Paolo Legrenzi and Carlo Umiltà
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199591343
- eISBN:
- 9780191729164
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199591343.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neuroaesthetics, and neurotheology are just a few of the novel disciplines that have been inspired by a combination of ancient knowledge together with recent ...
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Neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neuroaesthetics, and neurotheology are just a few of the novel disciplines that have been inspired by a combination of ancient knowledge together with recent discoveries about how the human brain works. The mass media are full of news items featuring colour photos of the brain, that show us the precise location in which a certain thought or emotion, or even love occurs, hence leading us to believe that we can directly observe, with no mediation, the brain at work. But is this really so? Even throughout the developed world, the general public has been seduced into believing that any study, research article, or news report, accompanied by a brain image or two is more reliable and more scientific, than one featuring more mundane illustrations. This book questions our obsession with brain imaging. It discusses some of the familiar ideas usually associated with mind-body, brain-psyche, and nature-culture relationships, showing how the biased and unquestioning use of brain imaging technology could have significant cultural effects for all of us.Less
Neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neuroaesthetics, and neurotheology are just a few of the novel disciplines that have been inspired by a combination of ancient knowledge together with recent discoveries about how the human brain works. The mass media are full of news items featuring colour photos of the brain, that show us the precise location in which a certain thought or emotion, or even love occurs, hence leading us to believe that we can directly observe, with no mediation, the brain at work. But is this really so? Even throughout the developed world, the general public has been seduced into believing that any study, research article, or news report, accompanied by a brain image or two is more reliable and more scientific, than one featuring more mundane illustrations. This book questions our obsession with brain imaging. It discusses some of the familiar ideas usually associated with mind-body, brain-psyche, and nature-culture relationships, showing how the biased and unquestioning use of brain imaging technology could have significant cultural effects for all of us.
Michael O. Emerson and George Yancey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199742684
- eISBN:
- 9780199943388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742684.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Many Americans, mostly but not exclusively white Americans, believe that when it comes to race relations, we have not failed. Television, radio, and blogging pundits preach it daily, and millions of ...
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Many Americans, mostly but not exclusively white Americans, believe that when it comes to race relations, we have not failed. Television, radio, and blogging pundits preach it daily, and millions of Americans readily accept it as fact. Race, as an organizer of inequality and mistreatment, is over. Racial oppression, save for the attempts of a few crackpots, is gone. Race relations, only occasionally strained by some old-timers who will not let go, improve constantly. Slavery, the racial caste system, and the Jim Crow segregation of the South all appear to be gone, been eliminated and destroyed. We have a black president, so, clearly, what we have now is a meritocracy. Conversely, we have millions and millions of Americans, mostly but not exclusively non-white Americans, who believe we have failed. This chapter explains why the United States has failed to eliminate racism, citing the American racial psyche and the paradox of group loyalty.Less
Many Americans, mostly but not exclusively white Americans, believe that when it comes to race relations, we have not failed. Television, radio, and blogging pundits preach it daily, and millions of Americans readily accept it as fact. Race, as an organizer of inequality and mistreatment, is over. Racial oppression, save for the attempts of a few crackpots, is gone. Race relations, only occasionally strained by some old-timers who will not let go, improve constantly. Slavery, the racial caste system, and the Jim Crow segregation of the South all appear to be gone, been eliminated and destroyed. We have a black president, so, clearly, what we have now is a meritocracy. Conversely, we have millions and millions of Americans, mostly but not exclusively non-white Americans, who believe we have failed. This chapter explains why the United States has failed to eliminate racism, citing the American racial psyche and the paradox of group loyalty.
J. Warren Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195369939
- eISBN:
- 9780199893362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369939.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Having argued in Chapter 1 that for Ambrose the divisive tension between the soul and the body is not the proper relationship as God intended it in creation, but is the result of the fall, this ...
