| Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire Revised Edition Contributor(s): Eysenck, Hans (Author) |
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ISBN: 0765809451 ISBN-13: 9780765809452 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $56.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2002 Annotation: For approximately eight months during 1931-1932, anthropologist Margaret Mead lived with and studied the Mountain Arapesh -- a segment of the population of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She found a culture based on simplicity, sensitivity, and cooperation. In contrast to the aggressive Arapesh who lived on the plains, both the men and the women of the mountain settlements were found to be, in Mead's word, maternal. The Mountain Arapesh exhibited qualities that many might consider feminine: they were, in general, passive, affectionate, and peaceloving. Though Mead partially explains the male's "femininity" as being due to the type of nourishment available to the Arapesh, she maintains social conditioning to be a factor in the type of lifestyle led by both sexes. Mead's study encapsulates all aspects of the Arapesh culture. She discusses betrothal and marriage customs, sexuality, gender roles, diet, religion, arts, agriculture, and rites of passage. In possibly a portent for the breakdown of traditional roles and beliefs in the latter part of the twentieth century, Mead discusses the purpose of rites of passage in maintaining societal values and social control. Mead also discovered that both male and female parents took an active role in raising their children. Furthermore, it was found that there were few conflicts over property: the Arapesh, having no concept of land ownership, maintained a peaceful existence with each other. In his new introduction to The Mountain Arapesh, Paul B. Roscoe assesses the importance of Mead's work in light of modern anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as how it fits into her own canon of writings. Roscoe discusses findings heculled from a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1991 to clarify some ambiguities in Mead's work. His travels also served to help reconstruct what had happened to the Arapesh since Mead's historic visit in the early 1930s. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science |
| Dewey: 150.195 |
| LCCN: 2004041192 |
| Physical Information: 0.59" H x 6.34" W x 9.14" (0.82 lbs) 226 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Hans Eysenck was one of the best-known research psychologists of the twentieth century. Respected as a prolific author, he was unafraid to address controversial topics. In Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire, he places himself at the center of the debate on psychoanalytic theory, challenging the state of Freudian theory and modern-day psychoanalytic practice and questioning the premises on which psychoanalysis is based. In so doing, Eysenck illustrates the shortcomings of both psychoanalysis as a method of curing neurotic and psychotic behaviors, and of the theory of dreams and their interpretation. He also analyzes Freud's influence on anthropology and his alleged contributions to science.While books about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis abound, most have been written by followers and acolytes and are therefore uncritical, unaware of alternative theories, or written as weapons in a war of propaganda. Others are long and highly technical, and therefore valuable only to students and professionals. Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire, on the other hand, was written with the non-professional in mind, and is for those who wish to know what modern scholarship has discovered about the truth or falsity of Freudian doctrines.Graced with an incisive new preface by Sybil Eysenck exploring her husband's motivation for writing the book, Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire is an authoritative and convincing work that exposes the underlying contradictions in Freudian theory, as well as the limitations and errors of psychoanalysis. |
Contributor Bio(s): Eysenck, Hans J.: - Hans J. Eysenck (1916-1997) was professor of psychology at the University of London and the director of its psychological department at the Institute of Psychiatry. He was best known for his experimental research in the field of personality. Among his many books are Rebel with a Cause, Dimensions of Personality, The Dynamics of Anxiety and Hysteria, Intelligence, and Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire. |