Bruno Books

Bruno Bettleheim again becomes the fount of great sanity and wisdom. In this seemingly innocent book, on the same statue as Joseph Cambell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," or Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death" and his "Birth and Death of Meaning," or indeed even Freud's "Civilization's and its Discontents," this giant of our era, lays out a map of how we think using the morality of Fairy Tales as his raw material and as a springboard to the real subtext of the book which is: How man is to deal with his own problems of existence.

What he tells us is basically this: that for all peoples of all races, the primary problem of life is developing smoothly into adulthood and overcoming the inherent psychological debilities of youth and immaturity -- namely overcoming narcissistic disappoints, unearned entitlements, self-doubts, oedipal dilemmas, sibling rivalries, relinquishing childhood dependencies, gaining a feeling of selfhood, self-mastery, self-respect and self-worth, and eventually developing a sense of moral obligation, duty and responsibility. In this life project, and at all ages, the unconscious is the most powerful determinant of our behavior. Obviously, not understanding the role that it plays as a determinant in our behavior means that many of us will never fully mature into adulthood. We first need to learn to understand what is going on within our conscious selves in order to then be able better to cope with that which goes on and affects us from the unconscious.

Bettleheim tells us that we can achieve this understanding, and with it an ability to cope, not always through logic and rational comprehension of the nature of the content of the unconscious, but most often by becoming familiar with it through tales, myths, legends, dreams, and daydreams - ruminating, rearranging, and fantasizing about suitable story elements in response to weakly perceived unconscious pressures. By doing this, we learn slowly to fit unconscious content into various aspects of our conscious lives in our own way and at our own speed. That is to say that through our dreams, simulated games, myth-making, and other ways of fantasizing, and even through our art, music and dramas, we learn to better deal with the unconscious content buried deep inside our minds.

It is here that fairy tales for the child, and myths of heroism for the maturing adult, have unequaled value. This is true because they both offer new dimensions of discovery and new modalities for the imagination to cling to. For the adult, especially adult males, myths of heroism open up a shared stage for the playing out of collective subconscious dramas, dramas of narcissism, and of illicit (even Oedipal) desires, of repressed hatred, imaginings of being a hero in ones own self-scripted drama, etc. - all things whose relevant dimensions are embedded deeply within the unconscious.

In various ways, art, our fantasies, that is the imagined stage, the tales of heroism, the dramas upon which they are based, and their respective scripts are but sublimated and simulated ways of release that allow us to play out the things animating our unconscious feelings in a more or less safe and harmless way. The Fairy Tales that we tell our children, are nothing but a stripped-down versions of how we relate to our own unconscious mind.

Bettleheim tells us, the same as does Freud and Becker, that when the unconscious is repressed and its content denied direct entrance into awareness, then it will find indirect ways to express itself and the person's conscious mind will be partially overwhelmed by derivatives of these subconscious elements. They will seep out in less acceptable and less respectable ways. Or else, as the pressures build up and there are no avenues of release, a person is forced to keep such rigid, compulsive control over them that his personality may become severely warped and crippled. But when unconscious material is allowed to escape into consciousness, even to a small extent, and is allowed to work its way through a person's imagination and fantasies, its potential for causing harm - to himself and to others - is often very much reduced. Some of its forces, as is the case with the arts, can in fact be redirected to serve positive purposes.

However, and this is a key point of Bettleheim's analysis, the conventional mode of operating our everyday lives is to run away from things that trouble us even in the least, not to mention things that bother us most. We also teach this lesson to our children -- both directly, by blocking any un-pleasantries from their eyes and from entering their lives -- and indirectly, by our own examples of mental jujitsu where we invariably end up in the land of fantasy and escapism, often a very great distance away from reality. Formless and nameless anxieties, chaos, anger, violent fantasies, sexual repression, pressing everyday problems, etc. are often the source of many of our problems.

But since we have learned to operate on the unwritten cultural law that only conscious reality matters, and that it always should be pleasant and wish-fulfilling, we turn our heads away from the un-pleasantries of life. The dominant American culture, for instance, chooses to pretend that the dark side of America does not exist. In fact a cottage industry has been built on the premise that wish-fulfilling thoughts can somehow "will into existence" a "much dreamed of" problem-free life.

One of the main ways that we get sidelined from finding a direct route to maturity and mastery over our own inner demons and thus reaching complete closure to adulthood, is through the kind of personal denial we engage in when we refuse to face the fact that most of what goes wrong in our lives has to do with our very own human natures. We tell ourselves that most of our problems lie outside ourselves, outside our own carefully build categories and "constructs," outside our basic rules of conduct and our basic natures, that is outside of our own self-proscribed cultures and humanities. But the truth is that even when they are not internally caused, most of the problems driving our lives come from the seven sins that have been driving human nature from time immemorial. They serve to shape our humanity as much as they shape our everyday activities, and certainly as much as anything else does. And of course they do so from deep within the psyche, well beneath consciousness.

According to this great child psychologist, the problems that define our lives are more often than not sublimated spin-offs of negative feelings that we have about ourselves, or that others have about us, or about themselves. Either that or, they are about our respective uncertain relationships to the world outside us. When we don't act aggressively, selfishly, angrily, antisocially, or thoughtlessly, we can usually cope with the other problematic aspects of life, no matter from where they might originate.

As Professor Bettleheim tells us, and as we learned from Dostoevsky's novels, from Shakespeare's dramas, from Ernest Becker's writings, and from Sartre philosophy, as well as from others such as Professor Cornel West, neither psychoanalysis nor existentialism was invented to make life easier for us, but to enable us to accept the problematic nature of life without being defeated by it, or giving in to escapism. As one other reviewer noted, and as Professor West has emphasized in his writings, even Freud's best prescription for life is that we have no choice but to struggle courageously against overwhelming odds if we are to wring any meaning out of our existence.

Anyone who has read Cornel West's Reader would know this and will readily recognize that Bruno Bettleheim's philosophy is the foundation stone upon which West's Chehovian Christianity is built. Only in West's writing have I seen anything quite as powerful as this. This is heady stuff and will make the reader thirst for more. Ten stars.