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Having argued in Chapter 1 that for Ambrose the divisive tension between the soul and the body is not the proper relationship as God intended it in creation, but is the result of the fall, this chapter examines Ambrose’s understanding of the proper relationship between soul and body. It is argued that Ambrose subscribes to a hylomorphic anthropology akin to that of both Aristotle and Plotinus. Yet given his commitment to the immortality of the soul, Ambrose’s view is closer to Plotinus than Aristotle. This hylomorphic anthropology provides a model for understanding Ambrose’s view of human emotions or passions.Less
Having argued in Chapter 1 that for Ambrose the divisive tension between the soul and the body is not the proper relationship as God intended it in creation, but is the result of the fall, this chapter examines Ambrose’s understanding of the proper relationship between soul and body. It is argued that Ambrose subscribes to a hylomorphic anthropology akin to that of both Aristotle and Plotinus. Yet given his commitment to the immortality of the soul, Ambrose’s view is closer to Plotinus than Aristotle. This hylomorphic anthropology provides a model for understanding Ambrose’s view of human emotions or passions.
Niall Finneran
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
Any archaeological study of slavery in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia) must take two factors into account: first, the paucity of archaeological evidence for this system, which is ...
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Any archaeological study of slavery in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia) must take two factors into account: first, the paucity of archaeological evidence for this system, which is historically attested as being of immense economic importance in the Aksumite and post-Aksumite period; and second, that the ‘social memory’of slavery within the modern Ethiopian psyche has fuelled an ethnohistorical — potentially racist — dichotomy between the ‘Semitic’ highlands and the ‘Cushitic’ lowlands. This dichotomy also broadly mirrors a religious Christian/Muslim separation. This chapter argues that although apparently archaeologically invisible, the long history of slavery within this region of Africa has left a profound and legible cultural imprint upon its peoples and landscapes.Less
Any archaeological study of slavery in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia) must take two factors into account: first, the paucity of archaeological evidence for this system, which is historically attested as being of immense economic importance in the Aksumite and post-Aksumite period; and second, that the ‘social memory’of slavery within the modern Ethiopian psyche has fuelled an ethnohistorical — potentially racist — dichotomy between the ‘Semitic’ highlands and the ‘Cushitic’ lowlands. This dichotomy also broadly mirrors a religious Christian/Muslim separation. This chapter argues that although apparently archaeologically invisible, the long history of slavery within this region of Africa has left a profound and legible cultural imprint upon its peoples and landscapes.
Robert H. F. Carver
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199217861
- eISBN:
- 9780191712357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217861.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the rediscovery of The Golden Ass. Evidence of first-hand acquaintance with The Golden Ass exists from the beginning of the trecento. By the middle of the 14th century, copies ...
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This chapter explores the rediscovery of The Golden Ass. Evidence of first-hand acquaintance with The Golden Ass exists from the beginning of the trecento. By the middle of the 14th century, copies are in the hands of the leading humanists Petrarch and Boccaccio. By the end of the century, Psyche has been re-enthroned in the Genealogia, and The Golden Ass is on its way to becoming part of the common property of the Italian Renaissance.Less
This chapter explores the rediscovery of The Golden Ass. Evidence of first-hand acquaintance with The Golden Ass exists from the beginning of the trecento. By the middle of the 14th century, copies are in the hands of the leading humanists Petrarch and Boccaccio. By the end of the century, Psyche has been re-enthroned in the Genealogia, and The Golden Ass is on its way to becoming part of the common property of the Italian Renaissance.
Robert H. F. Carver
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199217861
- eISBN:
- 9780191712357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217861.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses Apuleian influences in The Faerie Queene. It argues that Spenser used different parts of The Golden Ass in various ways and with varying degrees of success. Meroë and Pamphile ...
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This chapter discusses Apuleian influences in The Faerie Queene. It argues that Spenser used different parts of The Golden Ass in various ways and with varying degrees of success. Meroë and Pamphile contributed to the pool of attributes from which Duessa and Acrasia emerged, and the combination of Homeric, Italian, and Apuleian elements was, by and large, an effective one. The account of Psyche's fall supplied a screen behind which Una could be clothed in the human colours that strict allegory would deny her, while Apuleius' description of her exile and her responses to trials and adversity provided a backdrop against which the virtues both of Una and Guyon could be measured. But it is when Spenser — in Muiopotmos as well as in The Faerie Queene — makes explicit reference to ‘Cupid and Psyche’ that the difficulties really begin.Less
This chapter discusses Apuleian influences in The Faerie Queene. It argues that Spenser used different parts of The Golden Ass in various ways and with varying degrees of success. Meroë and Pamphile contributed to the pool of attributes from which Duessa and Acrasia emerged, and the combination of Homeric, Italian, and Apuleian elements was, by and large, an effective one. The account of Psyche's fall supplied a screen behind which Una could be clothed in the human colours that strict allegory would deny her, while Apuleius' description of her exile and her responses to trials and adversity provided a backdrop against which the virtues both of Una and Guyon could be measured. But it is when Spenser — in Muiopotmos as well as in The Faerie Queene — makes explicit reference to ‘Cupid and Psyche’ that the difficulties really begin.
