A New Culture of Energy: Beyond East and West - Softcover

Irigaray, Luce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231177135 ISBN 13: 9780231177139

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2021

Synopsis

In A New Culture of Energy, Luce Irigaray reflects on three critical concerns of our time: the cultivation of energy in its many forms, the integration of Asian and Western traditions, and the reenvisioning of religious figures for the contemporary world. A philosopher as well as a psychoanalyst, Irigaray draws deeply on her personal experience in addressing these questions. In her view, although psychoanalysis can succeed in releasing mental energy, it fails to support physical and spiritual well-being. In pursuit of an alternative, she took up the bodily practices of yoga and pranayama breathing, which she considers in light of her analysis of sexuate belonging and difference. Reflecting on these practices, Irigaray contrasts yoga’s approach to the natural world with how the Western tradition privileges mastery over nature. These varied sources provoke her to question how a tradition imagines transcendence and the divine. In the book’s final section, she reinterprets the figure of Mary through breath, self-affection, and touch, recalibrating her physicality within a natural world. A reflection on the liberation of human energy, this book urges us to cultivate an evolutionary culture in harmony with all living beings.

About this title

About the Author

Luce Irigaray is an acclaimed French philosopher, linguist, and psychoanalyst, the author of more than thirty books, which have been translated into a number of languages. Her previous Columbia University Press books include Between East and West: From Singularity to Community (2001) and, with Michael Marder, Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives (2016).

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231177135
• ISBN 13: 9780231177139
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128