The Book of the Self: Person, Pretext, and Process

by Polly Young-Eisendrath (Editor)

We face a dilemma in contemporary human studies, write the editors. We cannot stop talking about the self (and its neighbors), but we cannot agree on our terms and their definitions. The Book of the Self addresses this problem by offering unique psychological and philosophical essays whose central concern is to clarify the language of the self and to establish a common framework from which this fundamental topic can be explored. Polly Young-Eisendrath (a psychologist, educator, and writer) and James A Hall (a Jungian Psychiatrist and author) have assembled a distinguished group of contributors to address a series of fascinating topics, among them Donald P. Spence on the central role of the self in psychotherapy, Jane Loevinger on the concept of the self or ego, and John M. Broughton on Piaget's concept of the self. Other topics include the self and Lacan, feminism, Christianity, and Jung.

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst, psychologist, and psychotherapist in private practice. She is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the founder and director of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy. She is past president of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies and a founding member of the Vermont Institute for the Psychotherapies. Polly is also the chairperson of Enlightening Conversations, a series of conversational conferences which bring together participants from the front lines of Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Polly has published sixteen books, as well as many chapters and articles, that have been translated into more than twenty languages, including The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance> and Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path>.

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was wonderful. first essay i’ve read on lacan- apart from his works- and i was surprisingly enthralled. kugler throughly prides into lacans contributions and his inputs on psych development in such a way that had me wanting to read more of kugler- not even the subject of the essay. overall, lots of points were made on the self, but throughout: the theme, motif, (not that there was one of course) or whatever you call it seemed to be “this is your problem to recognize, but not your responsibility to solve.” which then leads to even more introspection. nevertheless- good read, will definitely come back.

[Lex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent