Role Change: A Resocialization Perspective is a comprehensive introduction to role change theory and the first volume to systematically apply resocialization concepts to problem solving. Based on the premise that most personal problems are actually role problems best corrected by role change, this volume thoroughly explores the nature of role dysfunction. Focus is placed on how social coercion generates unsatisfying roles; how role conservation mechanism prevent easy change; and how role loss mechanisms-- similar to those found in mourning--must be set in motion for change to occur. Sociologists, social workers, and psychologists will find this application of sociological insights to clinical practice to be of particular interest.
What is the resocialization perspective? Melvyn Fein explains that many dysfunctional roles cannot be corrected unless they are first relinquished and then replaced with more satisfying behavior patterns. This process entails changing a person's role scripts, including their cognitive, emotional, volitional, and social dimensions. The theory views people not as isolated creatures, but as part of a rich tapestry of human interactions. It sees them as morally responsible creatures who cannot change their basic patterns of living, except through interaction with others. Role Change is essential reading for all those concerned with why people become unhappy, why they often seem trapped in their personal misery, and how professionals can help them negotiate more satisfying lives.

Role Change: A Resocialization Perspective

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Fein, Melvyn L.

Psychology & Counseling

Praeger

This book reinterprets psychotherapy from a social role perspective, permitting a grand synthesis that explains many of the apparent contradictions in contemporary therapy, and challenging the usual definitions of therapy in terms of personality, behavior, and mental illness. Dr. Fein surveys all major therapies, placing them in a role-change context. He documents how each approach specializes in different aspects of role change, and shows that therapies differ only in their level of intervention, phase of resocialization addressed, or barrier to change tackled. All therapies, Fein argues, are inherently psychosocial.
In the work's early chapters, Fein demonstrates that a sociological role perspective offers a full account of what therapy is and how it works; summarizes the resocialization paradigm; and discusses the different levels of intervention (support, socialization, and resocialization). Chapter 3 shows how ostensibly different forms of therapy compare in the aspects of role change in which they specialize, and begins the translation of psychotherapeutic jargon into role-change language by giving a brief overview of how prominent therapies fit into the classifications. In Chapter 4, after presenting a succinct history of Freud's contributions to psychoanalysis, Fein relates particular parts of Freud's work to resocialization. Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 discuss various therapy styles and their relation to the author's resocialization approach, including the ecological therapies (family and community), the Romantics (Jungian, Gestalt, Primal Scream, Existential) and the Academics (Behavior Modification, Cognitive, and Stress Management). Chapter 9 asserts that some therapies are actually nontherapeutic because they encourage non-role-change solutions. In his conclusion, Fein emphasizes the ubiquity of resocialization interventions and reiterates the place of sociology in this scheme. This book is excellent reading and analysis for scholars and practitioners in sociology, psychology, and psychotherapy, as well as for anyone interested in understanding how psychotherapy actually works.

Analyzing Psychotherapy: A Social Role Interpretation

Despite our justified fears of its destructiveness, anger is an essential part of our social life. I.A.M. (Integrated Anger Management) provides a way to take advantage of this by offering a step-by-step guide for 1. keeping the emotion safe, 2. learning to tolerate its sometimes over-whelming intensity, 3. evaluating its often disguised objectives, 4. relinquishing impossible aims, and 5. realistically employing its power to obtain critical goals. Practical and straight-forward, the approach spells out why what works in one social situation may not in another.
Among I.A.M.'s insights is a compelling explication of the catharsis theory of anger. Getting anger off one's chest does make a difference, but not the one people think. Also clarified are how effective anger can promote intimacy and why leaders must sometimes be able to intimidate their subordinates. Socialized anger, that is, anger which has not gone out of control or been converted into rage--can deliver potent messages and motivate decisive actions. Merely suppressing, or expressing, the emotion is not the answer; learning how to use it to overcome frustrations, without causing further injury, is.

Integrated Anger Management (IAM): A Common Sense Guide to Coping with Anger

Self-Help

I.A.M.*: A Common Sense Guide to Coping with Anger

This comprehensive sociological analysis sheds light on the informal rules governing our moral decisions. According to Fein, we may not be aware of how we really play the morality game. His Negotiation/Emotion Paradigm (NEP) demonstrates that morality entails creating, enforcing, and modifying important social rules. Rather than a particular set of truths or a peculiar form of mental activity, moral behavior is a social activity―a kind of hard-edged game This study sets forth a unique paradigm, in addition to bringing together aspects of many theories in an accessible way. Fein's convincing and illuminating model of morality will be of interest to scholars and students of sociology, psychology, education, social welfare, and philosophy.

Hardball Without an Umpire: The Sociology of Morality

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

If the truth be known, I am only a partially reformed idealist. In the secret depths of my soul, I still wish to make the world a better place and sometimes fantasize about heroically eradicating its faults. When I encounter its limitations, it is consequently with deep regret and continued surprise. How, I ask myself, is it possible that that which seems so fight can be a chimera? And why, I wonder, aren't people as courageous, smart, or nice as I would like? The pain of realizing these things is sometimes so intense that I want to close my eyes and lose myself in the kinds of daydreams that comforted me as a youngster. One thing is clear, my need to come to grips with my idealism had its origin in a lifetime of naivet6. From the beginning, I wanted to be a "good" person. Often when life was most treacherous, I retreated into a comer from whence I escaped into reveries of moral glory. When I was very young, my faith was in religion. In Hebrew school, I took my lessons seriously and tried to apply them at home. By my teen years, this had been replaced by an allegiance to socialism. In the Brooklyn where I grew up, my teachers and relatives made this seem the natural course. When I reached my twenties, however, and was obliged to confront a series of personal deficiencies, psychotherapy shouldered its way to the fore.

The Limits of Idealism: When Good Intentions Go Bad (Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice)

History

Springer

After I had finished my presentation, a colleague and I sat rocking on the hotel porch to discuss its merits. It was a picture-perfect fall day in Jekyll Island Georgia, and he was a friend. Yes, he explained, what I was saying seemed to be true. And yes it probably needed to be said, but why did I want to be the one to say it? Wasn't I, after all, a tenured professor who didn't need to make a fuss in order to retain his job? Didn't it make sense to just kick back and enjoy the easy life I had earned? The topic of our tete-a-tete was my speculations about race relations and he was certain that too much honesty could only get me in trouble. Given my lack of political correct ness, people were sure to assume that I was a racist and not give me a fair hearing. This was a prospect I had previously contemplated. Long before embarking on this volume I had often asked myself why I wanted to write it. The ideological fervor that dominates our public dialogue on race guaran teed that some people would perceive me as a dangerous scoundrel who had to be put in his place.

Race and Morality: How Good Intentions Undermine Social Justice and Perpetuate Inequality (Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice)

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

The Limits of Idealism: When Good Intentions Go Bad

Evolution Versus Revolution

Sociology

Routledge

Too Lazy to Chew: A Memoir of Discovery

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Independently published

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