A Map to the End of Time or Should I Medicate My Child

A Map to the End of Time: Wayfarings with Friends and Philosophers

Author: Ronald J Manheimer

Teaching philosophy to retired people should be a path to wisdom, Ron Manheimer thought. He was right, but in unexpected fashion. His lively Socratic "dialogues" with older people led him into hilarious and provocative conversations with a colorful cast of fellow seekers: from his bon vivant Danish mentor Augie Nielsen to his strong-willed elderly student Hildegard, from his ironic teenaged daughter Esther to his wisecracking Uncle Joe, a master of the jewish joke. Like James Carse in Breakfast at the Victory, Manheimer reinvigorates the ancient tradition of using storytelling to explore truth. What is romantic love? How do we shape the stories we tell ourselves about our own pasts? Does the purpose of life become clearer in old age? How do we find common meanings across religious, ethnic, and generational divides? What is the essence of a person? What does it mean to live a "full" life? Showing how ideas and lives can illuminate one another, Manheimer's engaging narratives address these questions while providing an inviting exploration of the ideas of thinkers from Plato to Aristotle to Kierkegaard, John Stuart Mill, and Martin Buber.

Library Journal

This is a book about aging, teaching, and philosophy itself. On the surface it is a running narrative of Manheimer's experiences teaching philosophy to the elderly. His students and his own teachers appear as characters in a dialog; as in his earlier book (Kierkegaard as Teacher, 1977), his message is partly that the complexity of philosophy is best presented as an interplay of voices. But here a minor theme from the earlier book becomes dominant: philosophy is an expression of the need to make sense of one's own life. The elderly have a special contribution to make, for their long lives demand reflection. In complementary fashion, philosophical reflection may reveal the significance of growing old. Manheimer writes with charm and humility, but teaching readers to philosophize is difficult. Stanley Cavell (A Pitch of Philosophy, LJ 5/1/94) almost succeeded in combining narrative and system, but Cavell's is a much more egocentric book. Manheimer's is a good choice for any public library.--Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa, Ont.

Kirkus Reviews

At a time when academic philosophy, grown technical and arcane in recent decades, is reaching for a wider audience, this book helps initiate what seems a natural dialogue between the wisdom of ancient texts and the wisdom of advanced years. At age 33 (the "Christological year," as an older mentor to the secular Jewish writer of this book wryly puts it in the opening pages), Manheimer (Philosophy/Univ. of North Carolina, Asheville) began teaching philosophy to senior citizens and has continued in that line of endeavor up through his now 50-plus years. The author muses on the dialogues he has facilitated between philosophy and the seniors. The book comprises remembered conversations with a sampling of elderly students and friends, reconstructions of classroom and conference discussions, retellings of philosophical classics—from Plato to Augustine to John Stuart Mill—and the author's own thoughts, both personal and abstract, on the aging process, especially as it affects the experience of time. Though the chapters read as a series of philosophical vignettes—or etudes, to borrow Manheimer's own metaphor—the book achieves continuity through its centering idea, that the aging process coincides with modernity's quest to incorporate isolated individuals into larger wholes of meaning. The "map to the end of time" is a picture that matures with age of inter-related lives, each of which draws meaning from its place in relation with the others. Manheimer's regard for the philosophical classics and his faithfulness to actual, remembered discussions keep his book on course and safely delivered from facile, feel-good conclusions. Indeed, the book refrains from conclusiveness assuch, casting its final word as recommendations for further reading. With a little more shaping, this book might have become an equivalent for seniors of the philosophical novel, Sophie's World, by Joestein Gaarder, which sets philosophy in dialogue with a child. A charming, novelistic reflection on philosophy by a teacher and student of the elderly. .

Look this: Meditation or Out of the Nightmare

Should I Medicate My Child?: Sane Solutions for Troubled Kids with-and-without Psychiatric Drugs

Author: Lawrence H Diller

With the publication of Running on Ritalin in 1998, Dr. Lawrence Diller established himself as the country's leading expert on the use of psychiatric drugs to treat children. Since then, parents have clamored for his expertise on psychological problems beyond ADD, drugs beyond Ritalin, and, most important, how to decide whether or not drugs really are the best option for their children. More and more parents are asking the simple question: Should I medicate my child? In this authoritative and plainspoken book, which features a detailed, easy-to-access "Quick Guide to Psychiatric Drugs," Dr. Diller gives parents the tools they need to regain faith in their own judgment and make wise choices for their children.

San Diego Union Tribune

A priceless source of information. Every parent of a school-age child should own a copy.

Natural Health Magazine

This compassionate book, which includes extensive discussions of relevant psychiatric drugs and weighs benefits against side effects, will help concerned parents decide if medication is the right option for their child.