Porscha Fermanis
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637805
- eISBN:
- 9780748652181
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637805.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
John Keats is generally considered to be the least intellectually sophisticated of all the major Romantic poets, but he was a more serious thinker than either his contemporaries or later scholars ...
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John Keats is generally considered to be the least intellectually sophisticated of all the major Romantic poets, but he was a more serious thinker than either his contemporaries or later scholars have acknowledged. This book provides a major reassessment of Keats' intellectual life by considering his engagement with a formidable body of eighteenth-century thought from the work of Voltaire, Robertson, and Gibbon to Hutcheson, Hume, and Smith. The book re-examines some of Keats' most important poems, including The Eve of St Agnes, Hyperion, Lamia, and Ode to Psyche, in the light of a range of Enlightenment ideas and contexts from literary history and cultural progress to anthropology, political economy, and moral philosophy. By demonstrating that the language and ideas of the Enlightenment played a key role in establishing his poetic agenda, Keats' poetry is shown to be less the expression of an intuitive young genius than the product of the cultural and intellectual contexts of his time. The book contributes to one of the most important current debates in literary scholarship — the understanding of the relationship between the Romantic period and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.Less
John Keats is generally considered to be the least intellectually sophisticated of all the major Romantic poets, but he was a more serious thinker than either his contemporaries or later scholars have acknowledged. This book provides a major reassessment of Keats' intellectual life by considering his engagement with a formidable body of eighteenth-century thought from the work of Voltaire, Robertson, and Gibbon to Hutcheson, Hume, and Smith. The book re-examines some of Keats' most important poems, including The Eve of St Agnes, Hyperion, Lamia, and Ode to Psyche, in the light of a range of Enlightenment ideas and contexts from literary history and cultural progress to anthropology, political economy, and moral philosophy. By demonstrating that the language and ideas of the Enlightenment played a key role in establishing his poetic agenda, Keats' poetry is shown to be less the expression of an intuitive young genius than the product of the cultural and intellectual contexts of his time. The book contributes to one of the most important current debates in literary scholarship — the understanding of the relationship between the Romantic period and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.
Christopher Gill
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198152682
- eISBN:
- 9780191710131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152682.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter identifies, as a key innovative feature of Hellenistic thought about personality, the idea of the person as a psychophysical unit or whole in Stoicism and Epicureanism. It contrasts this ...
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This chapter identifies, as a key innovative feature of Hellenistic thought about personality, the idea of the person as a psychophysical unit or whole in Stoicism and Epicureanism. It contrasts this idea with the core-centred or part-based view of the personality sometimes found in Plato and Aristotle, while highlighting certain strands in Platonic or Aristotelian thought that may have helped to shape Stoic and Epicurean thought about personality. Psychophysical holism in Stoicism and Epicureanism is illustrated by reference to their views about the physical nature of the psyche and the development of human beings (and other animals) as embodied psychological wholes. Connections are also traced with some puzzles about identity in Stoic and Epicurean thought.Less
This chapter identifies, as a key innovative feature of Hellenistic thought about personality, the idea of the person as a psychophysical unit or whole in Stoicism and Epicureanism. It contrasts this idea with the core-centred or part-based view of the personality sometimes found in Plato and Aristotle, while highlighting certain strands in Platonic or Aristotelian thought that may have helped to shape Stoic and Epicurean thought about personality. Psychophysical holism in Stoicism and Epicureanism is illustrated by reference to their views about the physical nature of the psyche and the development of human beings (and other animals) as embodied psychological wholes. Connections are also traced with some puzzles about identity in Stoic and Epicurean thought.
karin lofthus carrington and susan griffin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520251021
- eISBN:
- 9780520949454
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520251021.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Over the last decade, there has been a vicious cycle in which terrorism causes terror and the experience of terror seeds acts of terrorism. Instead of viewing terrorism according to those who enact ...
