In her first new work since The Vagina Monologues; her Obie Award-winning smash hit; Eve Ensler tells the story of two American women; a Park Avenue psychiatrist and a human rights worker; who go to Bosnia to help women confront their memories of war and emerge deeply changed themselves. Necessary Targets is a groundbreaking play about women and warmdash;about the violence of dark memories and the enduring resilience of the human spirit.Melissa; an ambitious young writer; and J.S.; a successful but unsatisfied middle-aged psychiatrist; have nothing in common beyond the methods they have been taught to distance themselves from other people. As J.S. begins to feel compassion for the women whose tragedies she has been sent to expose; she turns on Melissa; who finds safety in control. In an unexpected moment of revelation; J.S. and the women she is supposedly treating find a common ground; a place to be taught and a place to learn.Necessary Targets has been staged in New York by Meryl Streep; Anjelica Huston; and Calista Flockhart; and performed in Sarajevo with Glenn Close and Marisa Tomei.From the Trade Paperback edition.
#1196802 in eBooks 2001-03-10 2001-03-10File Name: B000FC1JI0
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. 5 stars for significance; charm; 4 stars for accuracyBy Bob Pr.Konrad Lorenz was one of THE three European founders of ethology (the study of the natural behavior of animals in their environments). Nikolas Tinbergen; Von Frisch; and Lorenz were co-awarded the Nobel Prize in 1973 for their preceding bodies of work which created this new scientific discipline.This was extremely significant to the course of American psychology which; until that time; had grown increasingly dominated by learning theory and the laboratory method. American psychology; influenced by the achievements of physics and medicine;etc.; preferred studying behavior under controlled; laboratory conditions as the means for getting nearer "ultimate truth"; which; at that time; was thought to almost always involve learning at its core--in accord with the principles and theories of famous American learning theorists such as Thorndike; Watson; Skinner; Hull; et al. Comparative psychology was the American branch that studied similarities and differences between animal species but controlled problems in a laboratory setting were greatly preferred. Observations of behavior; while valuable for designing later lab experiments; were considered less rigorous.So the truths Lorenz; Tinbergen; Von Frisch and their other European naturalist colleagues reported was as significant as the childs observation of the Emperors new clothes. The truth of a significant lack was revealed. The laboratory method could not examine or reveal all important aspects of animal behavior; the lab method obscured or eliminated those behaviors occurring in natural settings.Lorenz and Tinbergen discovered; explored; and brought imprinting to the attention of the scientific behavioral world. Imprinting is the lasting (often irreversible) effects of early experience (occuring within a critical period of development) on the later behavior of animals. This contrasted with the view of normal learning theories which found the strength of a response was mainly a function of the number of practice trials. (Von Frischs work was in understanding the "language" of bees.)Lorenzs "King Solomons Ring" was a significant contribution that enabled lay people to understand the importance of such observations and prepared (sometimes excited) beginning students in the behavioral sciences to take psychology in new directions. Within a few years; learning theory no longer formed the spinal column and much of the skeletal structure of American psychology.I was a psychology graduate student during these years and the laboratory instructor for my universitys professor of comparative psychology. It was an exciting time; seeing the old "truths" and axioms become overthrown and helping to search for new ones.The "Ring" is still a delightful and interesting read and inclines the reader to look with different eyes at the behavior of our animal friends. Possibly because Ive kept current on research on dogs; I think its weakest chapter is "The Covenant"; Ch. 10; which is on dogs. Here Lorenz decides that most domestic dogs descended from the jackal while a few also descended from the wolf. Having advanced that thesis; he then describes in detail the dichotomy of personality and behavior to which these two antecedents lead and which can be commonly found in all their descendents.WRONG!For the last 40 years; weve become increasingly certain that almost all domestic dogs descended from wolves. Lorenz speculates an incorrect premise and then proceeds to elaborate (with charm and erroneous fact) on this in great detail. Its interesting and illuminating to see how wrong Lorenz can be in some areas and so right (or right enough) in others.So read the "Ring" to understand its and its authors deserved place in the history of behavioral sciences. Read it to increase your observational powers of your animal friends. But please do not read it as divine; ordained truth. Many thousands of scientists have since built on the foundations that Lorenz; Tinbergen; Von Frisch built along with the contributions of Watson; Pavlov; Skinner; Hull; and others. (Serpells "The Domestic Dog" provides a good source on more recent information about dogs.)0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful book; poor re-issue.By Richard MiddletonThis was probably one of the first serious natural history books I ever read; and many decades later it is still a delight. As one reviewer put it; it may now seem dated because so many of the ideas in it are now commonplace (but I still think it deserves more than the 3 stars that reviewer awarded it). So; 5 stars for content. However; one star deducted because the typeface used in this Meridian edition is dreadful and; for me; a pain to read: semi-bold and seemingly very cluttered on the page. It almost looks like a low-definition scan (Im sure people who know printing have a term for this). It makes me wish my original copy hadnt been "borrowed" by someone...1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A delightful readBy Deborah E. BifulcoI wasnt sure what to expect when I got this book and was afraid that it might be very dry and hard for a lay-person to understand. I could not have been more wrong! Lorenz writes in a manner that pulls the reader in and he steers clear of scientific jargon; writing in a manner that is highly enjoyable and understandable. This is a must-read for people who are interested nature and the behavior of animals; birds and other creatures.