Why People Do What They Do

Understanding People by Lawrence Crabb, Zondervan, $12.95

Reviewed by Mark Coppenger, pastor, First Baptist Church, El Dorado, Arkansas

In one of the Marx brothers' movies, Groucho poses as a physician. A patient comes in, raises his arm, and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this."

Groucho immediately responds, "Then don't do that. That'll be ten dollars."

Lawrence Crabb, in Understanding People, urges Christian counselors to go beyond this level of "Cut it out" and "Chin up." He wants us to get to the whys of anorexia nervosa, depression, and homosexuality. He gives Freud some credit for taking us inside the human psyche, but he takes pains to distance himself from Freud, Rogers, and other secularists who ignore or defy the Bible.

This book attempts to show how the Bible provides the framework for tackling all but organically based psychological problems. While his best-selling book Inside Out presents his principles at the popular level, Crabb said in an interview ...