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Over the last decade, there has been a vicious cycle in which terrorism causes terror and the experience of terror seeds acts of terrorism. Instead of viewing terrorism according to those who enact it, this book argues that it should be viewed from the perspective of those who are harmed by it. Thus, it sees terrorism as acts of violence against unarmed civilians, no matter who perpetrates them. The book considers the way terror damages the human psyche or soul, and how it is through this damage that the world enters seemingly endless cycles of violence. The first part contains a series of chapters that chart the psychological, social, and cultural processes—from trauma to denial, fear and the illusion of power—by which terror and violence lead to more terror and violence. The second part of the book presents insights, approaches, and understandings—from the necessity for justice to the role gender has often played in violence, to the knowledge of interdependence and the experience of compassion—through which vicious cycles of terror might be transformed.Less
Over the last decade, there has been a vicious cycle in which terrorism causes terror and the experience of terror seeds acts of terrorism. Instead of viewing terrorism according to those who enact it, this book argues that it should be viewed from the perspective of those who are harmed by it. Thus, it sees terrorism as acts of violence against unarmed civilians, no matter who perpetrates them. The book considers the way terror damages the human psyche or soul, and how it is through this damage that the world enters seemingly endless cycles of violence. The first part contains a series of chapters that chart the psychological, social, and cultural processes—from trauma to denial, fear and the illusion of power—by which terror and violence lead to more terror and violence. The second part of the book presents insights, approaches, and understandings—from the necessity for justice to the role gender has often played in violence, to the knowledge of interdependence and the experience of compassion—through which vicious cycles of terror might be transformed.
David Leeming
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195142884
- eISBN:
- 9780199834402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195142888.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Heroes are those humans who, in the mythological traditions, are in varying degrees infused with divine or superhuman qualities. Heroes reflect our priorities as individuals and as cultures. As ...
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Heroes are those humans who, in the mythological traditions, are in varying degrees infused with divine or superhuman qualities. Heroes reflect our priorities as individuals and as cultures. As analyzed archetypally in Joseph Campbell's “monomyth,” the hero reflects our priorities as a species, priorities involving the body's, the psyche's, and the soul's search for union. Warlike cultures create warlike heroes who seek the union of hegemony; heroes such as Jesus and the Buddha reflect the search for spiritual union; the hero pattern as a whole reflects our life's psychological journey toward wholeness. Modern thinkers have recognized new mythologies that reflect new understandings of reality based on, e.g., psychology, mysticism, ecology, and physics. New hero values have emerged from this modernist process, values perhaps reflected in William Carlos Williams's little poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow.”Less
Heroes are those humans who, in the mythological traditions, are in varying degrees infused with divine or superhuman qualities. Heroes reflect our priorities as individuals and as cultures. As analyzed archetypally in Joseph Campbell's “monomyth,” the hero reflects our priorities as a species, priorities involving the body's, the psyche's, and the soul's search for union. Warlike cultures create warlike heroes who seek the union of hegemony; heroes such as Jesus and the Buddha reflect the search for spiritual union; the hero pattern as a whole reflects our life's psychological journey toward wholeness. Modern thinkers have recognized new mythologies that reflect new understandings of reality based on, e.g., psychology, mysticism, ecology, and physics. New hero values have emerged from this modernist process, values perhaps reflected in William Carlos Williams's little poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow.”
Ramin Jahanbegloo and Sudhir Kakar
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195698930
- eISBN:
- 9780199080267
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195698930.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
Sudhir Kakar, a prominent psychoanalyst and eminent author, is considered one of India’s leading intellectuals. A mechanical engineer, Kakar did his doctorate in economics before beginning his ...
