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Self and Others |
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R.D. Laing |
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Review pending. |
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Specters of Marx |
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Jacques Derrida |
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Review pending. |
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Synchronicity |
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C.G. Jung |
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Review pending. |
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The Book of the It |
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George Groddeck |
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This book appeared before Freud developed his theories of psychoanalysis. It is said that Freud got the idea of the "id" from Groddeck's book. "The Book of the It" could have been called "The Book of the Id". Groddeck is a fascinating writer,, He writes of medical cases he's encountered, where the problems stem from unanswered and uncoscious forces, emanating from "das es" (the It). |
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The Divided Self |
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R.D. Laing |
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Review pending. |
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The Invisibles: Voodoo Gods in Haiti |
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Francis Huxley |
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Review pending. |
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The Nature of the Self |
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Francis Mott |
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This book was very popular around The Philadelphia Association in London n the 1970s. If we take the idea from psychoanalysis that our history in some way determines or influences our present being, than Francis Mott takes the idea to its logical extreme -- life in the womb. it’s a fascinating read. Much of what Mott speculates on can be taken as exactly that -- speculative. But if you let your imagination run free, then much of what Mott conjures up has plausibility.. Perhaps it's especially useful in drawing parallels with visions of people in psychotic states. It's a fascinating read. R.D. Laing was inspired by this book and other works in the intra-uterine world in which we began our life’s journey. The influence is seen in Laing’s book, “The Facts Of Life”. |
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The Myth of Mental Illness |
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Thomas Szasz |
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Review pending. |
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The Raven and the Writing Desk |
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Francis Huxley |
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A witty and perceptive investigation of Alice, and her adventures underground, and all the people and creatures she met there. Francis Huxley starts from a riddle -- the one the Mad Hatter poses at the Tea Party: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Alice's spirits are momentarily lifted when the Mad Hatter offers to present a riddle, but disappointed when the riddle is not answered, and the Hatter and the others at the The Tea Party return to their hijinx, ignoring Alice's pleas for an answer. Many commentators on Alice have tried to answer the riddle, but somehow no answer seems to fit satisfactorily. Huxley helps us, in this book by proposing rules of nonsense, by means of which we can understnd the goings on in Alice's adventures. or., can we? Are we always constrained by the double-bind of Rule 42 (see the courtroom scene).? |
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The Republic of Plato – Allan Bloom |
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Plato (Tr: Alan Bloom) |
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There are innumerable translations of Plato's Republic into English (the Jowett and the Cornford being the best known). But Professor Allan Bloom's version will be the only available translation which attempts to be strictly literal. Recent translators of the Republic have assumed - implicitly or explicitly - that they had a perfectly adequate idea as to what Plato meant, and that the only problem was to render this meaning into the most readable English. Professor Bloom, on the other hand, as a result of his study of classical thought, is persuaded that the Platonic teachings are peculiarly difficult and that neither he nor any other translator possesses a full understanding of them. Moreover, Professor Bloom is convinced that the Platonic dialogues are written on several levels and that the text is never as simple and straightforward as it seems at a cursory glance. He has therefore provided those of us who do not read Greek with the closest translation of the original that has yet been published in English, in order that we can come to our own interpretations rather than be dependent on the translator's incomplete interpretation. In addition to the text itself there is a rich and invaluable interpretive essay - as well as indexes and a glossary of terms - which will better enable the student to approach the heart of Plato's intention. |
