Polarities of Experience: The Psychology of the Real - Hardcover

Rubens, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0999007408 ISBN 13: 9780999007402

Publisher: Popolano Press, 2017

Synopsis

This is a book about choices--the choices we make that shape our Experience, Expression, and Intimacy. These choices determine the nature of what our life is and what it will be. Based on decades of clinical practice, teaching, and writing, The Polarities of Experience is a series of deeply personal philosophical reflections by psychoanalyst Richard Rubens on dealing with the realities of our world and the people in it.

Aimed at any intelligent, thoughtful reader, The Polarities of Experience is an exploration of how the ability to remain close to the immediacy of experience determines the direction our life moves. The closer to reality the direction of our choices, the more positive and meaningful our life becomes; the further we retreat from reality into the direction of depression, aggression, inequality, or authoritarianism, the more diminished life becomes. This book explores ten Polarities--spectrums along which our choices position us. Once we understand them, these Polarities enable us to improve our choices and generate positive change in the life we create.

Can we accept the loss that comes with growth and change, or do we retreat into depression? Do we positively express our selfhood, or do we become aggressive? Can we be intimate, or must we avoid it by substituting power, abuse, dependence, or deceit? Do we accept our freedom and the responsibility that goes with it, or do we run to authoritarianism? Can we accept the novelty and mixed nature of the world and the separateness of people in it, or must we distort in ways that prevent us from growing and becoming healthy and mature?

The Polarities of Experience provides numerous personal examples which bring life and clarity to the book's philosophical ideas. Seasoned psychoanalysts will find useful and novel approaches to familiar concepts; those with no background in psychology will find a fascinating introduction to sophisticated ways of thinking about relationships and the meaning of being an individual in the world. The Polarities of Experience will lead you to a more positive and creative understanding of self-assertion in the world, intimacy in relationships, and healthy personal functioning.

About this title

About the Author

Richard L. Rubens is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He is a supervising analyst and on the teaching faculty of the William Alanson White Institute, and for decades had been on the faculty of Columbia University as an Adjunct Professor in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Teachers College. For the past 12 years he has also been working with major cities around the world as part of the Urban Age program at the London School of Economics. Education: Dr. Rubens has a BA from Yale University in History of Art, a BHL from Hebrew Union College in Rabbinic Studies, a PhD from Columbia in Clinical Psychology, an internship at Harvard Medical School, and a certificate in Psychoanalysis from the William Alanson White Institute.

Review

Richard Rubens has provided a powerful reframing of psychological thought that not only builds on a broad, diverse body of ideas but captures them in a series of Polarities that provide new and exciting insights. Polarities of Experience is a remarkable book, readable for anyone fascinated by human experience, without sacrificing rigor and the consequent interest for clinical professionals and academic scholars. It is not hyperbole to call this a Magum Opus as it covers a stunning breadth of content for an equally diverse range of readers. --Michael Brimm, Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behavior, INSEAD, France and Singapore

Rubens has here created a structure of understanding that is supple, elegant, and almost spookily applicable to a vast range of human experience and ways of looking at human experience. Psychoanalytical acuity is his starting point, but his ingenious "polarities" generate cascades of insights that are not only psychological but also, and in addition, social, political, even aesthetic. --Hendrik Hertzberg, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Politics: Observations & Arguments

Hidden behind the incisive proposition of this text there is a gentle, inquisitive, loving soul that permeates throughout it. Without its touch we would miss the reparative quality of the work. Not only an illuminating analysis of the relational nature of our existence, but a road map that can help us navigate it. --Rafael Vinoly, Architect

A distinguished psychoanalyst and renowned authority on Fairbairn and Object Relations theory, Richard Rubens has written a book that is both accessible and invaluable to all who are interested in the human condition. The writing is clear, direct and compassionate. This is an insightful and provocative book which explicates an original take on psychoanalytic theory. Dr. Rubens's unique approach will be an inspiration to seasoned professionals as well as lay readers. --Bernadette Hogan, Psychoanalyst, Supervisor and Teaching Faculty, William A. White Institute

Anybody who wants to create change in the world--to improve the society in which they live, the way the people around them interact, the way they relate to others, or the way they express themselves--should read Polarities of Experience. By defining a series of Polarities the book provides readers with a guide with which to evaluate their performance and to choose how better to go about the way they lead their lives. --Alexander Garvin, Professor of Urban Planning and Management, Yale University, author of The American City and The Planning Game

About this edition

• Publisher: Popolano Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0999007408
• ISBN 13: 9780999007402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384