REVIEW OF JULES MASSERMAN'S "PSYCHIATRIC ODYSSEY," WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON CHAPTER ELEVEN, "PSYCHODRAMATIC VENTURES AND MISADVENTURES"

Abstract

Masserman is a man who has no charysma but a lot of "chutzpah." Chutzpah is Yiddish; it means gall, brazen, nerve, effrontery, incredible guts, presumption plus arrogance, such as no other language can do justice to.* He gets along better with cats and monkeys than with people.

His book is largely a collection of letters, often one-sided, from him to others, rarely including their answers to him and then only if they fit his argument or are so bland as to be inoffensive.

In order to give the book an adequate overview, certain facts in his chapter dealing with his relationship to myself have to be set straight. He has obfuscated or distorted them so that they are reported "out of joint." Having worked with him for many years on various projects and publications I have learned at last not to trust him but to examine carefully every phrase he puts forth. In the course of years I discovered that there are several techniques of communication which he uses to reflect glory on himself and to place the other fellow in an unfavorable light.