I love this book. I keep coming back to it, borrowing it from multiple libraries around the country to re-read, buying it and then loosing it in storage, finding it again and discovering its charm and appeal over and over again. It's a fantastic find, and I will be forever indebted to the now-forgotten college professor who recommended it to me.

For most of the first part of the book, Bruno Bettelheim discusses where fairy tales come from and how they can subconsciously help children with such Freudian problems as the Oedipal complex, and with ordinary problems such as sibling rivalry. He also discusses why some people have tried to ban fairy tales throughout history, something that could draw parallels to recent cases of Harry Potter banning. However, the part of the book that I enjoy the most is where Bettelheim dissects several fairy tales to discover their possible hidden meanings. If you enjoyed the Broadway musical "Into the Woods," this may be your favorite section as well, since the musical also looks for the underlying meaning in certain fairy tales. Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Cinderella and more are all discussed at length.

If you're a fan of fairy tales, this book should be a part of your personal reference library. Highly recommended.

I've noticed that one reviewer pointed to Richard Pollak's biography of the author, "The Creation of Dr. B," as a source of information on Bruno Bettelheim's legitimacy as a psychoanalyst (or lack thereof). I would second that recommendation. Before reading "The Uses of Enchantment," one should be aware that large portions of this book were brazenly plagiarized from other sources, such as Julius Heuscher's "A Psychiatric Study of Fairy Tales: Their Origin, Meaning and Usefulness." Several passages were lifted directly from this work, published in 1963 (more than a decade before Bettelheim began writing "The Uses of Enchantment"), and barely even paraphrased. Heuscher was cited only once by Bettelheim, and not for any of these virtually direct quotes. I would think long and hard before taking anything Bettelheim attempted to pass off as his own work seriously.

It is well known that storytelling is an innate expression of civilization, in an effort to define who we are and to make sense of the world. The fairy tale is an important part of this tradition that has a long and rich history spanning thousands of years.

First published in 1975, Bruno Bettleheim, one of Sigmund Freud's followers and an important contributor to psychoanalysis, has written an incredible book, suggesting that the fairy tale has a pedagogical use, educating the child about the struggles in life, that these struggles are an intrinsic aspect of existence. Following Plato, he believes that the literary education of children should begin with the telling of myths. In other words, the fairy tale can present models for behaviour, providing meaning and value to our lives. This wonderful book expresses this view extremely well and also provides a frame of reference towards the child's overall psychological development.

I have read Freud for some years, and nowhere, including Freud himself, have I read a more succinctly expressed view on the ultimate purpose of psychoanalysis, than in this book by Dr. Bettleheim, he writes,

"Psychoanalysis was created to enable man to accept the problematic nature of life without being defeated by it, or giving in to escapism. Freud's prescription is that only by struggling courageously against what seems like unwieldy odds can man succeed in wringing meaning out of existence." (P.8)

Fairy tales inform us about life's struggles, hardships and the reality of death. From Bettleheim's point of view, the fairy tale is a "manifold form" that communicates to the child, educates them, against life's vagaries and realities, which are the unavoidable aspects of our existence. More specifically, the fairy tale is an educational tool to help children grow and develop into adults. He goes on to say that the child needs to be given "...suggestions in symbolic form about how he may deal with these issues and grow safely into maturity." (P.9)

Bettleheim adeptly sets out to prove his theses by analysing well known fairy tales in the context of psychoanalytic theory, persuasively arguing the value of these tales towards the child's psychological development.

If you are interested in psychoanalysis and would like to know more about the profound positive effects the telling of fairy tales can have on our young, this incredible book is indispensable.

Whatever opinion scholars have of Bettelheim, this is an extraordinarily eye-opening work for a layman. Just the insights into the magical thinking of children--how fairy tales make sense to them because a parent's abilities to predict behavior, for example, seems magical to them too--is "worth the price of admission" for any parent.

I have the feeling that the stories increased in
quality in proportion to the degree in which they were
autobiographical. For instance, "Jozef Pronek"
and "Islands" are very good. I am not sure that
people that have experienced the war in Bosnia
and the siege of Sarajevo, even from afar,
have been able to put enough distance from it to write
about it analytically. I would certainly recommend
"Sarajevo Marlboro" by Jergovic. While these stories
are harrowing, and also beautiful, in that they
translate a horrific experience into something lyrical,
they do not answer the fundamental Why? Perhaps
that is simply too much to ask...

William Hurt read "Blind Josef Pronek" over at Symphony Space in New York and I was lucky enough to hear it on public radio. It was unbelievably evocative. I am a history buff and don't usually enjoy fiction, however, the historical references throughout the book intrigued me. The prose is imaginative yet glib. This combination allows one to "see" the scenes he elaborately paints and the dimensions of his characters all while not romanticizing the stark reality of his subject with pretty language. You'll surely enjoy this book and learn something at the same time.

Overall, an excellent collection of short stories. Some of it was a little tedious, the story of the spy was grueling to finish. The Coin and Blind Jozef were the most touching and eye-opening.

I picked this slender book up for the title, knowing nothing about the author. The Question of Bruno/The Question of Myself! But isn't all good fiction a question of oneself? The second reason why I snatched this book is that I prefer story collections to novels these days. Life seems to serve itself up in little plotless stories, interchangeable in order yet redolent of each other, which we call memories. Novels are what lives used to be, before cheap flights and internet friendships.

Without spoiling any suspense, I'll tell you that Bruno is a dog who appears momentarily in the long bitter-funny story "Blind Josef Pronek & Dead Souls", one of two stories in the collection which deserve the five stars I'm giving the whole book. Very little in the life of Josef Pronek is more than momentary. Pronek is a Bosnian who lands in America with nothing but a pair of juice-stained pants, the address of a woman he met once in Kiev, and an indomitably wry sense of anomie.

The other five-star story is the first, titled "Islands", about a boy who travels to visit relatives (and his parents' past) on an island in the Adriatic Sea. It's a word-perfect tale of the passage from innocence to awareness, the moment when the boy realizes that the world is not an extension of himself but an unbreachable separateness that looms around him, threatening harm. The boy's Uncle Julius, an unappealing yet awesome figure, tells him about seeing the world's oldest man in Moscow: "I figured out then that life is a circle...like a dog chasing its own tail, all is for naught. We live and live, and in the end we're just like this boy [he pointed at me], knowing nothing, remembering nothing. You might as well stop living now, my son. You might as well stop, for nothing will change." A hard sermon for a boy! But the boy of course doesn't stop, though he realizes that his uncle may well be right. He gets on the boat and sails back to the mainland, to the Bosnia that by literary implication is poised to collapse in the horror of civil war.

