Who Am I This Time: Uncovering the Fictive Personality Martin, Jay

Martin, Jay

ISBN 10: 039302525X / ISBN 13: 9780393025255

Published by W W Norton & Co Inc, 1988

About this Item

Clean, no marks, First Edition/First Printing, 1988, from a retired attorney's collection. As shown, dust jacket is clean and bright with very light wear along top edge, but book comes with a protective Mylar cover to prevent any future wear. Flap is not clipped. Navy and gold cover has is clean with gold lettering on spine. Corners are sharp. No marked, creased, or torn pages. No remainder marks. A very good copy. Book will be carefully packaged for safe delivery. Paper Dragon is a 5-Star seller of popular books and does not solicit buyer ratings. OBC-X #5 GA1120.

Seller Inventory # A5-GTO4-1OZR

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Who Am I This Time: Uncovering the Fictive Personality Martin, Jay
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 039302525X
• ISBN 13: 9780393025255
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

This exploration of the concept of fiction in human existence considers both the creative and the pathological uses of storytelling and make-believe, taking into account the thinking of famous writers, assassins and terrorists, actors, and the phenomenonof mass culture

Reviews

Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon, identified with the ex-Beatle and married a Japanese-American, as had Lennon. John Hinckley, President Reagan's would-be assassin, modeled himself on the hero of the movie Taxi Driver. Both criminals filled their empty interior lives with fictive personalities, yet, according to California psychoanalyst Martin, we all do so to some extent. Author of books on Henry Miller and Robert Lowell, Martin tells of one patient who identified with the Lone Ranger, another with Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz. He illustrates the power of the fictive self with material drawn from lives as diverse as victim Patty Hearst, Arab terrorists and actors who unconsciously adopt their characters' mannerisms offstage. The author defines his terms so vaguely, however, and casts his theoretical net so widely, that he catches very few fish, factual or fictive.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ranging widely over such diverse figures as John Hinckley, Patty Hearst, George S. Patton, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin explores creative and pathological uses of fiction in the development of personality. The result is diffuse and decidedly uneven. Martin is fascinating and convincing when discussing his own patients, celebrities, or infamous cases of disturbed personalities. His frequent ventures into literary criticism, however, especially on the psychological source of Faulkner's creativity, are far less successfulindeed simplistic. Martin's important conclusion that contemporary social relationships have become fictive due to the media needs further development. Recommended with these reservations. Donald P. Kaczvinsky, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.