The Selfish Society: How We All Forgot to Love One Another and Made Money Instead - Brossura

Gerhardt, Sue

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1847375715 ISBN 13: 9781847375711

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2010

Riassunto

We are at a turning point. The economic crisis of recent times has opened up the possibility of revising our values and moving away from selfishness and greed, towards a more co-operative and compassionate society. But how are we going to get there? Can we decide to change?
This ambitious and wide-ranging book argues that such hopes are unlikely to be realised until we understand the central importance of our early emotional lives in creating a better society. The author argues that we have come to inhabit a culture of selfishness. As society has become bigger, working life is no longer communal, and everyday relationships and a more abstract political economy have developed which have failed to support child-rearing or to recognise people's emotional needs. This is the culture we have lived with for so long that it is hard to imagine things being any different.
The Selfish Society shows that selfishness in public life and public behaviour has its roots in poor care in early childhood. The author draws on developmental psychology and neuroscience to show how the values of empathy and responsibility to others are passed on through early child-rearing -- not through rational instruction, but from the way our parental figures behave. When babies are not treated with sensitivity and personal care, those values are undermined.
Early childcare is of crucial importance to society. This book tackles these controversial issues, assessing the impact of feminism on our current dilemmas. It argues that women have been co-opted into a materialism which has reached its limits of usefulness to human society. If we are to build a more caring society, we need to support the development of relationships that are learnt in early life, and integrate them into our political and economic thinking.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Sue Gerhardt is a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She wrote the bestselling Why Love Matters, an accessible account of the neuroscience of early development.

Dalla quarta di copertina:

Ambitious and wide-ranging, The Selfish Society reveals the vital importance of understanding our early emotional lives, arguing that by focusing on the attention we give to our young children we can create a better society.

Open any newspaper, and what do you find?

Violence and crime, child abuse and neglect, expenses scandals, addiction, fraud and corruption, environmental melt-down

Is Britain indeed broken? How did modern society get to this point? Who is to blame? How can we change?

We have come to inhabit a culture of selfish individualism which has confused material well-being with happiness. As society became bigger and more competitive, working life was cut off from child-rearing and the new economics ignored people's emotional needs. We have lived with this culture so long that it is hard to imagine it being any different. Yet we are now at a turning point where the need for change is becoming urgent. If we are to build a more reflective and collaborative society, Gerhardt argues, we need to support the caring qualities that are learnt in early life and integrate them into our political and economic thinking.

Inspiring and thought-provoking, The Selfish Society sets out a roadmap to a more positive and compassionate future.

(author photo c Jessica Aspinall)
¥12.99
978-1-84737-571-1
Popular Psychology

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1847375715
• ISBN 13: 9781847375711
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 390