One very funny story and one poignant! The six other stories in the collection flux between those two poles, with a slight, absurdist tilt toward the funny side. Aleksandar Hemon is in fact a Bosnian, born in 1964, who came to the USA in '92 with only fragmentary English - surely the prototype of the fictional Pronek. Events in Sarajevo form the tattered backdrop for all of Hemon's stories, depicted most ferociously in "The Coin", in which the thoughts of a young man in America and the experiences of a young woman in Sarajevo dance a tragic pas de deux.

"...unsettling as it is hopeful..." wrote one newspaper critic about this collection. That's cheap bunk! 'Unsettling' is too meek a word for the nightmare Hemon portrays. 'Hopeful' misses the whole point of his sardonic humor. Hemon's secret is that he knows, whatever his uncle tells him, that life is its own reward.

Beautifully written, stylistically without peer. A collection of stories presented in a deadpan manner, the reader is allowed to emphasize what they wish. It is interesting that Hemon, writing in a language that is not his mother tongue, is able to utilize the english language in a way that makes the greatest impact upon the reader. Causes the reader to question the universal nature of emotions not usuallly questioned, such as whimsy. To read a story like "The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders" is too see a refugee from Sarajevo toying with absurdity, and owning it. "Islands" is one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. In truth that one story has the power to fill a reader with hope and ambition. I read in hopes of finding stories like "Islands".

The first two pages hook you one of the best reads ever!!
This book is not just a guy's book. I am recommending it to an all girls book club.

I enjoy the book very much. Bounty hunting is a tuff business. They work with mean people and bad people throughtout their career. It is hard to maintain a positive outlook in life day after day in their profession. But I guess it takes a true professional to achieve that and Mr. Armstrong has convinced me.

The best part about this book is the stories. Armstrong grows up in New Jersey, and eventually ends up on the west coast, where he is first really exposed to the criminal element. While working on a fishing boat in Alaska, he gets his first experience bounty hunting while trying to earn some extra money. He is not impressed with the guy he was working with, but was intrigued by the profession.

Armstrong goes on to found the Seekers, a group of bounty hunters who are professional, and respectable. His religion plays a part in the book, and is primarily seen in his attitude torwards the criminals he is trying to capture. He does not accept the fact that all of them are automatically evil, and frequently talks about how he is trying to let his mind grow, and that this is what the people he works with need to do as well. The religion is not an overwhelming part of the book, but if you are the sort of person who cannot read about a religious view that conflicts with yours without getting agitated, this is not the book for you.

The best part of the book is the stories about caputres he's made. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to track down people who were arrested, made bail, then did not return for their trial. A typical bounty hunter gets 5,000-25,000 a capture. Most of the chapters in the book describe memorable captures this bounty hunter has made either individually, or with the help of his organization. He would aquire information on his target, then track that person down and capture them in the most efficient and non-violent way possible. It is very interesting to hear about the situations he's been in, and how he survived them, and made the capture. It's a pretty easy book to read, and very engrossing.

Ever since i picked up this book i havn't been able to put it down it even gave me a better sense of understanding of life.

Ok folks, I'm gonna try and deal with several reviews of this books as I give my opinion. Why? Because stupidity cannot be corrected, but ignorance can.
This book is -not- meant as a "How To" for being a Bail Enforcement Agent, hereafter referred to as a bounty hunter. If you want a step-by-step on how to be a bounty hunter, find another book, because this one is not it.
I, personally, did not see the book as a forum for Mr Armstrong to "push or peddle" his religious perspective. I suppose some could view it as that, but then they, in my opinion, need to come to grips with their own religious dogma.
Now, let's talk about the book and leave the pedantry aside.
The reading level is of a somewhat lower angle than many might be used to, I would compare it to that of a magazine that attempts to appeal to both teens and adults. It is an easy read and you will not be digging through a dictionary, which, I believe, is the entire point. Mr Armstrong makes no bones about his background and is attempting, perhaps, to have a book out there that many urban youths can read. And if you want to go around with me that the reading skills of kids today has deteriorated, take a number.
The stories are the best part of the book. Very true. But you also should not ignore the deeper parts. I do not like any religious angle, yet I got through this book. So forget about those condemnations. Mr Armstrong has created a religious amalgamation, largely influenced by Ancient Egyptian ideals. There are concepts of Shinto and Buddhist thoughts as well.
The basic idea is there for bounty hunters as well. And while I am not a bounty hunter by trade, I have done what I refer to as skip tracing in the past, using a computer. The big pattern is observation and psychology, both of which pop up again and again in the book.
My biggest disagreement with the book and, I would suppose, Mr Armstrong is that I do not see eye-to-eye with him about the inherent goodness of the human being. As well, I do tend to meet force, or the possibility of force, with overwhelming force.

Final say, from me, is that the book is good and has a multi-cultural appeal. He does not proselytize, nor does he come across as overbearing in any other manner. I think he'd be someone good to have a "sit down" with and talk about things over a picnic table...well, ok, I'd have a beer, but I'd supply him with an orange juice.

I think that "Serious Surveillance for the Private Investigator" is a great book for anyone interested in surveillance and investigation. I found several good ideas , but as I like Computer Forensics, I've read too "Le Guide du Cyberdétective", published in France by Editions Chiron, ISBN 2702707831, with interesting things about software surveillance

This is a case of a simple minded man writing a simple, useless, and outdated book. How anyone can conduct surveillance (exclusively)out of a van is beyond me. I've been tracking people for 18 years and getting film of what they do. Life is just too fast moving to sit in a van. Investigators must be responsive on short notice; that means using a host of vehicles to suit whatever situation is at hand. Bob just sits in his van; worse yet, his cloned backup shows up in another van. Bob had a heat stroke from sitting in his van. Had to be rushed to the hospital. Give me a Toyota extended cab with a good AC, I'll use my wits to set up and run a smart surveillance; and be quick and fresh when its time to follow and film. If you can't follow then you can't film! Bob gives the following bad advise: he says: give the attorney the original film (Hey Bob, attorneys lose stuff!); he says: don't film the claimant if he changes his tire because everyone will think you flattened the tire (Hey Bob, film everything!); he says: when the claimant departs, just sit and wait for him to come back (Hey Bob, learn to follow and get the film wherever the claimant goes)I would fire someone for using Bob's static approach. Nothing worth spending money for here.

