CONSERVATIVE

Briefly Noted
Admirable Evasions:
How Psychology Undermines Morality
Theodore Dalrymple
New York: Encounter Books, 2015
One of the greatest living essayists in the English language,
Dalrymple turns his attention in this short book to the field
of psychology. A former prison doctor, he inveighs against
the field of psychology today, which he sees as ‘getting
in the way’ of people’s duties and obligations. Too often,
he writes, medical diagnoses are overused, and societal
problems are reduced to behavioral problems stemming
from neurochemical disorders. This contributes to a culture
in which people are no longer responsible for their actions—
and leads to “intellectual and moral dishonesty”.
Le traité transatlantique et autres menaces
Alain de Benoist
Paris: Éditions Pierre-Guillaume de Roux, 2015
In The Transatlantic Treaty and Other Menaces, the controversial
French academic—and founder of the Nouvelle Droite (of
which we are often critical)—here explains his opposition to
the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
between the EU and the US. Seeing it as nothing more than a
mechanism that would facilitate the ‘take-over’ of Europe by
multinational corporations, Benoist considers it one of several
threats to national sovereignty. In the face of such threats, he
argues, the only response is to rebel. (P. Pigny)
La tradizione e il sacro
Roger Scruton
Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 2015
La tradizione e il sacro (Tradition and the Sacred), published
this year by Vita e Pensiero of Milan, the label of the
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, collects
six previously published essays by Roger Scruton. Scruton’s
point is really the question of the day: “What keeps us
together?” The answer, he suggests, is found in the
question itself—where ‘us’ stands for Christian Western
Civilization, and what remains of it that is still Christian
and still Western—despite the contemporary narrative of
triumphant irreligion. (M. Respinti)
The European Conservative 29