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Psychoanalyzing Society
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13228 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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10 / 1987 |
5,461 Words |
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Larry D. Nachman
Larry D. Nachman is professor of political science at the
College of Staten Island, CUNY, and is a frequent contributor
to Commentary and Salmagundi. He is completing a book on
psychoanalysis and social theory. |
A WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS
Selected Papers from 1930 to 1980
Erik Erikson
Edited by Stephen Schlein
New York: W.W. Norton, 1987
$29.95
The measure of the success of an intellectual can frequently be judged by the influence he has on people who have never read his books. It happens sometimes that a writer's concept become part of the common intellectual currency, and the ideas he developed inform the thinking of large numbers of people who are not aware of the source of the thought that is shaping their viewpoints. Erik Erikson has enjoyed just such a success. Wherever and whenever someone worries about an identity crisis, he is invoking the work of Erikson. More than anyone else, he has accustomed us to think of historical and social issues by examining the psychology of the participants. If we now turn to psychology for the answer to all of life's problems, it is Erikson who has preeminently been our guide in that search.
A Way of Looking at Things is a compilation of Erikson's papers, talks, and essays from 1930 to 1980. They stretch over his long career as psychoanalyst and writer. Included in this volume are the early essays on child analysis and play therapy, and on his field work with the Yurok and Sioux Indians. These essays formed the basis of his major work, Childhood and Society. Similarly, one finds here the basic materials for important works such as Identity and Toys and Reasons. This collection reflects the unfolding thought of a leading contemporary thinker. Its publication
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