Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 496 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

1. This is a revolutionary book about the nature of emotion, about the way emotions are triggered in our private moments, in our relations with others, and by our biology. Drawing on every theme of the modern life sciences, Dr. Nathanson shows how the nine basic affects--interest-excitement, enjoyment-joy, surprise-startle, fear-terror, distress-anguish, anger-rage, dissmell, disgust, and shame-humiliation--not only determine how we feel but shape our very sense of self. For too long there has been a battle between those who explain emotional discomfort on the basis of lived experience and those who blame chemistry. As Dr. Nathanson shows, chemicals and illnesses can affect our mood just as surely as an uncomfortable memory or a stern rebuke. He presents a completely new understanding of all emotion, providing the first link between the exciting affect theory of Silvan Tomkins and the entire world of biology, medicine, psychology, psychotherapy, religion, and the social sciences. Shame is the least understood of the painful emotions, although it affects every phase of life. We have all been made to feel foolish just at the moment we most wanted to appear wonderful; we have all been rebuffed by those we wished to court. Not one of us looks exactly as we might wish. Shame haunts our every dream of love, and influences how we experience ourselves as sexual beings. We react to shame by withdrawing, by making painful alliances with those who humiliate us, by calling attention to what brings us pride, or by attacking whoever has made us feel inferior. The comedian, as Nathanson shows in his discussion of Buddy Hackett, makes us laugh at what we try to keep hidden, transforming shame into acceptance and even pride. This book explains everything that can possibly make us proud or ashamed. All are in this book; nobody who reads it will be quite the same again.

Subject

1. Shame
2. Pride and vanity
3. Affect (Psychology)
4. Self psychology
5. Psychoanalysis
6. Psychosexual development
7. Self-perception
8. Affect
9. Psychoanalytic Theory
10. Psychosexual Development
11. Self Concept
12. Shame
13. Self Psychology
14. psychoanalysis
15. Self-perception
16. Psychosexual development
17. Psychoanalysis
18. Pride and vanity
19. Self psychology
20. Scham
21. Stolz
22. Sexualität
23. Schaamte

Contents

1. The nature of human emotion -- The development of shame and pride -- Love and sex: getting together -- The compass of shame -- From moment to madness.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 477-486) and index.