Please note that this review is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, an assessment of Mr. Bruno's skills in and/or knowledge of the private investigation profession. I personally consider Mr. Bruno to be one of the premier investigators in the nation, especially in the area of covert surveillance.

As a licensed private investigator, college instructor of private investigation courses, and an experienced covert surveillance operative, I can personally tell you that the title of this book is highly misleading. This book contains little information regarding actual covert surveillance techniques/procedures - certainly nothing worthy of the title. As always, be fully aware of what you are purchasing and you won't be disappointed.

Bruno's book is good for those investigators that have the time and resources to equip a van specifically for covert surveillance. I can personally tell you however that I, like most private investigators, perform the vast majority of my surveillance activities using my personal vehicle, which I have equipped accordingly. So if you are looking to equip a surveillance van, this book might be what you are looking for; other than that, I would advise against purchasing this title.

If you are looking for a title that actually contains useful (emphasis added) surveillance techniques/procedures, I would highly recommend: "Covert Surveillance: The Manual of Surveillance Training" by Peter Jenkins (ISBN: 0953537803). I have had the pleasure of reading this fine text, which I consider to be the only covert surveillance techniques/procedures book worth recommending. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a copy for purchase.

As always, check with your local library or bookstore to see if you can read/review this or any title before deciding to make a purchase. This method has effectively allowed me to make the most of my investigative library budget.

I hope you found this review helpful. [...]

When this book was written it was the first one on the market for anyone seeking ANY kind of information on surveillance. While I am the first to agree this book is way past it's time several things still prevail. It has been said that the title is misleading. I guess that would be a matter of perspective. When I spoke of SERIOUS, I was referring to the amount of money one spends on buying the best equipment out there to do the job with. At the time of the writing, what I had was state of the art. While, several of you would disagree about "Doing one thing, about converting and old van into a surveillance van" is all the book is about. I have a couple of comments about that, that anyone doing surveillance should agree with. Once you are outside of your vehicle, your danger rate goes up about 90%. Your personal danger that is. If you stay in your van, or vehicle and stay far enough away, with powerful lenses you should have no problem being "Made". Your only concern are those around you. While at the time, I had serious competitors, I have now retired and can say what I want. I purposely left things out of the book so they could not see what we were really doing. If you live in NY, I would agree, this book is not for you. If you are over 40 you should have a van. Why? Comfort.
This may be a mobile society, but being scrunched up in the back of an SUV is not my idea of doing a complete surveillance. We did a survey and found (This was all based on insurance surveillance) that men made terrible claimants. They couldn't stay indoors for a full 8 hours. (We would be on station for up to 10) We knew they would come out for air and we knew we would catch them on film. When they became mobile, we casually followed. They may go to the doc's office, they may go to physical thereapy and finally they may go to the grocery store. When they do, THAT was the video I wanted and needed. I had plenty of time to set up, plenty of time to capture those most needed moments. I kept my distance (we) and the claimants never knew they were even followed. O.k. I missed them going into the doc's office. So what did I miss? Them opening the door, them limping? What? SO I missed them going into physical thereapy, I got them coming out. I got that famous limp. Was that enough?
Not really. But I got them coming out of the grocery store carrying 6 bags of groceries. 3 in each arm! Was that worth it? One has to decide what, during their day they would hope to capture on film. We knew age groups, ethnic backgrounds and work they did before the injury. Statistics was a good precursor to what we would see that day. While it did not always work, in 80% of the cases it did. If the claimant was a welder, you can bet your boots at one time or another he will do it again, injury or not. Same with other blue collar fields.
About my reports. During and up till the time I retired, most attorneys did NOT want a report and allow the video tape to do the talking. I did my best to detail every movement of the claimant, but all that happened was the attorney never produced it. In fact I was told time and again to either not create one, but If I had to, do it generically. No specifics.
So now you all know why and what was SERIOUS. You would show up to a job site with no tools, would you? And if you did, you didn't buy them in the home section at Wally mart did you? NO, spend the money. Borrow it(The money) and be serious about what you are about to embark on. Remember, buying cheap is buying twice. I am placing my e-mail address in here for feedback if you desire. I am not looking to be harranged, just what about the parts I left out? AND there were many. Look at the date of the writing. You won't find a book on amazon older than it. BUt to this day, the knowledge still applies. I can't tell you how many times I have seen investigators doing surveillance out of mini vans, with dark tinted windows, no plate and their vin covered up. This also goes for SUV's. When you get older, comfort is a big issue. As far as "Being a mobile society" Well, if one is doing domestice work. I would have to agree. WHile that is a way to make a living, to me it's seedy. Not my style. I could write another book, but I guarantee you, by the time it came out, several database companies will be out of business and a new camera format will prevail. In fact, as far as filming goes my book was outdated the day it hit the market. At least equipment wise. I retired at age 53 and live very comfortably. Look at yourself, and where you are. I must have done something right. As far as an author goes, well, I could use some help, I sure am not denying that. E-mail me, I'll tell you what I couldn't in the book. That way, you'll get your moneys worth. [...] and good luck. Bob Bruno

Having spent a great amount of years carrying out surveillance both for the government and in the Private sector, I can honestly say that this book has to be one of the worst I've ever read on the subject.

As someone else said, it should be entitled "How to Equip a Surveillance Van". It tells practically nothing about anything else - no real tactics (unless you include "blasting through a red light!") - and is of no benefit at all to a new surveillance operative. It will more than likely get you compromised, and also fired if you use the shoddy outdated report format the author suggests!

The book is in dire need of an update - but even then, unless the content changes dramatically, it would still be of no use. In my opinion, the best book on the market at the moment is "Advanced Surveillance" by Peter Jenkins - even old hands can learn a trick or two from it. Buy that if you want to learn - don't waste your money on serious surveillance - its a serious joke.

