Ego & Soul: The Modern West in Search of Meaning

by John Carroll

Examining the battlegrounds across which a struggle for meaning is being fought—including work, sport, intimacy, shopping, tourism, computers, democracy, and a retreat into nature—this work is a compelling investigation on how modern man lives. Dissecting the intersection between culture and religion, this spiritual study reviews the desperate search for meaning through everyday activities.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Cultural, Spirituality

326 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

John Carroll is a professor of sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and a fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book puts forward many interesting points however it is not a book that you can really read before you go to sleep. To get the best from this book you need to be able to think deeply about what the author is proposing.

I didn't think that the book really broken new ground and found the progression of the book a little disjointed but it was easy to read. I think it is the sort of book that you'll need to read put away for a while, think about and then come back and revisit it.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad. The big ideas are decent but the execution was a little unsatisfying.

[Debra Brunk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - in fact, I was looking forward to reading it. The book starts out strong, with discussions on the battlegrounds between ego and soul in work, sport and love. The chapter on lower-middle-class culture was interesting; however, I don't think the author's observations are necessarily true throughout the West, particularly in the U.S. Unfortunately, as soon as we hit chapter 5, the book goes downhill. Arguments and examples come across as absolutist, leaving the reader (me, in this instance) not really identifying with the author's discussions on shopping, tourism, etc. It seemed to me that pretty much everything after chapter 4 is unnecessary and does not contribute to the author's arguments. A more interesting approach may have been to contrast the West with the East, highlighting the most significant differences. The author mentions the West's current fascination with Eastern mysticism, but only briefly. This area could have been more sufficiently developed in a discussion of the West's search for meaning.

[Rhonda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found John Carroll's writing style difficult to appreciate and his theses to be a little pretentious. Thoughts, ideas and theories quite haphazard in explanation and development.. chops and changes in direction were difficult to follow and ideas were not original, and very reliant on other philospophy and writings