Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 148 pages; 20 cm

Summary

1. "Today, whether or not we read Darwin and Freud, we speak a version of their languages. Most of us think about childhood and sexuality as sources of suffering, and we picture ourselves as animals struggling competitively for survival." "Yet, as Adam Phillips argues, we are not merely trapped in a world of continuous loss. Taking as his examples Darwin's lifelong fascination in lowly earthworms, and Freud's life-long antipathy to grubbing biographers, he unexpectedly finds much to celebrate. For both of these writers are interested, above all, in how destruction conserves life. They take their inspiration from fossils or from half-remembered dreams, and show how life is about what can be done with these humble remnants from the past. Darwin and Freud render ageing, accident and death integral, not alien, to our sense of ourselves. They teach us the art of transcience."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

1. Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939
2. Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
3. Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
4. Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939
5. Death
6. Suffering
7. deaths
8. Evolutietheorie
9. Sterfelijkheid

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-139) and index.