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Sudhir Kakar, a prominent psychoanalyst and eminent author, is considered one of India’s leading intellectuals. A mechanical engineer, Kakar did his doctorate in economics before beginning his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971. For someone trained as an engineer and later as an economist, he continues to cross disciplinary boundaries and capture the imagination of readers and everyone interested in the world of ideas. Based on interviews of Kakar by Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, this book is a journey into Kakar’s mind — his fertile and unpredictable ways of thinking, and the essential humanism which all his writings signify — recounting the life and ideas of Kakar in his own words. In the process, the book affords readers rare insights into the psychological make-up of the modern Indian. Flowing effortlessly from Kakar’s descriptions of his early life in undivided India to discussions of the Indian psyche and sexuality, the book also presents his views on secularism and modern Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Kakar brings to bear his intellect on a wide range of issues from philosophy to democracy, Indian culture and tradition, and the Partition, and the conversational style of the interviews helps demystify many of his complex ideas.Less
Sudhir Kakar, a prominent psychoanalyst and eminent author, is considered one of India’s leading intellectuals. A mechanical engineer, Kakar did his doctorate in economics before beginning his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971. For someone trained as an engineer and later as an economist, he continues to cross disciplinary boundaries and capture the imagination of readers and everyone interested in the world of ideas. Based on interviews of Kakar by Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, this book is a journey into Kakar’s mind — his fertile and unpredictable ways of thinking, and the essential humanism which all his writings signify — recounting the life and ideas of Kakar in his own words. In the process, the book affords readers rare insights into the psychological make-up of the modern Indian. Flowing effortlessly from Kakar’s descriptions of his early life in undivided India to discussions of the Indian psyche and sexuality, the book also presents his views on secularism and modern Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Kakar brings to bear his intellect on a wide range of issues from philosophy to democracy, Indian culture and tradition, and the Partition, and the conversational style of the interviews helps demystify many of his complex ideas.
Linda Sargent Wood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377743
- eISBN:
- 9780199869404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377743.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter introduces readers to holism—a view that holds that reality can only be understood as a whole. It suggests that holism, like other intellectual concepts, is malleable and cyclical, ...
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This chapter introduces readers to holism—a view that holds that reality can only be understood as a whole. It suggests that holism, like other intellectual concepts, is malleable and cyclical, conditioned by different historical settings and cultures. In the case of this particular sensibility, holists emphasized a communitarian ethos and addressed important conversations. They wrote prescriptions for societal harmony, made space for technology while preserving a harmonious relationship with nature, and adapted their faith to fit an increasingly scientific world. The introduction further explains that the case studies have been chosen not as definitive renderings of holism but as influential representatives of holistic expressions in different fields. Together they constitute a small, yet suggestive, sampling of a society. Moreover, they image the concept of holism, signifying the constituent parts of the human experience: Carson speaks to the relationship between the human and the natural world; Fuller addresses the relationship between humans and technology; King focuses on the community; Maslow addresses the individual psyche; and Teilhard points to the spiritual realm; Esalen illustrates one way these myriad expressions were brought under one roof. Congregating them highlights the fundamental role that holistic visions played in the culture at midcentury and helps us understand the era.Less
This chapter introduces readers to holism—a view that holds that reality can only be understood as a whole. It suggests that holism, like other intellectual concepts, is malleable and cyclical, conditioned by different historical settings and cultures. In the case of this particular sensibility, holists emphasized a communitarian ethos and addressed important conversations. They wrote prescriptions for societal harmony, made space for technology while preserving a harmonious relationship with nature, and adapted their faith to fit an increasingly scientific world. The introduction further explains that the case studies have been chosen not as definitive renderings of holism but as influential representatives of holistic expressions in different fields. Together they constitute a small, yet suggestive, sampling of a society. Moreover, they image the concept of holism, signifying the constituent parts of the human experience: Carson speaks to the relationship between the human and the natural world; Fuller addresses the relationship between humans and technology; King focuses on the community; Maslow addresses the individual psyche; and Teilhard points to the spiritual realm; Esalen illustrates one way these myriad expressions were brought under one roof. Congregating them highlights the fundamental role that holistic visions played in the culture at midcentury and helps us understand the era.
Anne Cotterill
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199261178
- eISBN:
- 9780191717598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199261178.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter suggests that the narrator of Upon Appleton House (1651) reflects on and responds to pressures of contemporary and personal occasions characterized by loss or uncertainty. While a lowly ...