Mr. Fisher takes the most controversial case in the twentieth century and shucks off all the wild conspiracies. After reading Fisher's cogent explanation, on can only believe that collective hysteria fueled all the earlier conspiracy books. Mr. Fisher reveals taht Hauptman was a criminal
who left Germany facing jail time. The guards find Hauptman's tray is missing a spoon. They shake down his cell and discover he has already fashined the spoon handle into a shive. Is this an innocent man or a veteran of jailhouse society? Hauptman quits work within days of the kidnapping and starts living the high life. Did the police frame him?
Bring in the missing board and plant it in the attic--to match with the ladder? No way. No need to read another book. Hauptman did it! Fisch was only his invented alibi. Bravo, Mr. Fisher!

When I was a teenager I read several Kennedy Conspiracy theory books. The problem with them is that there was always someone new who did it. One time the mafia and the next Castro and the next time the CIA and the next all did it together. That is the way with conspiracy theories. And we the public believe it because we don't realize that so many of these conspiracy cases are based on manufactured effidence and hearsay. Jim Fisher gets it right with this book because he sticks with the effidence from the scene of the crime. The letter was written by Hauptmann. You don't have to be a hand writing expert to figure that out. He also had quite a bit of the ransom money in his garage. One Critic said Fisher didn't address issues like the defense experts claiming the wood wasn't from Hauptmann's attic. Anyone knows that you can find an expert to agree with you no matter what the facts happen to be.

"The Lindbergh Case", Jim Fisher, Rutgers Univ. Press, NJ, 1987 ISBN: 0-8135-1233-6, HC 430 pages plus 30 pages of Notes, Sources & Index plus 22 B & W photographs. 10 1/4" x 7 1/4".

Jim Fisher, lawyer, previous FBI agent and teacher of Criminal Justice, has chronicaled, rather tersely, the A to Z of the Lindbergh case using records not previously released until 1981, the NJSP records and the Hoffman papers, etc.

The author's writing style blends factual or verbatim quotations with a thoughtfully reconstructured conversational dialogue that admittedly departs from the purest journalism, but garners acceptance by utilizing adequate notes, etc. to effect a pleasant conversational style prose that makes reading almost effortless and ought not alter veridicality.

A lot of "loose ends" are tied or concluded, and many factoids are included so that much detail prevails that appeared lacking in previous books I've read on this case, some of them via Notes but others spelled out in great details, i.e. the details and results of the jury's many votings, the verdicts and setting & re-setting of execution dates, last minute appeals, etc. However, in the end, the reader like the author will find the evidence given to the jurors is compelling beyond a reasonable doubt. It is a long book and the print is small, but the intent, the evidence, and its presentation provides a cerebrally ambitious journey for the reader.

In the midst of revisionist books presenting improbable coverup and frameup accounts gullibly swallowed by a naive reading public and seized upon by anti-government types, Jim Fisher has taken us back to the essentials of the Lindbergh-Hauptmann affair and presented the evidence and the simple truth of the case. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, an illegal alien and a petty criminal in his homeland, kidnapped and murdered the Lindbergh baby for profit. Not a pretty story but in the real world it makes a whole lot more sense than massive conspiracies in which all the evidence is manufactured and all the witnesses are lying. Hauptmann did it and Hauptmann deserved to die for it. End of story. And Fisher tells like it was.

Jim Fisher's book is an excellent achievement. He brought forth many facts and pieces of evidence which had never previously been disclosed. He has done a great service to Lindbergh researchers everywhere.

However, his exuberance and desire to prove Hauptmann guilty have resulted in several problems. First, he creates dialogue based on letters and documents contained within the archives. However, the substance of the dialogue creates false impressions. For example, there is a fictitious conversation during which Hauptmann suggests that he would enter a plea bargain if different police authorities handled the case. Th actual letter merely states that Hauptmann once asked if he could ever expect leniency. The differences between the facts and the created dialogue are striking and significant.

Additionally, Fisher relies upon the word of a former archivist as a citation in support of several claims, such as the folding of a $20.00 gold certificate found on Hauptmann's person when he was arrested. The official documents do not support the previous archivist's assertions.

In conclusion, while Fisher's book offers remarkable evidence and demonstrates significant time and effort in research, there are certain factual errors and created dialogue which take a great deal away from this book. I do recommend it though.

Given the facts revealed in this book,the obvious question is,how did Bettelheim dominate the field of Autism for so long?There was an army of people who defended Bettelheim and attacked his critics of the dimensions of Bush and Iraq.One of his critics,a fellow professor at the U of Chicago was assaulted with a baseball bat.
A separate book could be written on the media outlets that artificially inflated every book by Bettelheim.
One lead might be the Ford Foundation giving him almost half a million in the 1950's,at a time when Ford was a CIA conduit and the CIA was involved in mind control experiments that had their focus on sensory deprivation and sensory overload.

The Creation of Doctor B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim
I read Bruno Bettelheim books when he was the guru of child psychiatry in the 50's and 60's and thought they were excellent. Now this book exposes the truth about him. It is quite interesting and anyone who still believes in his methods should really read it.
Jane Gaschke

Pollak's book is a long-needed, well-written, thoroughly researched document that should be required reading for every psychology and psychiatry student.

Bruno Bettelheim did not blight just one generation of families of autistic people. He hurt, and continues to hurt, hundreds of thousands of people through his misbegotten, arrogantly upheld, cruel, baseless theories that were far more widely publicized than the current scientific research. His book The Empty Fortress (published in 1962 with all the Freudian nonsense) is still in print, which means that there are even today, 2007, many people out there who believe or even revere him.

Rare, indeed, is the family member of an autistic person who has not been assured by a confident Bettelheim reader that the child's mother caused his disease. Can you imagine the harm and heartbreak this causes? Even Bettelheim's own wife quarreled with him because he was so hard on mothers.

Personally I believe that Bettelheim killed himself in part because it was more and more difficult for him to uphold his theories, his life work, in the face of mounting scientific evidence that autism has physical causes.

