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Dr. Warner investigates three separate areas of potential information and from these hopes to bring better understanding to the pressing problem of mass destruction. I am not certain that he adds
much new but his account of the philosophy of Nietzsche and the concept of Satan throw light on these neglected areas of thought. To these he adds consideration of the 'defeating patient'. He then endeavors to demonstrate similarities in these three areas to substantiate his thesis, namely, that 'self-and-other defeat' is the basis of the wish for mass destruction.
In the clinical section of the book, particularly the part dealing with psychotherapeutic techniques, there is nothing added that the analytically trained psychotherapist does not already know or should know. I cannot understand why the author goes to considerable lengths to attempt to differentiate what he terms 'defeating behavior' from resistance. It seems to me that they add up to the same. The idea of the use of parameters is treated as if it were a somewhat new concept, and the important idea of using only analyzable parameters is not mentioned at all. Other means of 'combating self and other defeat of our time', namely religious, political, economic, and social areas, are dismissed after naming them. Perhaps their detailed inclusion would be of considerable value to the nonanalytically trained therapists, to whom this book seems to be addressed.
The author has undoubtedly spent a great amount of time and thoughtful effort in compiling this work. This is particularly made evident by the six hundred twenty-four notes in the one hundred forty-nine pages of text. A longer and more detailed account with fewer direct quotes, particularly from Nietzsche, would have made it more readable. The habit of dropping a subject in the middle of the stream with the mention that it will be taken up subsequently, leaves the reader with repeated, only partially fulfilled, expectations.
In spite of some of my above c