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This chapter suggests that the narrator of Upon Appleton House (1651) reflects on and responds to pressures of contemporary and personal occasions characterized by loss or uncertainty. While a lowly family tutor, the voyeuristic narrator dares to range far and deep over the Fairfax estate and history, and into the psyche apparently of Lord Fairfax but perhaps more profoundly of himself. The narrator's digressive tour of the landscape progresses through time but also dives out of time to explore an ambiguous self exposed at the depths of a landscape of drowning, watery labyrinths, and trauma. The poem aligns the male narrator and startlingly predatory voices of the ‘subtle’ nun and ‘bloody thestalis’, only to highlight the dead silence of youth including Isabel Thwaites and Mary Fairfax.Less
This chapter suggests that the narrator of Upon Appleton House (1651) reflects on and responds to pressures of contemporary and personal occasions characterized by loss or uncertainty. While a lowly family tutor, the voyeuristic narrator dares to range far and deep over the Fairfax estate and history, and into the psyche apparently of Lord Fairfax but perhaps more profoundly of himself. The narrator's digressive tour of the landscape progresses through time but also dives out of time to explore an ambiguous self exposed at the depths of a landscape of drowning, watery labyrinths, and trauma. The poem aligns the male narrator and startlingly predatory voices of the ‘subtle’ nun and ‘bloody thestalis’, only to highlight the dead silence of youth including Isabel Thwaites and Mary Fairfax.
Sudhir Kakar
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077152
- eISBN:
- 9780199081103
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077152.003.0023
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter underscores the wider implications of the inner world—the childhood layer of the mind—for the processes of modernization and social change. It is essential to understand the ways in ...
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This chapter underscores the wider implications of the inner world—the childhood layer of the mind—for the processes of modernization and social change. It is essential to understand the ways in which a culture responds to the press of social change, to the tension between innovation and conservation. In the later development of psychoanalytic thought, the rigid reductionist formulation of the relationship between the individual psyche and society’s institutions has been amended. For the large majority of India’s people, social change has been gradual and bearable. Most Indians have remained true to the traditional Indian identity in which the maternal cosmos of infancy and early childhood is the inner world. This chapter concludes that many insights gleaned from the nature of traditional Hindu childhood and society are of vital importance for mankind’s radical need for a holistic approach to man’s nature.Less
This chapter underscores the wider implications of the inner world—the childhood layer of the mind—for the processes of modernization and social change. It is essential to understand the ways in which a culture responds to the press of social change, to the tension between innovation and conservation. In the later development of psychoanalytic thought, the rigid reductionist formulation of the relationship between the individual psyche and society’s institutions has been amended. For the large majority of India’s people, social change has been gradual and bearable. Most Indians have remained true to the traditional Indian identity in which the maternal cosmos of infancy and early childhood is the inner world. This chapter concludes that many insights gleaned from the nature of traditional Hindu childhood and society are of vital importance for mankind’s radical need for a holistic approach to man’s nature.
Hannah Means-Shannon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic ...
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Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic vision suggests a reading of Arkham as the underworld. Moreover, Means-Shannon suggests that “when examining a text replete with psychoanalytical references and mythological motifs, it is appropriate to question the precise mythological role that the Joker plays within this vast psychological metaphor.” That role, Means-Shannon suggests, is obscured by the many archetypal possibilities provided by the Joker’s representation, such as trickster, shadow, and anima. Rather, the Joker is “all of these things inclusively, and therefore a collective representation of the unconscious psyche”: a ruler.Less
Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic vision suggests a reading of Arkham as the underworld. Moreover, Means-Shannon suggests that “when examining a text replete with psychoanalytical references and mythological motifs, it is appropriate to question the precise mythological role that the Joker plays within this vast psychological metaphor.” That role, Means-Shannon suggests, is obscured by the many archetypal possibilities provided by the Joker’s representation, such as trickster, shadow, and anima. Rather, the Joker is “all of these things inclusively, and therefore a collective representation of the unconscious psyche”: a ruler.
Steven Connor
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184331
- eISBN:
- 9780191674204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184331.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The flourishing of the direct voice during the 20th century was undoubtedly encouraged by the development of acoustic technologies — the telephone, the phonograph, the gramophone, the microphone, the ...
