Embracing the Void | Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred

Richard Boothby

ISBN 10: 0810145383 / ISBN 13: 9780810145382

Published by Northwestern University Press, 2022

About this Item

Embracing the Void | Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred | Richard Boothby | Taschenbuch | Diaeresis | Einband - flex.(Paperback) | Englisch | 2022 | Northwestern University Press | EAN 9780810145382 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, 36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr[at]libri[dot]de | Anbieter: preigu.

Seller Inventory # 132549531

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Embracing the Void | Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810145383
• ISBN 13: 9780810145382
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 227W x 151H x 18D millimeters 227 millimeters width by 151 millimeters height by 18 millimeters depth
• Weight: 344 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

A radical reinterpretation of the origin of religion through a psychoanalytic theorization of the unknown
 
Renowned psychoanalytic philosopher Richard Boothby puts forward a novel theory of religion inspired by Jacques Lacan’s theory of das Ding, the disquieting, inaccessible dimension of fellow human beings. This notion of an unfathomable excess, originally encountered in the figure of the mother, led Lacan to break with Freud’s formulation of the Oedipus complex and underlies Lacan’s distinctive conception of unconscious dynamics. Leaning on this account, Boothby shows how our sense of the sacred arises from our relation to what we do not know.
 
Embracing the Void lays out the range of Freud’s attempts at a psychoanalytic theory of religion and then sketches the rough contours of Lacan’s contrasting approach. From there, Boothby offers the theoretical tools for interpreting the religious impulse and analyzes key religious traditions, from ancient Greek polytheism to Judaism and Christianity, and from Hinduism and Buddhism to Islam, finally turning to modern capitalist culture and the seductive deity that dominates it—money. Lucid, accessible, and compelling, the book provides a cogent intervention in one of the psychoanalytic tradition’s most contentious topics and offers a new approach to our understanding of religion.

About the Author

RICHARD BOOTHBY is a professor of philosophy at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of Death and Desire: Psychoanalytic Theory in Lacan’s Return to Freud; Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology after Lacan; Sex on the Couch: What Freud Still Has to Teach Us about Sex; and the memoir Blown Away: Refinding Life after My Son’s Suicide.