| Title | : | Understanding People |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0310226007 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780310226000 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published October 30, 1987 |
Understanding People Reviews
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În această carte autorul încearcă să prezinte o modalitate prin care putem să ajungem la o înțelegere biblică asupra oamenilor. Larry Crabb își folosește vasta experiență ca și consilier, cât și cunoștiințele deținute despre psihologie, împreună cu o atentă gândire asupra condiției umane pentru a încerca să ofere un ghid despre ce presupune cu adevărat o cunoaștere a oamenilor. Evitând explicații mult prea complexe dar totuși nesimplificând lucrurile printr-o spiritualizare simplistă și ieftină, autorul reușește în cele două sute de pagini să îți provoace viziunea asupra lumii, emoțiile ascunse și felul în care ai ales până acum să te aperi de durere și să îți păstrezi independența față de Dumnezeu. Toate acestea sub îndrumarea Scripturii și nedepășind limitele impuse de acestea.
Citind această carte ești provocat să te înțelegi în primul rând pe tine, pentru ca mai apoi să poți ajunge să îi înțelegi și pe ceilalți. Sunt determinată să acord o atenție sporită vieții interioare și să o fac o prioritate spirituală, deoarece am realizat că profunzimea umană nu este doar o poveste adusă din psihologie, ci o realitate creată de Dumnezeu, care trebuie investigată, înțeleasă și adusă sub Lumina Scripturii, pentru ca pocăința să fie autentică și cu impact.
Cred că din această carte lipsește accentul pus pe lucrarea Duhului Sfânt în viața
credinciosului, modul în care Duhul Sfânt este acela ce, în final, ne dă puterea să ne schimbăm interiorul și să avem o prezență simțită în manifestarea dragostei noastre. De asemenea, autorul insistă că problemele emoționale de natură anorganică pot fi analizate din perspectiva descrisă de carte, însă în urma cercetărilor din ultimele decenii, s-a descoperit o legătură din ce în ce mai mare chiar și între problemele de natură organică și gândurile/credințele disfuncționale după care o persoană își ghidează viața, lucru ce ar merita adus în discuție în prezent.
Un ultim aspect ce m-a impresionat este revelația faptului că o viață trăită în
dependență față de Dumnezeu nu elimină confuzia resimțită trăind într-o lume decăzută și că dorința de a elimina confuzia poate de fapt să crească controlul pe care îl exercităm noi, depărtându-ne de Dumnezeu și creând o realitate ciuntită. Până acum am crezut că oamenii puternici și înțelepți sunt aceia pentru care viața are sens și o pricep în mare măsură și unde
confuzia nu își are locul, însă acum mă simt mai liberă să mă încred în Dumnezeu, chiar și în mijlocul confuziei. -
The. Best. Book. I have read on understanding people. I don’t agree with every detail, and Crabb gets pretty technical and tedious in some areas, but overall, a book I would highly recommend to anyone who has a desire to understand not just the “what” but the “why” behind the actions of themselves and others.
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a few remarks:
1) Crabb’s charts aren’t comprehensible—and not helpful
2) Crabb’s ‘longings’ are a lesser version of Augustine’s theology of desire
- All the positive points of Crabb are found in Augustine, but there is a more robust theology/anthropology in Augustine. -
Wonderfully insightful book on counseling! Anyone who even meets up with people for coffee regularly in a ministry context would really enjoy this!
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In “Understanding People,” Larry Crabb lays out his philosophy of counseling. For Crabb, the central question for the Christian counselor is what is the relationship between the Bible and counseling. Crabb believes that most counselors have fallen off the ends of the spectrum too far in either direction: they’ve either diminished the authority and perspicuity of scripture (accomodationism) or they’ve devalued the contribution of psychology in helping us understanding people (exclusivist).
Crabb urges us that “true theology, in its very nature, is intensely practical… Divine truth is always intellectually acceptable, spiritually enriching, and practically relevant. If it is true, it has personal impact.” Crabb asks the question: as Christian counselors, is our counseling to be “guided by” or “consistent with” the Bible. The difference between the two is enormous.