The Bettelheim defenders have no facts to back them up. They fall back on "he was a brilliant man" or "follow-up studies would have gone against his method" or "he was a distinguished scholar." The facts are that Bettelheim's whole career as a "scholar" was based on lies and misrepresentations; that he hurt dozens of children directly and hundreds of thousands of families indirectly; and that Pollak's book is finally getting people to take a hard look at a very bad man.

The University of Chicago should publicly apologize that it supported him for so long.

Mr. Pollak has done families on the autism spectrum and, especially, mothers an enormous service by writing this book. The Bettelheim theory on autism -- that refrigerator moms caused autism in their children by unconsciously rejecting them -- ruled the medical and psychological community for decades. Based on little more than his own unresearched ideas, Bettelheim not only generated this theory, he made it his business to preach it from the popular media pulpit. Due to this, for decades worried mothers who turned to the medical community for help with their children who were slipping away into autism were blamed as being the cause of the disorder, shunned by doctors and nurses, and advised to institutionalize their autistic children so that they could not contaminate them further.

With three children on the autism spectrum in my extended family, I know firsthand the difficulties, guilt, shame, and fear that parent's feel when figuring out how to help their kids with autism. I cannot and do not want to even imagine how destructive and cruel it must have been for mothers of autistic children to be told by the very people they went to for help -- in the medical and psychiatric community -- that they themselves were the cause of their kid's autism. Mr. Pollak has righted some very pervasive and poinsonous wrongs by exposing Bettelheim for the fraud that he was. It is also a cautionary tale that pat, unsubstantiated claims about any psychological theory should be viewed with caution.

Now, could we look at Mr. Freud and all his many theories based on the psyches of middle-class Viennese ladies?

Thanks, Mr. Pollak!

this is not biography, but libel with a good motive. For an unbiased overview of the polemic about dr. B. see the review "The Strange Case of Dr. B." in the New York Review of Books, Volume 50, Number 3 ? February 27, 2003. (i found it online)

This is one of the best books to show others how to begin the process of sculpting heads in clay. The book is very well designed and organized. The format includes plenty of black and white, clear close up photos of the artist's clay works in stages of progression. All the pages have useful, visual details of an art lesson in modeling the head. I recommend art teachers to buy this book to help students, including beginners or advanced art students, who have never done an modeling of the human head with clay. The artist is also one of the finest clay sculptors I have seen. All the figures and heads are classical and realistic.

I have read both Peter Rubino's book and Bruno Lucchesi's book. Both are similar in nature with a large amount of spaced black and white photographs showing the sculpting process. In my opinion I think Rubino's book gives the reader more insight into how the author's mind is working when he is setting up the sculpture. Rubino divides the face into various planes and shows how he delineates them step by step while Lucchesi does not. Rubino also has a section in back of his book where he shows you how to make patinas. This section unlike the rest of his book and Lucchesi's book is in color. Probably a student of clay portraits would want to learn something from both books, but if money is the issue stick with Rubino.

An excellent learning tool for the amatuer or professional. Illustrated with many photographs of the processess, as well as finished work, this book is both instructional and motivational.

A step by step tutorial showing how the artists creates the most life like head in clay. Another great sculpture technique book . Highly recommended.

This book is helpful in some ways. If you like to learn by watching, you will probably get a lot out of this book. It is basically a series of photos of the author sculpting a head from start to finish, with very little written instruction or insights. However, the photos are informative and the iterations are reasonably well spaced. This is really the kind of book that you will want to flip through before you buy it. Amazon has a great price, but you may want to flip through it in a library or store before you purchase it, as it may or may not fit your learning style.

I must say, you will want to take the 5 star reviews with a grain of salt. I've always thought that just liking something isn't a good enough reason to give it a perfect review. I like this book, but it certainly isn't God's Gift to the student of sculpture. If you buy it just based on all the 5 star reviews, you may be disappointed.

With the coming of the American Civil War many families found themselves torn apart by conflicting ideologies and loyalties. Fathers and sons, uncles and nephews, brothers and cousins sometimes faced each other on opposite sides across a field of battle. Often times, and certainly with more frequency the families most severely divided came from the border states of Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland. The Crittenden and the Todd families are but two examples on a lengthy list one might compile of families that were split apart by the war. The Prentiss family of Baltimore, Maryland is a family that could also be enumerated on just such a list.

In his novel, "Two Brothers: One North, One South," David H. Jones tells the story of the Prentiss family. Clifton, the older brother, fought for the Union cause and rose to the rank of major in the 6th Maryland Infantry, while his younger brother, William served in the Confederate Army with 2nd Maryland Battalion. Both were mortally wounded minutes and yards apart at Petersburg, Virginia in the closing days of the Civil War.

After the battle the brothers were taken to Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C. where they are cared for in separate wards. One of the volunteers in the hospital was Walt Whitman who frequently visited William, and upon William's passing located Clifton to inform him of his brother's death. Two other Prentiss brothers, John & Melville, arrive soon after, and Whitman tells the three siblings what he has learned about William's service with the Confederate Army.

Unfortunately Mr. Jones' novel has a few serious flaws. The title of the book, "Two Brothers," is somewhat misleading, as Clifton's storyline is often overshadowed by that of his younger brother. The story is told from the opposing viewpoints of Clifton and William; however William's story is filtered through Walt Whitman, which brings me to the narration.

There is not a central narrator in Jones' novel. Clifton Prentiss tells his part of the story and Whitman is left to relate William's. There are several times throughout the book, especially at the beginning of chapters where it is not all together clear as to who exactly is narrating, Clifton, Whitman, or a literary 3rd person narrator. Whitman's narration is particularly flawed as he relates details that he did not have first person knowledge of and most certainly could not remember with such clarity. This is problem when the novel wanders off with the secondary characters of sisters Hetty and Jenny Cary and their cousin Constance Cary, in which Whitman is giving third hand information to the surviving Prentiss brothers. Whitman was not present for any of the events related, and for some of them neither was William. How did Whitman come to know of such things? Many of the episodes involving the Cary's are tangential in reference to William's story and should have been judiciously pruned from the novel.

There is far too much exposition in the book. There is a writer's axiom that states: "Show, don't tell." Jones spends too much time telling the story, and instead of showing it through the eyes and actions of his characters. I got the impression that Mr. Jones, knows a lot about the Civil War, and just couldn't help inserting his knowledge into the story... for one example, the book is set in June of 1865, at one point the author makes a reference to Lew Wallace and notes that he would later gain fame as the author of "Ben Hur" which would not be published for another fifteen years.

