ABSTRACT
Social symptoms, similarly, are collective actions that are detrimental to a society’s life as a whole, often complained of by people as unwelcome and bringing unpleasure and suffering to them, but which are, none the less, indispensable to them in maintaining their identity, or "asserting the position of the self". There are several basic types of social symptoms are: harmful behaviours, including crime, delinquency, violence, war, terrorism, and addictions; ineffective or counterproductive efforts to prevent or reduce these behaviours, such as the war on crime, the war on drugs, and the war on terrorism. To prevent or alter the behaviours responsible for social problems, people need to do more than simply attribute, these behaviours to a presumed moral deficiency or flawed character of those who engage in them. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
