Crescita e colpa: Psicologia e limiti dello sviluppo

by Luigi Zoja

The increasing exploitation of the planet has become the subject of ever more frequent debates on the limits of growth and development. However until now studies have dealt primarily with the technological aspects. Is it truly possible to deal with the excesses of our civilization without lending attention to the psychological dimension? Luigi Zoja argues that the crux of the problem is not, surely, to be found in encounters with external limits; we must also and primarily be aware of a principle of self-limitation that we have to exercise if unchecked growth is not to turn cancerous.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Luigi Zoja Luigi Zoja Ph.D. (1943) is an Italian psychoanalyst and writer. He took a degree in economics and did research in sociology during the late 1960s. Soon thereafter he studied at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. After taking his diploma, Zoja returned to Zurich to work at a clinic for several years. He maintains a private practice in Milan. He also practiced for two years in New York City, during a period that bracketed the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D. C. He has taught regularly at the Zurich Jung Institute, and also on occasion at the Universities of Palermo and Insubria. From 1984 to 1993, Zoja was president of CIPA (Centro Italiano di Psicologia Analitica), and from 1998 to 2001 was president of the IAAP (International Association of Analytical Psychology). Later he chaired the IAAP's International Ethics Committee. His essays and books have appeared in 14 languages.

Most of his essays interpret present-day predicaments (addiction, limitless consumption, the absence of the father, hatred and paranoid projections in politics, etc.) by placing them in the light of persistent ancient patterns, as expressed in myth and classical literature. Archetypal psychologist James Hillman has called Zoja an "anthropological psychologist" as one way of indicating the range and depth of his thinking.

Reviews

[Gabriela Shine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scrisa cu mult rafinament si multa claritate, este dovada unei gandiri profunde ce se poate detasa de prezent pentru a strabate secole de istorie si perspective psihologice. O carte speciala despre psihologia limitei, despre hubris, despre nevoia omului modern de a-si restabili echilibrul, reevaluandu-si dimensiunile - de fiinta muritoare - si imbratisandu-si limitele, fizice si psihologice. Numai adevarul ne reda libertatea. Implinirea nu inseamna a cuceri, a dobandi si a depasi, ci mai degraba a trai plenar ceea ce esti, simti si faci. Grecii antici stiau ceva ce noi am uitat.

[Sara-Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

'the seeds of european expansionism can be rediscovered in the passage from tragic thought to scientific and philosophical thought, which is also, accepting the terms of Nietzsche, the passage from the world of pessimism to the world of optimism' 105