I just want to say thank you to the authors of this outstanding book--it gives me hope that my profession will not be hijacked by the cultural fascists of the left. What else do you call it when the APA openly makes fun of our current administration at their conventions, shows left-leaning documentaries like "Outfoxed" (without the equivelent of showing right-leaning ones like "Michael Moore Hates America"), and equates Zionism with racism. The book should be read by anyone who cares about freedom in the area of speech, research and education.

I was dumbstruck when I first read famed author and psychiatrist Victor Frankl's Man's Search of Meaning. In particular, after his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, he had the insight to recognize that "Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth.... that is why I recommend that the statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."

Despite being an avid student of psychology, this simple statement helped me understand that psychology did not have the answers for me with regards to what it is to be human. Thus, I have pursued a journey to rediscover my meaning of life. I put down the psychology texts and journals and found myself reading philosophy, history and spiritual material again.

With their composition of Destructive Trends in Mental Health, Roger Wright and Nicholas Cummings have created a text that should help us with this journey and disregard much of the recent ideological psychological theories. Wright, Cummings and their scholarly contributors appear to have experienced a similar journey of frustration and conflict in dealing with the psychology professions parochial 'liberal' ideology. They have put together a masterpiece collection of essays describing in detail psychology's ideological path of liberalism and the very unscientific and destructive nature of this direction. The text is organized in three main sections:

1. The usurpation of psychology by the Political Correctness, Sensitivity and Diversity movements of the profession;
2. The economic decline in funding for psychology treatment as well as opportunism direction of the ideological proponents of the profession; and
3. The ideological politicization of the profession on scientific research and practice.

I found it fascinating how scientific intelligence study is considered hurtful to feelings and self-esteem so the profession had to stop any further research. The egotistic and narcissistic 'feeling good' ideology has become more important than the virtue of the advanced philosophy of 'being good'. Victimhood has since become the mantra for which the psychology profession would champion. This patronizing and self-gratifying attitude towards its clients and culture has put the profession's practices under scrutiny. Contributors have shown that many of the professions assessments have not helped people in need, and may have actually made their clients mental health worse. Specific cases of note are the potential misdiagnosis of repressed memory syndrome, children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and continued association with victimization.

The author's frustrations with the politicalization and lost direction of the psychology profession are rather obvious. Wright and Cummings stunning collection of essays help explain how the psychology professions destructive trends in mental health has hurt, rather than helped the psychology profession's present image. The contributors to Destructive Trends in Mental Health help expose the irony of the psychology's pathological liberal direction. It goes back to what Victor Frankl wrote on interrelationship of liberty and personal responsibility. Of course, a society in which citizens would not be required to be responsible for their own or collective well-being would be considered pathological. Yet, without liberty and personal responsibility together, you would have paternalistic tyranny. Victor Frankl discovered that as well.