To take the “consistent” view, many Christian therapists adopt models as long as they do not violate “clear biblical teaching about doctrine or ethics.” Such a path is too accommodating, Crabb argues, and does not give the Bible enough credit for God’s purposes. It lacks confidence that the Bible speaks authoritatively to many areas of our lives.
Those who take the “exclusive” view, on the other hand, believe that the Bible “directly answers every legitimate question about life and is therefore a sufficient guide for counseling.” The concern with this posture, for Crabb, is that the biblical Word that counselors apply to their counselees is often shallow and leans toward legalism.
Crabb suggests a third way. Crabb argues that “the Bible teaches categories of understanding that can comprehensively guide our efforts to counsel with warmth and insight, and it lays out truths about human personality that are sufficient for leading us into a thorough understanding of what therapists call ‘dynamics.’” This way agrees with those who have a consistent view that therapy gives us tools to deal with internal dynamics. A biblical counselor looks to the heart, which is the source for all of our responses and decisions. Crabb says that a biblical counselor sees relationships as a critical challenge for every human being. “And the Bible is a sufficient guide. It is a textbook for relational living.”
Crabb says that, broadly speaking, three models guide the counselor. The first type is the Dynamic Model, wherein “people are controlled by internal processes (often called personality dynamics) of which they are usually unaware.” The second type is the Moral Model, which believes that “people are more stubborn than confused.” The final model is the Relational Model. In this model, “emotional distress is not caused by deep dynamic processes that must be exposed, nor can the person’s pattern of irresponsible choices be blamed for all his problems. The central area of concern is unsatisfying relationships.” Crabb continues, “Human problems, in this view, are best understood as defensive attempts to handle the pain of fear and tension in significant relationships.” He concludes, “People are caught up in a vicious cycle of hurt, defensive retreat, more hurt, more retreat.”
Crabb pulls back and considers the validity of all three models. To do so, Crabb considers what it means that we are made in God’s image. He suggests that some of those similarities are our deep longings, our evaluative thinking, our active choosing, and our emotional experiencing. At our core, “we are dependent beings whose life requires union with God.” Crabb argues that, “Biblical counseling involves an uncovering of what has been deeply hidden for the purpose of promoting the simple but profound awareness that we need God; we need his forgiveness, his power, his life.”
God wants us to acknowledge that we are desiring beings, and that that desire comes from him and is only perfectly fulfilled in him. “We are thirsty people,” Crabb says. “We long for relationship and impact, desires that only God can fully satisfy.”
It is from this Augustinian perspective on our relationship with sin that Crabb urges us to consider the human heart. “The human heart is now a reservoir of unconscious disordered motivation and response, of which unrenewed persons are unaware if left to themselves, for ‘the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?’ (Jer 17:9).” Crabb says this means that “Sin is more than wrong behavior.” We have to “look carefully at the beliefs and motives beneath the acts.” A counselor helps someone understand how they are formulating their beliefs and where they are seeking their fulfillment.
It is here that Biblical counselors align with those from the Dynamic Model, although they do so with a different perspective. Biblical counselors believe that the behaviors, beliefs, and emotions that are conscious to those they walk with are the tip of the iceberg of the heart. We are unaware of other beliefs, images, and pain that propel our hearts.
The biblical counselor helps the counselee walk through the process of repentance. Repentance allows us to surgically remove even “sin hidden from view” “like a tumor.” This sin runs deep. Human beings long for control. We doggedly protect ourselves from others. It takes deep trust in God to allow him to reach into our hearts and walk through change.
Crabb encourages us to lean into the awareness of our emotions. Even negative emotions can provide opportunities for us to move toward God, while positive emotions can draw us away from God. Crabb is a master of charts and his flow charts of how we navigate positive and negative emotions are both excellent. Crabb’s advice is that we fully experience and feel our emotions, using them to “evaluate what they reveal about” our beliefs and purposes. However, he cautions us that while we ought to be free “to express every emotion,” we ought to “limit expression by the purposes of love.”