The dialogue does not ring true, especially when it is weighted down, as it often is, with exposition relating details to the reader that would have been common knowledge to anyone during the war.

The characters are two dimensional, there is no character development. The war years were years of turmoil and angst for any and all who lived through them. There is plenty of room for Mr. Jones to have taken literary license and given motive to his characters actions, or gone into their heads, to see the story through their eyes, to show us what their motivations and how they felt about things. It was an opportunity missed, and therefore the reader is left not caring about the characters. As for John and Melville Prentiss, they serve absolutely no function in the book at all. The character of Walt Whitman is used solely as a literary device to tell the story, and is also never fully fleshed out as a character.

There is much to like about Jones' novel, negating its structural and narrative problems, it is a great story, and I enjoyed reading about the Prentiss brothers and the Cary Sisters. But unfortunately even the most beautiful house cannot remain standing when it is placed upon a weak foundation.

The Civil War tore families apart like no other war in American history has ever done. It was not uncommon for brothers, or fathers and sons, to fight the war from opposing armies, a fact that serves as the central theme of the David H. Jones novel, Two Brothers - One North, One South.

Maryland, as a border state, saw its families suffer greatly from the divided loyalties of its citizens and Jones focuses on the Prentiss family, an actual Baltimore family of the time, to tell his story. William Prentiss, the family's youngest son, fought with the Confederacy's 2nd Maryland Battalion but his older brother, Clifford, remained loyal to the Union and was an officer in the 6th Maryland Volunteers. The brothers experienced numerous battles and much personal danger but survived to the end of the war when both were severely wounded in one of the war's last battles, the breaking of the siege at Petersburg.

Sadly, the brothers who had not seen each other in four years only met again because of those battlefield wounds suffered only a few yards from each other. They were carried off the field together, treated by the same doctors, and transferred to the same Washington D.C. hospital. In this fictionalized version of their story, Walt Whitman, who spent countless hours in Washington D.C. hospitals visiting and nursing wounded soldiers from both armies, became well-acquainted with William before he died while the two discussed William's war experiences. And when the other two Prentiss brothers arrived to visit Clifton, Whitman was able to describe their brother's war experiences in detail as the four discussed those years.

Much of Two Brothers is told in dialogue between the Prentiss brothers and Whitman but the dialogue does not consistently ring true. In order to inform his readers of historical facts, Jones at times has the brothers exchange war details that would have been all too obvious to those who lived those events. The reader might also begin to wonder how it was possible that Walt Whitman could recall one young soldier's history in such great detail considering the hundreds and hundreds of soldiers he came to know during the war.

Two Brothers will serve as a good Civil War history primer for those not already familiar with the war and how it ultimately played out but, as a novel, it would have been stronger had it focused more on the tragedy of brother-against-brother and less on battle details. It does not quite reach the emotional level needed to turn the Prentiss brothers into the real human beings that they were in the 1860s. That said, the novel is an interesting one and it will be welcomed into the personal libraries of many a Civil War buff.

I simply do not understand the audience for this book. It seemed that the author was using big words just for the sake of using them, yet the dialog was almost insulting in its assumption of the reader's intelligence. Minus the unnecessary vocabulary, which made the dialog in particular stilted and wooden, the writing seemed more appropriate for a book geared towards middle school audience as a way to teach them the basics of the Civil War. I didn't get as far as I wanted, but I couldn't stand to continue reading a book that was so silly and yet insulting to my intelligence when I have so many good books to read. I would not recommend this book, you could do so much better in the genre. For GOOD historical fiction on the Civil War, check out Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels" instead. The Killer Angels

I hesitate with the three stars thinking it may be a bit generous, but let me begin with what I did like about this book:
I liked the premise of Whitman getting close to these two brothers. He became the objective mediator between all of the brothers allowing them to heal their differences as they grieved over the wounded and dying brothers; while sharing stories of lost years Whitman was able to fill in.

I liked the added story of Hetty Cary and her smuggling efforts.

I enjoy historical novels based on true tales, which this one is based.

The setting of Maryland's conflict is one not often written about and was refreshing.

The author was very good with action sequences which allowed them to flow rather well.

Ok, now I have to reveal the elements of dislike:

The dialogue was painful. Especially through the first third of the book. In lieu of a narrator, the author uses the characters to fill in background historical information through their conversations. At times, one character would break out into a history lesson as though the person listening had extreme amnesia and didn't remember the events of the last several years. Luckily, this practice fades away as the story progresses and the author mercifully switches to narration at the beginning of chapters...much better!

The character development was almost non-existent. He was fine with describing what happened to the characters, but their internal struggles were glossed over. And don't get me started about how the women were portrayed: no depth of thought...just pretty faces running blockades and charming officers. The only true depth of feeling that was uttered out of the women was near the end when one woman learned of the death of her husband.

I also felt this story was very onesided. I understand that Whitman knew more about William's story, but the cover and synopsis leads the reader to expect the real struggles of both the north and south. Instead, we are treated with William's story with just a salting of his northern brothers' experiences, and he had several brothers in the north which presented plenty of opportunity.

It also seemed this story was a thinly veiled attempt at romanticizing the Confederate cause. True, the characters would have experienced the levels of patriotism described, but they were not balanced with the northern view of patriotism.

The storyline was linear, but many times disjointed and not cohesive. Some major events and characters seemed present for very brief times to simply act as filler, and did not serve any purpose.

In conclusion:
I am a big fan of historical fiction and it was apparent that this author has a wealth of historical knowledge about the Civil War....but the characters, dialogue and flow made this a book difficult to enjoy. Once finished reading it, I had absolutely no connection to the characters which meant I had no reader remorse generally felt when saying goodbye to fond characters. I was relieved when it was over. I think the main audience for this book would include Civil War buffs, mainly men who are interested in troop movements and battle descriptions. It might also be a good introduction for high-schoolers as it gives a spotty overview of war events while presenting the patriotic attitude of the southern cause. The violence is a bit graphic, but nothing too realistic to cause parental concern.

