BENEATH explains the WHY and the HOW of the deepest roots of human behaviour in a simple, comprehensible, but academically rigorous way to ordinary people. It offers a synthesis of depth psychology, without the jargon. It explains the logic of mental structuring and resultant behaviour, and it is in fact, fundamentally logical.

BENEATH will help ordinary individuals develop an understanding so that they can think through the following types of questions for themselves:

1. Why do I sometimes want to do one thing, but end up doing the opposite?

2. Why do I sometimes instinctively like some people, and yet take an instant dislike to others?

3. How do my character traits develop and how can I change them?

4. Why does it feel that I cannot access my full potential?

5. Why do people do things that are so obviously destructive?

6. Why do we hurt the people we love sometimes?

7. How can I change the behaviours in myself that I do not like?

It is very useful to have a better idea why we and others do what we do. Such knowledge makes our lives more predictable and our relationships easier. However, with such a vast amount of information out there, it is hard for individuals to synthesize it into a meaningful framework. Also, theories of human behaviour differ greatly in terms of their philosophical frameworks and foundations, and the beliefs that underpin the ultimate conclusions. When ordinary individuals (without psychological expertise) apply these theories to their lives, it is more often than not without an understanding of the beliefs that lie beneath the theories. Also, popularly available psychological information often offers us conclusions about cause-effect relationships (for example, “introverts” will avoid social occasions) without ever encouraging the ordinary reader to ask the critical questions of: “WHY that is the case?”, “HOW does introversion develop?” and if so, “HOW can it be changed?”.

The author believes that psychological information is most useful when it explains the cause-effect relationships behind behaviour and enables the user to understand the principles and logic behind those relationships. Many books and training courses tell people WHAT to do, without helping them to arrive at an understanding of why certain ways of thinking, tools and techniques are meaningful and useful for them at the deepest and most sustainable level.

Depth psychology is the school of psychology (developed by people like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Melanie Klein) that studies the part of the human psyche that is not immediately available to conscious thought, but nevertheless seems to have a profound impact on human behaviour. It is the area of psychology that attempts to understand the deepest roots of human behaviour. Depth psychology provides some very useful answers in terms of WHY we do some of the things we do, HOW are characters are developed, and HOW we can change ourselves?

Helene Smit

Books