Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewWhat can contemporary psychoanalysis bring to the understanding of Generation X, a cohort for whom the trivialization of a dizzying array of possible experiences teamed with the pressure to lead spectacular lives often leads to diffuse feelings of confusion, depression, and disorientation? In The Designed Self: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Identities, Carlo Strenger explores the psychology of young adults for whom the weight of cultural, familial, and religious traditions has seemingly vanished. These young people have grown up in a cultural universe defined largely by their contemporaries, and their maturational path is charted less by conflicts with authority than by the imperative to ""design thy self."" The Designed Self chronicles Strenger's therapeutic encounters with five extraordinarily gifted young adults for whom the ideal of authenticity long associated with the Baby-Boom generation was supplanted by the need to experiment endlessly with the self. Perpetual self-experimentation, constantly reinforced by the media, came to encompass everything from career choice, to hair color, to body shape, to gender identity. In compelling clinical stories, Strenger introduces us to patients for whom the absence of any sense of cultural continuity with their parents' generation was exemplified by embrace of a ""Nobrow culture"" that rejected the very distinction between ""genuine"" and popular culture. And we meet patients for whom the project of shaping the self had become a cultural imperative no less than an expression of individuality. In all five cases, Strenger acquired therapeutic leverage by attending to the dark side of his GenXers' sense of self-creating empowerment. Analytic inquiry led to the fatherlessness that accompanied the absence of clearly felt authority; to the terror of aging that coexisted with postadolescent norms of sexual attractiveness; to the sense of financial failure plaguing those who fell short of the well-publicized success stories of their cultural icons; and to the dilemma signaled by the competing pulls of ethnic identity and the desire to be part of the global village. In exploring the interrelationships among recent cultural changes and the process of identity formation in GenXers, Strenger takes up a task central to analytic theorists of earlier generations but much neglected in recent years: The shaping impact of cultural experience on psychological development. His case presentations achieve added power and poignancy owing to his own cultural milieu: Israeli urban society, where cultural and ethnic tensions have long had heightened impact on young adults. At once insightful and cautionary, The Designed Self investigates how psychoanalysis must change if it is to claim cultural relevance and therapeutic effectiveness in The Age of the Designed Self. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Carlo Strenger (Carlo Strenger, University of Tel Aviv, USA)Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd Imprint: Analytic Press,U.S. Volume: 27 Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.460kg ISBN: 9780881634198ISBN 10: 0881634190 Pages: 222 Publication Date: 12 October 2004 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviews<p> Carlo Strenger has written an engaging and truly original book that offers some provocative ideas about reconstructing psychoanalysis in the context of a fast-changing world. Strenger argues persuasively that the culture of 'Generation X' is very different from that in which psychoanalysis evolved, or even that with which the middle-aged analyst of today is familiar. With compelling clinical examples and wide-ranging scholarship and erudition, Strenger puts forth a vision of a psychoanalysis that innovates, like the new generation itself, without giving up its connection to its own tradition. This book is essential reading for all therapists who want to stay current with the lives of their patients. <p>- Neil Altman, Ph.D., Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues<p>?With intellectual and stylistic grace, Carlo Strenger weaves a seamless web of good story and compelling thought. Open to the changing cosmos he and his patients inhabit, he speaks with equal ease of clinical process, psychoth Carlo Strenger has written an engaging and truly original book that offers some provocative ideas about reconstructing psychoanalysis in the context of a fast-changing world. Strenger argues persuasively that the culture of 'Generation X' is very different from that in which psychoanalysis evolved, or even that with which the middle-aged analyst of today is familiar. With compelling clinical examples and wide-ranging scholarship and erudition, Strenger puts forth a vision of a psychoanalysis that innovates, like the new generation itself, without giving up its connection to its own tradition. This book is essential reading for all therapists who want to stay current with the lives of their patients. - Neil Altman, Ph.D., Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues With intellectual and stylistic grace, Carlo Strenger weaves a seamless web of good story and compelling thought. Open to the changing cosmos he and his patients inhabit, he speaks with equal ease of clinical process, psychotherapeutic technique, and theories philosophical, social, and psychoanalytic. Continuing in the cosmopolitan tradition of Civilization and Its Discontents, The Designed Self shows us the dialectical process by which psychoanalysis illuminates and changes the very world it belongs to and is thereby changed itself. - Muriel Dimen, Ph.D., Author, Sexuality, Intimacy, Power (Analytic Press, 2003) Strenger challenges psychoanalysis and culture, daring us to live in new ways yet not to leave ourselves behind. The Designed Self is not only an edifying read but a thoroughly enjoyable one. - Michael Eigen, Ph.D., Editor, The Psychoanalytic Review Author InformationStrenger, Carlo Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
