- Hardcover: 430 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; 1st ed. edition (11 Oct 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 004440719X
- ISBN-13: 978-0044407195
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.4 x 3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 900,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
According to the author Morris Berman, we have literally lost our senses - not our minds but our bodies - because we have denied our physicality. In his analysis of the underlying structure of Western civilization, Berman explores the relationship between our physical experience of the world and the larger culture of which it is a part. He evaluates the studies of infant behaviour in front of mirrors; analyzes the iconography of human/animal relations, from cave paintings to Disney cartoons; investigates esoteric breathing techniques and other occult rituals; and examines the nature of creativity. Uncovering the "hidden history" of somatic experience, Berman shows how Christianity had its origins in Jewish "ascent" techniques, how the idea of romantic love grew out of medieval Christian heresy, how modern science arose from Renaissance mysticism, and how Nazism was the most recent episode in a recurring cycle of orthodoxy and heresy.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Coming to Our Senses
11 Nov 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
According to Berman, we have literally lost our senses - not our minds but our bodies - because we have denied our physicality. In this provocative analysis of the underlying structure of Western civilization, Berman explores the relationship between our physical experience of the world and the larger culture of which it is part. He evaluates the studies of infant behavior in front of mirrors, analyzes the iconography of human/animal relations, from cave paintings to Disney cartoons; investigates esoteric breathing techniques and other occult rituals; and examines the nature of creativity. Uncovering the "hidden history" of somatic experience, Berman shows how Christianity has its origins in Jewish "ascent" techniques, how the idea of romantic love grew out of medieval Christian heresy, how modern science arose from Renaissance mysticism, and how Nazism was the most recent episode in a recurring cycle of orthodoxy and heresy. A radical and unconventional work of history and philosophy.
Bold and Interesting -- But Probably Wrong
19 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover
Berman thinks western society is on the wrong track. But he thinks, unlike most "wrong turners" who think western civilization went wrong in the 19th (imperialism) or 20th (fascism) century, that the "wrong turn" was taken earlier: in the 16th century, when western culture established the denial of the body and begun to one's spiritual, or monetary, or professional, etc., credentials as far more important to the "real person" than what one actually feels and experiences.
This, says Berman, leads to many bad results, from self-important status-seeking (since one's car is considered more "objectively" a value of one's worth than one's own "subjective" experiences) to religious prosecution (thinking the right thoughts or having the best formal beliefs as most important), to the rise of the Nazis, etc. What's more, the attempts to scale back from the mental or financial worldview to the non-cereberal spirituality is merely bastardized in today's culture: e.g., people practice Zen Buddhism as a tool for finding the "right state of mind", to make more money in business, which defeats the whole purpose.
Berman's thesis is intriguing. The problem is that it doesn't fit the facts too well. For example, more serious research into both eastern mysticism and western culture, I believe, shows western culture was never so "anti-body", nor eastern one so "pro-senses", as people popularily think. The rise of the Nazis was a very complex affair and in many cases they saw the enemy precisely in the "intellectual" or "capitalist" Jew and were *for* direct, non-thinking, sense-satisfying world views. Berman thinks this is a bastardization of true spirituality (true "sensuality"?), and no doubt he is right, but still the problem remains.
Berman's bold thesis is interesting and quite useful as a counter-point to the standard view of the western culture as one of steady advance. But Berman's thesis is simply too general and all-pervasive to be adequately supported by his sources.
This, says Berman, leads to many bad results, from self-important status-seeking (since one's car is considered more "objectively" a value of one's worth than one's own "subjective" experiences) to religious prosecution (thinking the right thoughts or having the best formal beliefs as most important), to the rise of the Nazis, etc. What's more, the attempts to scale back from the mental or financial worldview to the non-cereberal spirituality is merely bastardized in today's culture: e.g., people practice Zen Buddhism as a tool for finding the "right state of mind", to make more money in business, which defeats the whole purpose.
Berman's thesis is intriguing. The problem is that it doesn't fit the facts too well. For example, more serious research into both eastern mysticism and western culture, I believe, shows western culture was never so "anti-body", nor eastern one so "pro-senses", as people popularily think. The rise of the Nazis was a very complex affair and in many cases they saw the enemy precisely in the "intellectual" or "capitalist" Jew and were *for* direct, non-thinking, sense-satisfying world views. Berman thinks this is a bastardization of true spirituality (true "sensuality"?), and no doubt he is right, but still the problem remains.
Berman's bold thesis is interesting and quite useful as a counter-point to the standard view of the western culture as one of steady advance. But Berman's thesis is simply too general and all-pervasive to be adequately supported by his sources.
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