Crabb concludes the book with a consideration of the fact that counseling ought to serve the purpose of growing us in spiritual maturity. “The richest opportunities for character growth will never occur without experiencing the terrible reality of total dependency.”
“Understanding People” is one of the best books I’ve read on biblical counseling, only surpassed by “How People Change,” “Seeing through New Eyes,” and “When People are Big and God is Small.” Crabb is a wise and engaging guide. At times Crabb’s style and organization get in the way of the clarity of his writing, but anyone who is interested in biblical counseling needs to pick up Crabb’s book.
One final comment: I read the 2013 Zondervan paperback reprint of this book and was very disappointed with the quality (it is the same edition that Crabb’s book “Encouragement” is in). The paper and the binding were the cheapest possible quality. If you’re able to buy another edition of this book I would encourage you to do so.
For more reviews see
www.thebeehive.live. -
Understanding people: Why we long for relationship (1987/2013) by Larry Crabb is an excellent book essentially dealing with anthropology. The book is divided into three sections. The first, entitled "A Sufficient Bible" begins by exploring how people come to know things and then Crabb moves on to an argument for the sufficiency of scripture, rightly conceived. He effectively addressed the common ways in which people tend to treat the Bible when it comes to psychological difficulties: 1) it has no place because it doesn't directly address every human problem, 2) it is our only focus because it does answer questions, and 3) it is sufficient because it provides categories for thinking and conceptualizing.
Having made his argument that the Bible is a sufficient guide for relational living--again, rightly conceived--in the second section he addressed the issue of anthropology on a deeper level, with specific attention to how he understands what it means to be made in the image of God. After some more theoretical and foundational writing, he comes to the point where he describes all people as personal beings who long deeply, rational beings who think, volitional beings who choose, and emotional beings who feel. Too often, various segments of the church downplay some of these aspects rather than trying to keep them in right balance. He concluded the book with a short third section discussing the evidence and essence of Christian maturity.
Overall, I really appreciated this book. I read one reviewer who lamented that earlier sections of the book were too academic or theoretical, but I admit I didn't see that at all. Understanding people, as Crabb clearly suggests, cannot be accomplished by 5 easy steps. He effectively described an effective model for understanding God's image bearers. -
While this book is for adults, both for understanding level and some of the mature content, It's amazing. I come away from all of Larry Crabb's books both equipped to better relate to others and better able to understand myself.
I highly recommend this for all adult Christians
Warning: there are several very frank mentions of certain sexual sins in this book. I wasn't super comfortable, but Crabb deals with it in such a biblical, god-honoring way that I wasn't offended by it. -
The book was good. I enjoyed a lot of its insights. The title and especially the subtitle, however, were somewhat misleading. I thought the book was primarily about our need for relationships when the book was in reality more of a prolegomenon on Christian counseling.
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I'm not convinced anyone's construal of the human person can perfectly include all the elements of who we are. That being said I appreciated this book a lot:
1. Crabb does a good cursory job of overviewing different approaches to Scripture in Biblical/Christian counseling. His position is more nuanced that I was expecting. He suggests that the Word of God is sufficient for biblical counseling but this does not mean Christians need to eschew or be suspicious of insights from modern psychology. Essentially, he suggests we ought to understand the Bible well, glean from psychology what seems compatible with the Scriptures, and then test it again with the Scriptures (especially the wisdom literature).
2. Crabb treats the personal, rational, volitional, and emotional sides of the person as important. Though I don't agree with all of his logic and his diagrams are confusing at times (I don't get how his circles work), he adequately treats these areas.
