In search of the good life : Emmanuel Levinas, psychoanalysis, and the art of living /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Marcus, Paul, 1953-
Imprint:	London : Karnac Books, 2010.
Description:	xvii, 210 p. ; 23 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Lévinas, Emmanuel. Lévinas, Emmanuel. Psychoanalysis. Ethics. Ethics. Psychoanalysis.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8135146

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ISBN:	9781855757233 1855757230
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), French phenomenological philosopher and Talmudic commentator, is regarded as perhaps the greatest ethical philosopher of our time. While Levinas enjoys prominence in the philosophical and scholarly community, especially in Europe, there are few if any books or articles written that take Levinas's extremely difficult to understand, if not obtuse, philosophy and apply it to the everyday lives of real people struggling to give greater meaning and purpose, especially ethical meaning, to their personal lives. This book attempts to fill in the large gap in the Levinas literature, mainly through using a Levinasian-inspired, ethically-infused psychoanalytic approach. All of the essays included in this book are animated by the Levinasian assumption that it is the ethical relation to the other person (and, in one case, dog!) that is primary. That is, there is a human tendency in us, an often inhibited, muted or repressed tendency, as psychoanalysts have taught us, to see the needs of others as more important (or at least as important) than our own and therefore be willing to sacrifice for others. Moreover, once this human tendency to be for the Other is consciously embraced and made part of one's way of being in the world the possibility for a greater degree of personal fulfillment and happiness is often enhanced. Thus, the art of living the "good life" involves embracing "goodness" as one's guiding metaphor, an existential orientation in which, says Levinas, "the Other counts more than myself." As social psychologists have repeatedly shown, in social life, paradoxically, it is often the case that "the more you give, the more you get." Being for the Other, in other words, is often self-affirming! . --- Product Description.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1. "I'm just wild about Harry!" A psychoanalyst reflects on his relationship with his dog
Chapter 2. Victory through vegetables: self-mastery through a vegetarian way of life
Chapter 3. Long night's journey into day: on tending to a dying mother
Chapter 4. On reading a sacred book: the wisdom of Ecclesiastes and its significance for psychoanalysis
Chapter 5. "Guard your tongue": on the psychological meaning of gossip
Chapter 6. The life and soul of good parenting: on wanting, having, and raising children
Chapter 7. On feeling altogether miserable: getting help through psychotherapy
Chapter 8. All you need is love: on the difficulties of sustaining an adult-to-adult love relationship
Chapter 9. Looking for God in all the right places: on developing an "adult" religious outlook
Glossary
References
Index

In search of the good life : Emmanuel Levinas, psychoanalysis, and the art of living /

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