Life at the Bottom

Theodore Dalrymple, a psychiatrist who lives and works in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seen a lot of strange things. Yet in listening to his patients and observing them, he is continually amazed by the weird things they do. He thinks the strange things they do are caused by their values or beliefs. His key insight is that long-term poverty is not caused by economics, but by a dysfunctional set of values that are reinforced by an elite culture. This culture persuades those at the bottom that they have no responsibility for their actions and are not the holders of their lives. Drawn from the pages of the cutting-edge political and cultural quarterly City Journal, Dalrymple's book reveals scores of eye-opening, true-life vignettes that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes chilling, and always too revealing—like real life.