3. I just finished reading "On Being Truly Human" by Eberhard Jungel where, using Luther's distinction between act and personhood on the basis of justification by faith, concludes that to be truly human is to receive your justification from God so that you do not have to provide your own self-realization. This frees you to love. Crabb's conclusion about Christian maturity is strikingly close to this. He believes that the Christian receives his identity and wholeness from God, therefore he does not need to be self-defensive. Also, Christian maturity is expressed through love in community rather than simply becoming the best self one can while avoiding community. -
- Wow! The ending was very convicting --and I appreciated how each part of the book built up to the end.
- I loved his holistic emphasis, combining cognitive, behavioral, psychotherapeutic approaches.
- I definitely connected with what he said about emotions are good, that hurt is part of life, and we should feel deeply. His discussion about "negative" emotions answered some questions that I've been asking for over a decade.
- HOWEVER, I would have appreciated more foundation for his premise that all our problems stem back to relationships. He did say that people have longings for impact (in addition to relationship), but then he didn't spend much time discussing the effects of our longings for impact. I definitely see how relationship longings affect a lot of our problems. I just need some more information to convince me that it is the basis for ALL of our problems. -
I love Larry Crabb.
He has a wonderful way of describing human nature, and the motives and urges that dictate our actions.
This book begins with a helpful discussion about christian counselling, how christians do not tend to approach Psychology properly, and how we should approach it.
He goes on to present a very insightful picture of human beings in relation to God, how our brokenness affects us and how we can experience true healing through relationship.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in Christian counselling, pastoral ministry or is just interested in understanding themselves and the people around them better. -
My opinion is that this book is miss titled. A more correct title would be, “A guide to Christian counseling.“.
The information in regard to Christian counseling is extensive and went over my head. The book would be better if you read the actual physical book. I listened to the audiobook. If you listen to the audiobook it will require you to do a lot of visualization to understand some of the points.
As a Christian counseling book this is probably a four-star or five-star book. but as a book titled, “understanding people” it doesn’t work to help you understand people. It does work to help you understand the various different theories of counseling. -
Longings, Rational, and Sinful Agency
People are complex. The physical, spiritual, and emotional are all tangled like an old box of electrical cords. Crabb's approach is what I was taught in college. This book offers an overview of that. To Crabb, many counseling approaches only deal with issues above the water line of an ice berg, but for lasting change to occurs we must deal below the water line with frustrated longings and sinful rational. -
Overall a pretty incredible book. The only reason I give it 4 stars is because I didn't find his various circle illustrations particularly helpful. They just don't add much to the content of the book, which is already robust. Those particular illustrations could have been left out, I think.
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4.5 stars
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Solid concept, lots to digest. A little surprised by the author's conservatism, but I won't "throw the baby out with the bathwater."
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A very thought provoking, well written book. I intend to reread this book again and again.
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As with all Larry Crabb books, the content is great but the editing is not great.
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This book was great. I would highly recommend it to someone who wants to learn more about themselves and others from a biblically based perspective. It was very thought provoking and challenged me to reassess myself not in fear but in boldness...and ultimately encouraged me to maintain a strong and intensely needed relationship with God and my savior Jesus. To measure the legitimacy of spiritual books, since it led me back to the Bible and to God with more passion than before, I consider this one a success.
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It's been so good to observe Crabb's progress at melding clinical psychology and Biblical counseling. As we post-moderns are discarding authoritarianism and searching for the Truth in all its facets, Crabb has been growing in wisdom and facility to communicate.
This book is outdated in comparison to his most recent work. -
If only they took out the first, academic lecture-ish, half of the book. It was hard for me to learn from because of the format, but this book changed my perspective on life. You SHOULD read it, if only starting in the middle.
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Tediously plodding before becoming thoughtfully nuanced, though not entirely convincing for this reader. The last sections of the book are worth thinking through, but I guess I was disappointed in hearing less of Jesus than I was expecting. Which made me sad.
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Arc words: Be self-sufficient, or depend on God. Psychology has some useful concepts to show the deceptions of the human heart. The book overlaps with, but does not surpass, The Marriage Builder.
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Read through this one a few times. An excellent springboard into the integrationist perspective of counselling.
