Constructing The Self, Constructing America

Constructing The Self, Constructing America PDF Author: Philip Cushman
Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking "cultural history of psychotherapy", historian and psychologist Philip Cushman shows how the development of modern psychotherapy is inextricably intertwined with that of the United States and how it has fundamentally changed the way Americans view events and themselves. Using an interpretive historical approach, Cushman shows how and why psychotherapy was created, what its functions are, and how it has come to play such an enormous role in American life. Asserting that each era develops a different conception of "what it means to be human", Cushman traces the evolution of the self throughout history to contemporary times, naming its current configuration in our consumerist society the "empty self", one that needs constant filling. In Constructing the Self, Constructing America, he places psychotherapy in its social and historical context, and examines its origins in the nineteenth century to its preeminence in American life today, arguing that its establishment as a social institution may in fact reproduce some of the very ills that it is meant to heal. Finally, in an unusual move, Cushman suggests a way to use interpretive methods in the everyday practice of psychotherapy. By doing so, he hopes to dissuade both patient and therapist from colluding with the empty self or the rampant consumerism of our time.

Constructing The Self, Constructing America

Constructing The Self, Constructing America PDF Author: Philip Cushman
Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 460

Get Book

Book Description
In this groundbreaking "cultural history of psychotherapy", historian and psychologist Philip Cushman shows how the development of modern psychotherapy is inextricably intertwined with that of the United States and how it has fundamentally changed the way Americans view events and themselves. Using an interpretive historical approach, Cushman shows how and why psychotherapy was created, what its functions are, and how it has come to play such an enormous role in American life. Asserting that each era develops a different conception of "what it means to be human", Cushman traces the evolution of the self throughout history to contemporary times, naming its current configuration in our consumerist society the "empty self", one that needs constant filling. In Constructing the Self, Constructing America, he places psychotherapy in its social and historical context, and examines its origins in the nineteenth century to its preeminence in American life today, arguing that its establishment as a social institution may in fact reproduce some of the very ills that it is meant to heal. Finally, in an unusual move, Cushman suggests a way to use interpretive methods in the everyday practice of psychotherapy. By doing so, he hopes to dissuade both patient and therapist from colluding with the empty self or the rampant consumerism of our time.

Constructing American Lives

Constructing American Lives PDF Author: Scott E. Casper
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469649047
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 741

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Book Description
Nineteenth-century American authors, critics, and readers believed that biography had the power to shape individuals' characters and to help define the nation's identity. In an age predating radio and television, biography was not simply a genre of writing, says Scott Casper; it was the medium that allowed people to learn about public figures and peer into the lives of strangers. In this pioneering study, Casper examines how Americans wrote, published, and read biographies and how their conceptions of the genre changed over the course of a century. Campaign biographies, memoirs of pious women, patriotic narratives of eminent statesmen, "mug books" that collected the lives of ordinary midwestern farmers--all were labeled "biography," however disparate their contents and the contexts of their creation, publication, and dissemination. Analyzing debates over how these diverse biographies should be written and read, Casper reveals larger disputes over the meaning of character, the definition of American history, and the place of American literary practices in a transatlantic world of letters. As much a personal experience as a literary genre, biography helped Americans imagine their own lives as well as the ones about which they wrote and read.

Constructing the Self in a Mediated World

Constructing the Self in a Mediated World PDF Author: Debra Grodin
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1452247900
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
In today′s media-saturated world, identities are no longer built solely within the close-knit communities of family, neighborhood, school, and work. Today media are part of our world and therefore play an important role in the formulations of our identities or constructions of self. In a truly postmodern mode, Constructing the Self in a Mediated World not only brings together the usually segregated areas of interpersonal and mass communication but also incorporates works from scholars in sociology, psychology, and women′s studies as well. Each essay examines our understanding of self in a different context of mediated culture within a specific framework of interpretive theories such as critical theory, social constructionist theory, and feminism. This volume provides insights into issues of self and identity in contemporary mediated culture. Designed for advanced students and experienced researchers in communication (both media and interpersonal), sociology, psychology, and women′s studies. Constructing the Self in a Mediated World raises important questions and contributes greatly to its field.

Building America

Building America PDF Author: Harry C. Boyte
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 9781566394581
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The authors compare the "public spirited work [that] enabled diverse peoples to forge connection, gain a stake in the nation, and find intellectual challenges [to] a time when people are predominately consumers instead of producers." They offer many current examples which demonstrate encouraging changes.