Reviewed by Bethany L. Canfield for Reader Views (6/08)

The question of war is always the same: is what is gained through it worth the loss that it causes? "Two Brothers: One North, One South" by David H Jones is not the typical history book that conveys only the gruesome dates and facts of the Civil War, but the war is brought to a more intimate level. Two brothers, who love each other, brought up in the same family, both in the same house, who grew up as friends yet a wedge is developed as the war cries out to each of them and their loyalties lie firmly on opposing sides. Deep from within each brother there is a call to be loyal, true and never wavering, but this loyalty will threaten their family, bring division and cause hurt. That is a high price to pay, but it does not seem to get a second thought by either of them, who are both bent on serving their country, and protecting their rights, while challenging and bringing change.

"Two Brothers" informs the reader of the nature behind the war and the people who sustained it. Jones perfects the task of displaying the confusion, the chaos, the misunderstanding of what the war was going to be, and especially how long it would take and what it would cost (in lives especially). Citizens became soldiers overnight, and left their families. The emphasis is put that no one really knew what was going on' almost all of the men in uniform were not soldiers, but regular men -- farmers, plantation owners, scholars. Many of them were young men, some were only fifteen-years of age, and did not know the price, but knew they were being beckoned. Their adrenaline was rushing; they believed in the cause and therefore off the boys, men and soldiers headed to a war which was too hungry for human flesh. When over, it was more a feeling of chaos and loss, because so much of what was accomplished was hidden beneath the dirty, tired surface.

I enjoyed the humanness attached the Civil War, that Jones was able to put faces and feelings while not neglecting the dates and facts. I was captured by the families involved and the outcome and affect of the war on their lives as individuals, as families. However, to me the way it was written was too predictable. I know that we all know the outcome but, I am talking about a dullness in the writing, or more a lack of details and development. The art was left out of the prose and conversations. I am not sure if this was intentional, but I would have enjoyed a more artistic portrayal. As I said, it could have been intentionally full of very practical speech, and descriptions because of the time which the author is intending to portray. But I could tell the author was more of a historian than a writer, since his dates and battles were described with such care, yet he seemed to struggle through some of deepness and development of characters, causing me to not feel as deeply connected as I could have to each of them. I would recommend "Two Brothers: One North, One South," especially if you are a history buff, or if you enjoy historical novels from the civil war era. It was good, just not as touching as I think it could have been.

best book and subject ever...this is the story of richard kuklinsky the hitman for the mob...but it is so much more...you get sucked in to this mans life and personality....he is strangely very likeable...you feel for this guy...even though he is possibly the biggest killer i have ever read about..watch the iceman dvd and you will know what i mean, but if you are looking for a book that you will not be able to put down, get this, it got me from ireland to australia and i didn't even notice the plane trip...

I have read 2 books about the Ice Man and enjoyed them both.
One by Anthony Bruno another by Philip Carlo..
Two of the best written books with different out looks
which I enjoyed..
I can't say enough about these 2 books..
IF you enjoy true crime you will love these books
and the CD..
Judy

This is the story of another undercover police "sting" this time removing Richard Kuklinski and his car theft/murder crew.The book is similar to "Murder Machine" which describes the police "sting" of the DeMeo crew.Kuklinski's own greed finally brings him down.On the numerous murders described graphically in the book,the majority are "crew enforcement" type where Kuklinski kills crew members or other "players" who represent a real or imagined threat to the Iceman.Members of his crew turn on him,which is the same plot as "Murder Machine",and become police witnesses against Kuklinski and this is how he is finally "brought down".There is alot of tension between the Iceman and the undercover cop in the book.You realize that the cop involved is in extreme danger because Kuklinski is batting 1000 in regard to his deals with other criminals.That is all,kills!

This is a chilling account of a methodical, cold-blooded killer and con man told by a skillful writer. The characters ring true and the story, though real, is as imaginable as fiction. The Iceman should never walk the streets again. Read the book and you'll know why.

I have read both the Philip Carlo book about the Ice Man and Bruno's book. I also read Bruno's comments on CrimeLibrary regarding Philip Carlo's book. I know for a fact that Carlo spent over 200 hours interviewing Kuklinski at Trenton State Prison; I know for a fact that Bruno ONLY interviewed the Iceman once. Carlo's book on the IceMan is a deep profound look at every aspect of the Iceman's life, detailing his tortured childhood, the many murders he committed, the love he felt for his wife Barbara, daughters Merrick and Chris... and his son Dwayne. I was so emotionally moved by Carlo's book that I cried at the end. Carlo not only captures the essence of the IceMan, but the nuts and bolts that drove him. Conversely, Bruno's portrayal is woefully inadequate-- centers more on Dominick Polifrone than on the IceMan. I know for a fact that Lt Pat Kane pursued Kuklinski for five years before Polifrone even heard the name Richard Kuklinski. Bruno attacks Carlo's book because he wrote what IceMan told him regarding the murder of Jimmy Hoffa, Roy DeMeo and the Iceman's involvement in the killing of Castellano. To my knowledge,and I've researched this thoroughly, there is no definitive audio or video proof about any of those three murders, to indicate that the Iceman lied about anything. When one looks at the HBO specials on the IceMan I think you see a sincere honest, very rare killer-- the same thing Carlo saw during his interviews with Kuklinski at Trenton State. Carlo's book was a New York Times best seller for a reason.

As I always say -- you can not go wrong with a Howard Roffman book... THEY ARE GREAT

"Howard Roffman has a unique ability to capture the magical attractive power of young men. Jagged Youth is a love declaration to the natural erotic aura of his models. An erotic masterpiece! Hard cover, 112 PAGES, 8" X 8", Duotone"--? zebraz

As usual, Howard Roffman does a wonderful job of capturing not just the physical beauty of his models, but also their individual personalities and "souls", for lack of a better word. Even in this early photo-book (I believe it is his third or fourth), Roffman's style is excellent; I do not think there is a bad photograph in the book. My only complaint is that I cannot figure out what the title "Jagged Youth" means, but for new-comers to Howard Roffman, it is certainly a fine introduction to his work.

This is another example of Roffman's genius. The men, and they are in the early bloom of manhood, are stunning and erotically charged. The there a slight edge to the photography that humanized the models and makes them reachable. WONDERFUL WORK.