Volume 26, Number 5 · April 5, 1979
Est Is Est
By Jonathan Lieberson
Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est
by William Warren Bartley III
Clarkson N. Potter, 279 pp., $10.00
After viewing the discarded crutches, eyeglasses, ear trumpets, and other paraphernalia at Lourdes, Anatole France is said to have inquired: 'What—no wooden legs?' One could ask a similar question about the cures promised by most self-help books—of frustrations, bad tempers, unsatisfactory orgasms, migraines, insomnia, and other symptoms of the unhappy mind. Their 'rules' for a happier life are generally no more helpful or inspiriting to the unhappy than a recommended diet of tap water to an alcoholic. The writing is, moreover, appalling: formularized zest, officious enthusiasm that is thoroughly uncontagious.
Review, 3040 words
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