The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross-Cultural Perspective - Softcover

Robbins, Michael

 
9780415454612: The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0415454611 ISBN 13: 9780415454612
Publisher: Routledge, 2011

Synopsis

The universal quest to create cosmologies – to comprehend the relationship between mind and world - is inevitably limited by the social, cultural and historical perspective of the observer, in this instance western psychoanalysis. In this book Michael Robbins attempts to transcend such contextual limitations by putting forward a primordial form of mental activity that co-exists alongside thought and is of equal importance in human affairs.

This book challenges the western assumption that knowledge is synonymous with rational thought and that the aspect of mind that is not thought is immature, irrational, regressive and pathological. Robbins illustrates the central role of primordial mental activity in spiritual cultures analogous to that of thought in western culture as well as its significant contributions to numerous other phenomena including dreaming, language, creativity, shamanism and psychosis.

In addition to his extensive clinical experience as a psychoanalyst Robbins draws on first-hand contact with Maori and other shamanistic cultures. Vividly illustrated by first and second hand accounts, this book will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, those with a psychological interest in spiritual cultures as well as those in the fields of developmental psychology, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, aesthetics and linguistics.

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About the Author

Michael Robbins has practiced psychoanalysis for four decades. He has held professorships on the faculties of the Harvard and UCSF medical schools and is currently a member of the Boston and International Psychoanalytic Societies. He lives and practices in Amherst, Massachusetts.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Routledge
Publication date
2011
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0415454611
ISBN 13 
9780415454612
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
256

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780415454605: The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0415454603 ISBN 13:  9780415454605
Publisher: Routledge, 2011
Hardcover