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In the process of opening the subject of self-control to modern methods of inquiry, the eminent authors of this volume have performed a number of important services for the scholar with a serious interest in history, personality, and society. The tension which pervades the thirteen principal essays and reports contained in this book derives from the following source:
The editor presents two facts to the contributors—
In the twentieth century, psychological and social sciences have used a deterministic model for man.
At the same time, in legal, personal-social, and religious relations, man is defined as being responsible for his own behavior.
In view of these facts, and by means of an analysis of the central phenomena and concepts of his discipline, each writer responds to this question: How can current psychological, sociological, etc. concepts of human activity be articulated with traditional views which declare man to be the responsible initiator (self-controller) of his own actions?
The replies are as complex as the question, and though grouped according to historical, sociological, psychological or psychiatric perspectives, these replies are reflections of each contributor's special interests. The merit of the book lies with its separate parts and not in the presentation of continuous and precise themes. Reference to four of the more outstanding papers will indicate the range of topics to be found in The Quest for Self-Control.
In a lucid and civilized essay, Moses Hadas searches the dramas and epics of ancient Greece and formulates the Greek paradigm of self-control. The “self-sufficient independence of the individual” is “based upon the premise that the realm of the human and that of the divine are distinct from one another. … What was decreed for him by a power outside himself he could not alter and need not bother to understand; he was definitely captain of his soul,” but made “no pretense of being master of his fate.” (p. 116). In another chapter, social psych