Constructing a Nervous System

Constructing a Nervous System PDF Author: Margo Jefferson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1524748188
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From "one of our most nuanced thinkers on the intersections of race, class, and feminism" (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) comes a memoir "as electric as the title suggests" (Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom). A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, Washington Post, Vulture, Buzzfeed, Publishers Weekly The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson has lived in the thrall of a cast of others—her parents and maternal grandmother, jazz luminaries, writers, artists, athletes, and stars. These are the figures who thrill and trouble her, and who have made up her sense of self as a person and as a writer. In her much-anticipated follow-up to Negroland, Jefferson brings these figures to life in a memoir of stunning originality, a performance of the elements that comprise and occupy the mind of one of our foremost critics. In Constructing a Nervous System, Jefferson shatters her self into pieces and recombines them into a new and vital apparatus on the page, fusing the criticism that she is known for, fragments of the family members she grieves for, and signal moments from her life, as well as the words of those who have peopled her past and accompanied her in her solitude, dramatized here like never before. Bing Crosby and Ike Turner are among the author’s alter egos. The sounds of a jazz LP emerge as the intimate and instructive sounds of a parent’s voice. W. E. B. Du Bois and George Eliot meet illicitly. The muscles and movements of a ballerina are spliced with those of an Olympic runner, becoming a template for what a black female body can be. The result is a wildly innovative work of depth and stirring beauty. It is defined by fractures and dissonance, longing and ecstasy, and a persistent searching. Jefferson interrogates her own self as well as the act of writing memoir, and probes the fissures at the center of American cultural life.

Freud's Wizard

Freud's Wizard PDF Author: Brenda Maddox
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786732040
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The saturation of the English-speaking world with psychoanalytic concepts was due largely to one brilliant analyst, Ernest Jones. As Freud's disciple, colleague, and biographer-and the man who rescued Freud from the Nazis-he led the international psychoanalytic movement, shifting its vortex from Vienna to London and spreading its influence to Toronto, New York, and Boston. While negotiating the ferocious politics of the movement, Jones also managed an imposing series of liaisons, including an heiress and her maid, analysands, and a “Druid Bride.” Unlike Freud, he never had to wonder, “What do women want?”

History of Psychotherapy

History of Psychotherapy PDF Author: Donald K. Freedheim
Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN: 9781557981493
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 930

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Book Description
"History of Psychotherapy: A Century of Change" is presented as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the American Psychological Association as a publication of its Division of Psychotherapy. It offers a retrospective investigation of the roots and the development of psychotherapy from four basic perspectives: theory, research, practice, and training. . . . More than 60 authors focus on the significant events and the crucial links in the development of psychotherapy that have contributed to the current state of knowledge. Together, the chapters describe the sociocultural, political, and economic influences that have shaped the field in the past 100 years. Although the focus is historical, the reader will find significant examination of the current status of the field as well as speculation regarding future directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).

Constructing America's War Culture

Constructing America's War Culture PDF Author: Thomas J. Conroy
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739119648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
In 1927, political scientist Harold Lasswell wrote about the strategies employed by the American government to sell the benefits of participating in World War I to a reluctant public. In Propaganda Techniques in World War I, Lasswell discussed the "manipulative symbols to manipulate opinions and attitudes" (p 9). Ever since then, all wars have involved specialists who attempt to control the way the media report about war and the way media contribute to shaping public opinion. This collection of essays discusses how media have "packaged" the war in Iraq. The chapters in this collection explore the way the media have presented the war to us by telling us human interest stories, supporting public policies, and crafting a narrative that supports the war. Some chapters focus on the way the Bush administration has actively promoted and attempted to control information; others tell of how the media have either been complicit in supporting the dominant narrative, or how the public has used the images in the media to negotiate attitudes toward the war, terrorism, and international relations. All of the chapters discuss the relationships among conflict, political agendas, the power of media, and the way audiences use media to construct attitudes, beliefs, and--ultimately--a sense of history about the war. Coming from the perspective of communication studies, situates the multi-dimensional aspects of war, terrorism, public policy, media, and story-telling within the context of creating a consensually assembled image of what the war in Iraq is all about. This book will be of interest to undergraduate students as well as scholars of communication, history, sociology, political science, and American studies, and it will be an excellent resource both for classroom use as well as the general public.

The First U.S. History Textbooks

The First U.S. History Textbooks PDF Author: Barry Joyce
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498502164
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
This book offers a fresh, multidisciplinary analysis of American history textbooks published in the first half of the nineteenth century, focusing on the emergence of an American “origins” narrative prevalent in these works as well as the methods employed to convey this tale to readers. The themes addressed in this work are timely in light of current controversies over American history curriculum, the role of textbooks, and the idea of a common American narrative.

Social Construction in Context

Social Construction in Context PDF Author: Kenneth J Gergen
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761965459
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This latest book by one the world's leading protagonists in the field will be welcomed not just by psychologists but by students, academics and professionals interested in social constructionism across a wide range of subjects. Social Construction in Context explores the potentials of social constructionist theory when placed in diverse intellectual and practical contexts. It demonstrates the achievements of social constructionism, and what it can now offer various fields of inquiry, both academic, professional and applied, given the proliferation of the theory across the social sciences and humanities.