Product Description

A major and significant new evaluation of our approach to emotional health.

We are all born with a rich natural inheritance - a partially formed mind containing a genetic treasure house of innate knowledge patterns. These patterns appear as physical and emotional needs that must be satisfactorily met if our minds are to unfold and develop to their fullest potential. How they connect with the world, and infold in it, determines our own character, the clarity of our perceptions, our own and our family's emotional health and happiness - as well as the maturity and humanity of the society we create around us.

The book explores these human givens and looks at what each child and adult needs from the environtment in order to develop well. Ivan Tyrrell and Joe Griffin suggest that, as a society, we are unwittingly damaging or squandering our natural inheritance. This results in rising levels of mental distress, depression, anxiety, psychosis, addiction and an explosion of primitive greed behaviours. The book explores the startling new scientific ideas and findings about how the mind works, which show us that we can overcome these distressing conditions much more easily than previously thought.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31619 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-26
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

New Scientist, April 12, 2003
We live in mad times. And people looking for therapy face a tour of psychobabble. Enter Joe Griffin...

The Irish Times, June 23, 2003
... a new approach to psychotherapy that claims too much talking can make your problems worse ...

Raj Persaud, All in the Mind, Radio 4, July 22, 2004
a new book which turns the traditional way of treating depression on its head

Customer Reviews

Human Givens: a great read for people wanting the truth about what we are
It's very easy to dismiss the new ideas in this brilliant book as 'tosh', as I see one reviewer has done, however, considering the current state of society today and the soaring rates of depression, anxiety and addiction, it is clear to me that the issues of mental health treatment and provision must be thought about afresh since services are largely failing to halt, let alone reverse, these appalling trends. I've read this book and it does just that: the authors think through the problems we face and offer fresh insights about them that could transform society. The approach they call "working with the human givens" (which I think is a sensible name for innate physical and emotional needs that all of us are born with) means working from what we know about living things, of which we are but one example. It fills a gaping void in the understanding of emotions and the treatment of a wide range of mental health disorders. If you're bright, you'll get it. It is beautifully written and rich in common sense and practical solutions as well as offering real insights into the causes of mental illness, and I found its speculations about the nature of consciousness really exciting.

Terrible tosh
Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell make some extraordinary assertions that do not seem to be backed by any evidence. Their pet theory is that virtually all psychological problems stem from an individual's inability to satisfy his or her most basic needs for food, sex, shelter, acknowledgment etc. For some reason, they choose to call these needs 'The Human Givens'.

On this rather flimsy ground they build an over-simplistic model of human behaviour for which they make numerous grandiose claims. They fail utterly to demonstrate any empirical basis for their principal assertions, namely the sequence in human agency described by their so-called "APET model" and their arbitrary causal linking of sleep-patterns to disorders such as depression. Unusual sleep-patterns may indeed accompany some types of depression - but this does not show that they are causative.

This book seems to be designed to promote quackery on a scale not seen since the days of Moliere.

Interesting in parts, completely barmy in others.
Autism is the result of the split between mammals and fish which occured x million years ago. Autistic people are essentially pining to get back in the water and join their fishy cousins. I mean PLEASE.

And then there's some complete codswallop about "relatons", particles which can't be detected, might as well not be there and account for consciousness...

Utterly fanciful, go look at Penrose, Searle and Dennit, but leave these monkeys out of it.

Then again there's some very interesting analysis of sleep and PTSD, though there repudiation of other schools of psychology is so hostile as to make one wonder what underlying issues they have themselves.

All in all a bit of an oddity. Read it for diversion, but not for scientific value.

Dark arts.