The Morbid Streak

As a psychiatrist, one has a privileged view of human destructiveness…

Contact with extreme forms of feelings and behaviour are valuable in understanding less extreme varieties and in detecting similar tendencies in oneself and others.

Self-destructive behaviour is pervasive in the human context, appearing in many different forms and to varying degrees.

In keeping with the notion that the best way to learn about ourselves is through interacting with others, Ann Dally explores
patterns of self-destructive behaviour, denial and self-deception as they reveal themselves throughout different stages of life.

She considers the time many of us spend destroying, or seriously damaging, ourselves or those close to us.

At worst, we commit murder or suicide (although luckily, not many of us carry our morbid urges to such extremes).

Mostly we suffer neurosis and despair, seek perverse satisfaction or make martyrs of ourselves.

Or we tyrannize, undermine or attempt to dominate our families, our friends, our colleagues.

In exploring these areas of human feeling and behaviour associated with frustration, pain and anxiety, Dally seeks their connection with human destructiveness.

She believes, above all, that if we are to survive as human beings in the anti-human society we have created, we must allow free rein to our imaginative capabilities.

The Morbid Streak offers a fascinating insight into the mind and the behaviour humans so often tend towards in order to determine how these destructive patterns came to be.

Praise for Ann Dally

‘Thorough and engaging’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘introduces a levelheaded view’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘refreshingly evenhanded’ – Kirkus Reviews