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The flourishing of the direct voice during the 20th century was undoubtedly encouraged by the development of acoustic technologies — the telephone, the phonograph, the gramophone, the microphone, the megaphone, the radio, and the tape-recorder. The idea that the appliances and instruments are not only useful for making contact with spirits, but are also a feature of life beyond death, is a striking confirmation of the intermingling of technological modes of thought with supernaturalist ideas. For spiritualism, acoustic technology is not so much the proof of the retarding entanglement of psyche with the matter of techne, as the image of the evolving continuity of psyche. More than merely channels of contact with another order of existence, the telephone or the wireless are themselves a message concerning the magical, perfectible life of matter.Less
The flourishing of the direct voice during the 20th century was undoubtedly encouraged by the development of acoustic technologies — the telephone, the phonograph, the gramophone, the microphone, the megaphone, the radio, and the tape-recorder. The idea that the appliances and instruments are not only useful for making contact with spirits, but are also a feature of life beyond death, is a striking confirmation of the intermingling of technological modes of thought with supernaturalist ideas. For spiritualism, acoustic technology is not so much the proof of the retarding entanglement of psyche with the matter of techne, as the image of the evolving continuity of psyche. More than merely channels of contact with another order of existence, the telephone or the wireless are themselves a message concerning the magical, perfectible life of matter.
Benjamin Y. Fong
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231176682
- eISBN:
- 9780231542616
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231176682.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In this masterful and enlivening study of the ways in which the concepts of death and mastery have been elaborated in Freudian and post-Freudian social theory, Ben Fong has given us the means to ...
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In this masterful and enlivening study of the ways in which the concepts of death and mastery have been elaborated in Freudian and post-Freudian social theory, Ben Fong has given us the means to think about human nature and human community now, under conditions of advanced capitalism, without succumbing to the scientism of the new neurobiology or to the social constructivism of recent historicist social and cultural theory. The argument turns on the ambiguity embedded in the notion of mastery: on the one hand, the capacity to engage creatively with the world, to master the tasks of living a historical form of life; on the other, the temptation to enslave, to compel others to exercise this competence in one's place. Fong is able to analyze with remarkable lucidity a complex array of individual and social phenomena by fleshing out the imbrications of these twinned responses to what Freud called the drives' demand for work. Fong makes abundantly clear that drive theory and social theory are strongest when thought together.Less
In this masterful and enlivening study of the ways in which the concepts of death and mastery have been elaborated in Freudian and post-Freudian social theory, Ben Fong has given us the means to think about human nature and human community now, under conditions of advanced capitalism, without succumbing to the scientism of the new neurobiology or to the social constructivism of recent historicist social and cultural theory. The argument turns on the ambiguity embedded in the notion of mastery: on the one hand, the capacity to engage creatively with the world, to master the tasks of living a historical form of life; on the other, the temptation to enslave, to compel others to exercise this competence in one's place. Fong is able to analyze with remarkable lucidity a complex array of individual and social phenomena by fleshing out the imbrications of these twinned responses to what Freud called the drives' demand for work. Fong makes abundantly clear that drive theory and social theory are strongest when thought together.
Peter Otto
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187196
- eISBN:
- 9780191674655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187196.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
This chapter analyses the meaning of the part of William Blake's The Four Zoas that focuses on the struggle between Urizen (reason) and Luvah (love) for control of Albion (the whole man) which led to ...
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This chapter analyses the meaning of the part of William Blake's The Four Zoas that focuses on the struggle between Urizen (reason) and Luvah (love) for control of Albion (the whole man) which led to the defeat of Luvah. After his victory, Urizen attempts to consolidate his power by restraining the body, but he is surprised to learn that the body took an unalterable form and the female will was created. This chapter suggests that this reordering of the sexes of the psyche and body consolidated the conflict between the sexes in the opening pages of this prophetic poem.Less
This chapter analyses the meaning of the part of William Blake's The Four Zoas that focuses on the struggle between Urizen (reason) and Luvah (love) for control of Albion (the whole man) which led to the defeat of Luvah. After his victory, Urizen attempts to consolidate his power by restraining the body, but he is surprised to learn that the body took an unalterable form and the female will was created. This chapter suggests that this reordering of the sexes of the psyche and body consolidated the conflict between the sexes in the opening pages of this prophetic poem.
Richard Seaford (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474410991
- eISBN:
- 9781474426695
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474410991.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This book focuses from various perspectives on the striking similarities (as well as the concomitant differences) between early Greek and early Indian thought. In both cultures there occurred at ...
