The Human Difference | Evolution, Civilization - and Destruction

Michael Robbins

ISBN 10: 1032580550 / ISBN 13: 9781032580555

Published by Routledge, 2023

About this Item

The Human Difference | Evolution, Civilization - and Destruction | Michael Robbins | Taschenbuch | Einband - flex.(Paperback) | Englisch | 2023 | Routledge | EAN 9781032580555 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, 36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr[at]libri[dot]de | Anbieter: preigu.

Seller Inventory # 127776017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Human Difference | Evolution, Civilization - and Destruction
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032580550
• ISBN 13: 9781032580555
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 234W x 156H x 11D millimeters 234 millimeters width by 156 millimeters height by 11 millimeters depth
• Weight: 304 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

From a multidisciplinary perspective grounded in psychoanalysis, this book explores the manifestations of mind that distinguish humans from other species, culture, civilization, and destructiveness.

Psychoanalysis was created by Freud in an effort to understand neurosis and psychosis, the names he gave to individual human destructiveness. His understanding was limited and incorrect because the science of evolution and the disciplines of sociology and cultural anthropology were in their infancy when he formulated his ideas. He did not comprehend that destructiveness is qualitatively different in humans than in other species and he ignored the problem of how biological instincts become mental processes. These limitations left psychoanalysis with one of its most perplexing unsolved problems, the mysterious leap from mind to body. This book explains how neoteny, the prolonged period of postnatal immaturity that distinguishes humans from other animals, requires and enables complex learning from caregivers. It is the knowledge acquired from this learning and its intergenerational transmission that links the biological theory of evolution with the psychosocial theory of psychoanalysis and explains how the human species is unique.

This book will be of interest to those who want to learn about how integrating the findings of evolutionary science, primatology, sociology, and cultural anthroplogy with the theory of psychoanalysis expands our understanding of what makes humans unique and its implications for the future of our species, and how it empowers us to influence the destiny of humankind.

About the Author

Michael Robbins is a psychoanalyst, member of the American and International Psychoanalytic Societies, former professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and author of 5 previous books and more than 40 articles in refereed journals.