- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 1 edition (17 Oct 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226137821
- ISBN-13: 978-0226137827
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.4 x 2.6 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 789,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Obsession: A History
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.95
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Obsession: A History for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.95, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"This is an engaging book which I read with considerable - dare I say, obsessive? - enjoyment.... The book is laced with rich examples exemplifying obsessional people and their work." - Christine Purdon, Times Higher Education "Intellectually bold and constantly insightful.... Manages to link Moby-Dick and the TV show Monk." - Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune "Those with a keen interest in (or perhaps an obsession with) obsession and its place in human culture will enjoy Davis's book." - Melinda Wenner, Scientific American Mind "If you should pick up the book expecting an obsessively thorough discourse, you won't be disappointed. But Davis is a fine writer, and he grabs the reader at the outset by confessing his own childhood rituals." - Deanna Isaacs, Chicago Reader "Beautifully written and impeccably - perhaps obsessively - researched: important reading for anyone interested in inescapable fascinations." - Kirkus Reviews "A witty and interesting historical tour of a fascinating subject." - Ian Brooks, Nature"
Product Description
We live in an age of obsession. Not only are we hopelessly devoted to our work, strangely addicted to our favorite television shows, and desperately impassioned about our cars, we admire obsession in others: we demand that lovers be infatuated with one another in films, we respond to the passion of single-minded musicians, we cheer on driven athletes. To be obsessive is to be American; to be obsessive is to be modern. But obsession is not only a phenomenon of modern existence: it is a medical category - both a pathology and a goal. Behind this paradox lies a fascinating history, which Lennard J. Davis tells in "Obsession". Beginning with the roots of the disease in demonic possession and its secular successors, Davis traces the evolution of obsessive behavior from a social and religious fact of life into a medical and psychiatric problem. From obsessive aspects of professional specialization to obsessive compulsive disorder and nymphomania, no variety of obsession eludes Davis' graceful analysis.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A Winner
28 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
Davis combines interests in English, Human Development, Disability, and Medical Education. A versatile scholar concerned with the practical and the theoretical, he begins with a gripping story of his own boyhood compulsions. Then he shows how society both aggravates and aggrandizes obsessiveness, notably in sex education, science, and psychoanalysis. He uses examples from literature, history, art and medicine: Galton, Dickens, Freud, Marie Stopes and many more. He uses the term "biocultural narrative" to break through the separation between historical context and the latest fads, and between categorical disease and the experience of illness. This is profound, brilliant, and engaging. A retired psychiatrist and historian of psychotherapy, I applaud the author's ability to join medicine and psychology with their historical and social contexts. He writes well, too.
15 of 33 people found the following review helpful
An unfortunate entry into the discussion of obsession
26 Nov 2008
Format:Hardcover
Obsession: A History is a rather unfortunate entry into the conversation about the nature of both obsession in culture and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Put simply, the author is simply not up to the task of separating ideas that should be separate and putting together ideas that should be together. In sum, he is simply not up to the task of taking on this subject.
Yes, we live in an era of obsession. Fine. However, whether or not one pathologizes the symptoms associated with OCD or even call it OCD the reality is that OCD exists independently of whatever we call it, its constellation of symptoms exist and have existed as far back as we have personal histories and modern neuro-biological treatments such as exposure and response prevention therapy, medication and others have proven extremely effective in treating these symptoms (call them whatever you like). It does not exist simply to those who have it and those who treat it. It exists like any other medical disorder.
Would that Foucault were alive today and could take on this topic fully from a cultural perspective. At the same time as the author of Obsession: A History is trying (and failing) to out Foucault Foucault, the author of this text is attempting to achieve a Batesonian like cybernetics approach to the topic but, again, fails.
Either write a book about cultural obsession or write a book about relational awareness and environment in terms of OCD. To attempt to put such complex topics together in such a volume is, frankly, disrespectful to the subject matter and readers who follow the topic closely and, to a greater extent, misleading to those unfamiliar with the topics.
This relatively slim volume will likely not shed any new light for those familiar with the topic of obsession in culture or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In the end, this book comes off as an unfortunate interruption to an important conversation.
Yes, we live in an era of obsession. Fine. However, whether or not one pathologizes the symptoms associated with OCD or even call it OCD the reality is that OCD exists independently of whatever we call it, its constellation of symptoms exist and have existed as far back as we have personal histories and modern neuro-biological treatments such as exposure and response prevention therapy, medication and others have proven extremely effective in treating these symptoms (call them whatever you like). It does not exist simply to those who have it and those who treat it. It exists like any other medical disorder.
Would that Foucault were alive today and could take on this topic fully from a cultural perspective. At the same time as the author of Obsession: A History is trying (and failing) to out Foucault Foucault, the author of this text is attempting to achieve a Batesonian like cybernetics approach to the topic but, again, fails.
Either write a book about cultural obsession or write a book about relational awareness and environment in terms of OCD. To attempt to put such complex topics together in such a volume is, frankly, disrespectful to the subject matter and readers who follow the topic closely and, to a greater extent, misleading to those unfamiliar with the topics.
This relatively slim volume will likely not shed any new light for those familiar with the topic of obsession in culture or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In the end, this book comes off as an unfortunate interruption to an important conversation.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Medical & Healthcare Practitioners
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Applied Psychology > Clinical Psychology
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Pathological Psychology
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Specific Topics > Compulsive Behaviour
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Medicine
- Books > Science & Nature > Medicine > Medical Sciences A-Z > Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
- Books > Science & Nature > Medicine > Medical Sciences A-Z > Psychotherapy & Clinical Psychology
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
