Strange Journey: John R. Friedeberg Seeley and the Quest for Mental Health

by Paul Roberts Bentley

Overview

This biographical history follows the iconoclastic career of John R. Friedeberg Seeley, pre-eminent “Pop Sociologist” and Mental Health Activist of the 1950s. 

Seeley’s "strange journey" began as a British Home Child, estranged from his cosmopolitan German-Jewish family. Seeley progressed through the ranks of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and the University of Chicago, to achieve prominence as the author of Crestwood Heights, a defining work of postwar social science. 

He led an ambitious mental health project in Canadian schools, and was a founding father of York University. However, Seeley’s struggle with mental illness and Jewish identity brought him into conflict with the Canadian establishment. His career ended in academic exile, but his dream of a mental health revolution still resonates. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644690505
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	06/23/2020
Series:	North American Jewish Studies
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Paul Roberts Bentley holds an MSc. (Econ) in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and an Ed. D. in the History and Philosophy of Education from the University of Toronto. He has worked as a History Teacher and Head of Department in Ontario High Schools for over 25 years.

Table of Contents

Prologue

1. Wolff Child
2. A Splendid Chap
3. An Opening Gun
4. Pop Sociology
5.Empire
6. How to Murder a Community
7. Film Noir
8. The Isle of Nuts
9. Waspish Tone
10. Jewish Tempers
11. The Flash
12. Wild Surmises
13. Floating Anxiety
14. The Unpublished Version of Crestwood Heights
15. Waspish Tone
16. Jewish Tempers in the Village
17. Protégé
18. Uprising at York University

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index