Posted by jane d on February 10, 2002, at 20:28:57
I'd prefer to read books that were not specifically about psychology. In other words not biographies of people who have overcome mental illness, not self help guides, not textbooks on personality theory and not pharmacology textbooks. It's not that I don't want to read this kind of book. I already read many and I wouldn't mind reading more. But I'd really like to read books on different subjects.
Part of my reason is that most of the psychology books don't have that wide an appeal. The biographies and self help books are useful when they describe my situation. When they don't they usually aren't well enough written to capture my interest. (I know there are exceptions). A few of us could endlessly read up about Maslow's theories or second messenger systems but probably most of us would fall asleep with at least one of those choices. Also, that already goes on on the other boards and should probably stay there.
The other reason that reading psychology books bothers me is that I think it already consumes too much of my life. I feel that in the process of living with depression I've missed out on many things that other people know and experience. I feel like my understanding of the rest of the world is a bit impoverished. Not 100%. I do other things and so do the other people here. I enjoy the posts about the other parts of peoples lives. I really got a kick out of the original book thread. So I was hoping that if we shared what we were interested in besides being sick I could catch up on some of the other stuff that I've missed.
I think psychology will come into it anyway. It would have to given who we are. But I'd like it not to be the only thing.
Jane
poster:jane d
thread:56
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020206/msgs/56.html