Book Reviews : Jules Henry, Pathways to Madness. London, Jonathan Cape, 1972, pp. 477,5.50
Abstract
Book ReviewsJules Henry, Pathways to Madness. London, Jonathan Cape, 1972, pp. 477,5.50 SAGE Publications, Inc.1974DOI: 10.1177/002071527401500308 S. Sujan Western Australian Institute of Technology South Bentley, Australia ' The author, who had preached that "researchers should live for a short time with families of the emotionally ill", took his own advice and did exactly that. He moved in with one family; with three other families he spent each day between breakfast time and time to retire for the night. A fifth family was observed by a trained observer who had been coached by the author in the techniques of observation. As a result, his naturalistic observations of the families give us a very humane, perceptive and sympathetic account of the people studied. The author makes no claim about the "objectivity" of his observations, but any reader who accepts an existential approach to the study of man will find these studies scientific. Unfortunately, naturalistic observations imply that one is merging one's own feeling and values into such studies; to observe without careful control and knowledge of variables is to disqualify the authenticity of one's study. However, I am inclined to agree with the author that good observation of naturally occurring