Overview
Internationally recognized psychologist Paul L. Wachtel sheds new light on the psychological foundations of our nation's racial impasse and applies his pathbreaking ""vicious circle"" approach to help resolve it. This timely and fascinating analysis shows how the ways we attempt to cope with racial tensions and inequalities often lead to the perpetuation of our difficulties rather than their resolution. Understanding the ironies that characterize contemporary race relations is the first step toward extricating our nation from the vicious circle. Both controversial and healing, Race inthe Mind of America challenges the orthodoxies that shape black and white opinion and liberal and conservative policies while sensitively exploring the way the world looks to both sides and why it looks that way. Wachtel probes the daily experiences of blacks and whites, shedding new light on how individual experiences and larger social, historical and economic forces continually re-create each other. In illustrating how blacks and whites get caught in vicious circles that sustain the very behaviors and attitudes they wish would change, Wachtel also points toward the concrete solutions to our seemingly enduring dilemmas and shows how to move beyond the adversarial rhetoric that divides us.
Full Product Details
Author: Paul L. Wachtel
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.790kg
ISBN: 9780415920001
ISBN 10: 0415920000
Pages: 342
Publication Date: 22 January 1999
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
[A] highly original and refreshingly objective new book on race relations in America... -- Tikkun Certain to prove controversial and thought provoking, this treatise challenges conventions on all sides and provides an intriguing analysis of black/white communications and misunderstandings on both sides. -- The Bookwatch Thoughtful and sophisticated reading for anyone with more than a casual interest in race. -- Kirkus Reviews ...uniquely valuable integration of political and psychological analysis, offering fresh insights on white indifference that cut through the tangles of our national dilemma and point the way with startling honesty and directness to possible solutions. Wachtel provides sharp and subtle critiques of our thinking about the key controversies in race relations over the past decades, like the Moynihan Report and The Bell Curve. Paul Wachtel is one of our most valuable social thinkers. -- Miles Orvell, Professor of English and American Studies, Temple University, author of The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture To a contentious, acerbic debate Paul Wachtel brings his signature trademarks--thoughtful, reflective analysis and a hopeful path into the future. This book represents what the President's national conversation on race might have been, had it been serious. -- Stanley Renshon, author of High Hopes ...Paul Wachtel has written a book on race relations that will require any reader to see the issues in a new light. -- Seymour Sarason, Professor Emeritus, Yale University
Some remedies for a racial stalemate. Wachtel, a practicing psychotherapist and director of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at the City College of New York (The Poverty of Affluence: A Psychological Portrait of the American Way of Life, 1983, etc.), posits that blacks and whites have labored mightily for years over their racial differences - but instead of arriving at solutions, they've merely reached a stalemate. In that sense, he argues, the two are like a dog in hot pursuit of its own tail, spinning endlessly and getting nowhere fast. Wachtel doesn't put it quite that way, of course, but does suggest that there's a good deal wrong with the very language used by blacks and whites, not to mention their apparently shortsighted view of history. Does calling someone racist, for example, have the same impact as it once did? Wachtel thinks not. Moreover, what many blacks view as racist behavior in whites may in fact be indifference, a worse disease in Wachtel's estimation. Along the way, the author takes an occasional jab at fellow social scientists. But in the ease of Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein (authors of The Bell Curve), it's several swipes: He notes that time was when groups now riding at the top of their curve - Jews and Asians - once skulked at the bottom. Their IQ test scores changed, he notes, with a bettering of their social status. Wachtel claims that racism is too loaded a term and that affirmative action generates more heat than light. Perhaps the former term ought to be used in more clear-cut cases and the latter retired in word, if not in deed. Regardless, his recommendations are sure to anger those on either side of the racial equation. Thoughtful and sophisticated reading for anyone with more than a casual interest in race. (Kirkus Reviews)
[A] highly original and refreshingly objective new book on race relations in America.... - Tikkun Certain to prove controversial and thought provoking, this treatise challenges conventions on all sides and provides an intriguing analysis of black/white communications and misunderstandings on both sides. - The Bookwatch, April 1999 Thoughtful and sophisticated reading for anyone with more than a casual interest in race. -Kirkus Reviews, Feb 1, 1999 ... uniquely valuable integration of political and psychological analysis, offering fresh insights on white indifference that cut through the tangles of our national dilemma and point the way with startling honesty and directness to possible solutions. Wachtel provides sharp and subtle critiques of our thinking about the key controversies in race relations over the past decades, like the Moynihan Report and The Bell Curve. Paul Wachtel is one of our most valuable social thinkers. -Miles Orvell, Professor of English and American Studies, Temple University, author of The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture To a contentious, acerbic debate Paul Wachtel brings his signature trademarks--thoughtful, reflective analysis and a hopeful path into the future. This book represents what the President's national conversation on race might have been, had it been serious. -Stanley Renshon, author of High Hopes
[A] highly original and refreshingly objective new book on race relations in America.... <br>- Tikkun <br> Certain to prove controversial and thought provoking, this treatise challenges conventions on all sides and provides an intriguing analysis of black/white communications and misunderstandings on both sides. <br>- The Bookwatch, April 1999 <br> Thoughtful and sophisticated reading for anyone with more than a casual interest in race. <br>-Kirkus Reviews, Feb 1, 1999 <br>... uniquely valuable integration of political and psychological analysis, offering fresh insights on white indifference that cut through the tangles of our national dilemma and point the way with startling honesty and directness to possible solutions. Wachtel provides sharp and subtle critiques of our thinking about the key controversies in race relations over the past decades, like the Moynihan Report and The Bell Curve. Paul Wachtel is one of our most valuable social thinkers. <br>-Miles Orvell, Professor of English and American Studies, Temple University, author of The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture <br> To a contentious, acerbic debate Paul Wachtel brings his signature trademarks--thoughtful, reflective analysis and a hopeful path into the future. This book represents what the President's national conversation on race might have been, had it been serious. <br>-Stanley Renshon, author of High Hopes <br>
Author Information
Paul L. Wachtel is CUNY Distinguished Professor and Acting Director of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at the City College of New York. He is author of several books including The Poverty of Affluence (1983) and Psychoanalysis, Behavior Therapy, and the RelationalWorld (1997). He lives in New York City, where he is also a practicing psychotherapist.
