When the Body Speaks: The Archetypes in the Body

Rating:
Summary: Current theory on childhood development problems.
Review: Sidoli combines Jung's theory of the psyche with Fordham's theory of the primary self and some of her own original thoughts into a combined work on how disruptions of normal childhood bonding at an early age can have profound affects later in life. The book is heavily written in psychobabble jargon and theory. It is aimed at those who are schooled in psychology rather than a popular audience. Much of the book consists of long descriptions of individual patients from her clinical experience. While this is common in psychological books, "anecdote" is not synonymous with "data." One can selectively choose examples to illustrate virtually any theory, and the examples given only consist of the author's opinion about the examples. Personally, I found the long descriptions of individual actions and weeks of therapy meetings with particular clients to be tedious, irrelevant and essentially meaningless. The conclusions are that children who have bonding and relationship problems at a very young age, from birth onward and perhaps even before, often have resultant psychological and physical problems later in life. These same problems often cause parents to do a poor job as parents, and continue the cycle to subsequent generations. Personally I prefer plain language to psychobabble, but professional and amateur psychologists will enjoy the level of theory that is found in the book. It's interesting, well thought out, well presented, and aimed at a scholarly audience.