Milton Rokeach is probably one of the most respected and quoted authorities in the area of value studies. This text follows his privotal book, "The Nature of Human Values." In this text, Rokeach attempts to "go beyond the conceptualization and measurement of individual values to the conceptualization and measurement of supraindividual values...." His is one of the first works to apply solid (rather than rhetorical) logic to issues of values in organizations. This book covers many important areas including change and stability of American Values, discusses issues such as "Can Values be Manipulated?" and spends three chapters on Value Education. Rokeach is the editor for this text, and also a contributor for half-a-dozen of the articles in the book.

In our contemporary "zero tolerance" culture, the kinds of things that went on in State mental hospitals in the 1960s would probably be considered unethical. Yet, some of it remains (even if only marginally) interesting. This book recounts a relatively benign "experiment" in which three psychotic patients who belived they were Christ were brought together in the same environment. Surprise, surprise! It didn't make any difference! The point is, as any competant therapist today knows, there really is no arguing with psychotic delusions. The equivalent would be my trying to convince *you* that you did *not* grow up in the family you think you did, nor in the place you remember, and that you really *didn't* have that one sexual encounter that raises such obvious mixed emotions. The "experiment" related here is approached on purely rational terms, and (at the time) it was considered a classic in social psychology. What it failed to take into account was what Jung called "the reality of the psyche." Is what the patient says they experienced true or not true? It's easy for you or I to take a stand and say, "You're not him!" Really? Says who? You expect what *I* say to be convincing?

Sometimes, in my role as therapist, I feel as though I'm sitting in front of a high-powered floor fan. All this "stuff" is blowing at me. People tell me their stories, which I can only accept as a kind of narrative truth. But, somewhere...in the midst of all that...is the narrator. And let me tell you...that person is *always* there, even in the most psychotic of patients. THAT is the connection I try to make. And it strikes me that the "experiment" related in this book really had no clue as to what I'm talking about.

Still, this is an interesting read, on many levels. It's one of those books that belongs in one's personal library. Hopefully, though, it *won't* be a book that helps you learn to relate to the other people in your life.

When one hears the demented rantings of a fellow a ha'penny short of a shilling in the subway / tube claiming to be Christ / Napoleon / Jimmy Carter, one sometimes wonders what would happen if the chap was forced to confront some of the other lunatics in the world also claiming the same identity. This is a narrative version of a psychological case study that did just that. Result are interesting, but won't be too surprising to pessimists or cynics.