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This book focuses from various perspectives on the striking similarities (as well as the concomitant differences) between early Greek and early Indian thought. In both cultures there occurred at about the same time the birth of 'philosophy', the idea of the universe as an intelligible order in which personal deity is (at most) marginal and the inner self is at the centre of attention. The similarities include a pentadic structure of narrative and cosmology, a basic conception of cosmic order or harmony, a close relationship between universe and inner self, techniques of soteriological inwardness and self-immortalisation, the selflessness of theory, envisaging the inner self as a chariot, the interiorisation of ritual, and ethicised reincarnation. Explanations for the similarites are a shared Indo-European origin, parallel socio-economic development, and influence in one direction or the other.Less
This book focuses from various perspectives on the striking similarities (as well as the concomitant differences) between early Greek and early Indian thought. In both cultures there occurred at about the same time the birth of 'philosophy', the idea of the universe as an intelligible order in which personal deity is (at most) marginal and the inner self is at the centre of attention. The similarities include a pentadic structure of narrative and cosmology, a basic conception of cosmic order or harmony, a close relationship between universe and inner self, techniques of soteriological inwardness and self-immortalisation, the selflessness of theory, envisaging the inner self as a chariot, the interiorisation of ritual, and ethicised reincarnation. Explanations for the similarites are a shared Indo-European origin, parallel socio-economic development, and influence in one direction or the other.
Daniel Russell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199282845
- eISBN:
- 9780191602931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199282846.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
In Republic IX, Plato argues that the supreme pleasantness of the virtuous life is a particularly great consideration in demonstrating that the virtuous life is happy. This raises the question of ...
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In Republic IX, Plato argues that the supreme pleasantness of the virtuous life is a particularly great consideration in demonstrating that the virtuous life is happy. This raises the question of whether this argument spouses the additive or the directive conception of happiness. On the additive conception, the argument is straightforward: the virtuous life is happy because the virtuous life is also the life of supreme pleasure, and the life of supreme pleasure is happy. On the directive conception, the argument is much more subtle: the virtuous life is happy because the virtuous life is the life of a fully integrated, healthy, and flourishing psyche, as demonstrated by (among other things) the transformation of the affective dimensions of the virtuous person's psyche, and such a life is the happy life. This chapter set out this need for interpretive care in more detail by looking at its connection to a more general problem for understanding how Plato thinks virtue benefits its possessor in the Republic, to which any adequate reconstruction of the ‘pleasure arguments’ in book IX must respond. It is argued that Plato's strategy is to demonstrate that virtue benefits its possessor on the grounds that the virtuous person, and only the virtuous person, possesses a healthy and harmonious psyche. Plato's conception of pleasure in book IX is a form of apprehending one's life as satisfying and worth living, and his argument is that having the true form of such pleasure means that one's life is, in fact, satisfying and worth living, and that one's psyche is healthy and harmonious. And such pleasure is to be found only in the virtuous person.Less
In Republic IX, Plato argues that the supreme pleasantness of the virtuous life is a particularly great consideration in demonstrating that the virtuous life is happy. This raises the question of whether this argument spouses the additive or the directive conception of happiness. On the additive conception, the argument is straightforward: the virtuous life is happy because the virtuous life is also the life of supreme pleasure, and the life of supreme pleasure is happy. On the directive conception, the argument is much more subtle: the virtuous life is happy because the virtuous life is the life of a fully integrated, healthy, and flourishing psyche, as demonstrated by (among other things) the transformation of the affective dimensions of the virtuous person's psyche, and such a life is the happy life. This chapter set out this need for interpretive care in more detail by looking at its connection to a more general problem for understanding how Plato thinks virtue benefits its possessor in the Republic, to which any adequate reconstruction of the ‘pleasure arguments’ in book IX must respond. It is argued that Plato's strategy is to demonstrate that virtue benefits its possessor on the grounds that the virtuous person, and only the virtuous person, possesses a healthy and harmonious psyche. Plato's conception of pleasure in book IX is a form of apprehending one's life as satisfying and worth living, and his argument is that having the true form of such pleasure means that one's life is, in fact, satisfying and worth living, and that one's psyche is healthy and harmonious. And such pleasure is to be found only in the virtuous person.
