitz has a literary quality to his writing that few scholars can ever achieve. As I finished the manuscript, I increasinly came to believe that this was one of the most important manuscripts I had ever read.
At that time, our press was very new and publishing a book that many may find obscure was a bit of a risk. I knew many would not understand this book and that it would be hard to market. Many therapists don't want to think this deeply about the issues of psychotherapy. Furthermore, it lacks the how-to approach and happy ending that pervade the field. Yet, I knew this book needed to be published. So I worked very hard to get this book published, even though it took over 2-years for us to get it into print. One of the reasons I worked so hard was because I believe this is one of the best pieces of psychological writing that I have ever read. This belief goes beyond the content of the book. Although it is an extremely important content, what makes this book exceptional is that it is as much a literary work as a psychological text. This, in part, is because Ed is a very talented writer; however, it is also because of the process of the book.
The book in many ways is a collage of art, literature, philosophy, psychology, and a case study. For those who have done much writing, you likely recognize how difficult it is to draw from these many sources into a coherent whole. But more than that, this is a metaphor. Kristina, the client featured in Ethics and Lao-Tzu, has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which is reflected in collage nature of the book. All these different pieces can easily appear as disconnected fragments. At first glance, the book could be perceived as chaotic, disorganized, unraveled. But to the reader it is not; this becomes more clear the further you journey into the book. You recognize that there is not a careless comma, much less a careless quote, in the entire book. It all comes together. In the end, the book is a beautiful work that leaves the reader with the recognition that it is still in process, still being written, yet complete, whole. So, too, with Kristina. She still appears fragmented and disorganized. However, as Mendelowitz was able to stay with her, present to her seeming chaos, it started to make sense -- even if it didn't change the outcome. Mendelowitz recognized her beauty in the disorganization, coherence in the chaos. In the end, there is not a cure, but there is a recognizable beauty. The book is the same journey as Kristina.
I do not imagine this book will be widely read in the psychological community, but hope to be wrong. I even worry that it may receive some bad reviews from individuals defending the status quo of the field. The stalwarts of the field will likely miss its significance or be offended by its defiance of standards of the field and its irreverance for the experts. This is unfortunate. Mendelowitz may be one the most brilliant psychological minds and writers of his generation, but few will likely stay open enough to recognize this, or be patient enough to see the layers of richness in his writing. I hope the field of psychology proves me wrong; after all, it is the rebels against the status quo with insight into forces keeping it in place such as Nietzsche, Pascal, and May who have changed the world in the past.