Description
Book SynopsisTo varying degrees, loneliness has us all in its grip. In this incisive and controversial book, Richard Stivers rejects the recent emphasis on genetic explanations of psychological problems, arguing that the very organization of technological societies is behind the pervasive experience of loneliness. The extreme rationality that governs our institutions and organizations results in abstract and impersonal relationships in much of daily life. Moreover, as common meaning is gradually eroded, our connections to others become vague and tenuous. Our ensuing fear and loneliness, however, can be masked by an outgoing, extroverted personality. In its extreme form, loneliness assumes pathological dimensions in neurosis and schizophrenia. Stivers maintains that even here the causes remain social. The various forms of neuroses and psychoses follow the key contradictions of a technological society. For instance, narcissism and depression reflect the tension between power and meaninglessness that characterizes modern societies. Stivers demonstrates that there is a continuum from the normal technological personality through the various neuroses to full-blown schizophrenia. He argues that all forms of loneliness emanate from the same cause; they likewise share a common dynamic despite their differences. Loneliness, in its many manifestations, seems to be the price we must pay for living in the modern world. Yet nurturing family, friend, and community ties can mitigate its culturally and psychologically disorganizing power. This book is a clarion call for a renewal of moral awareness and custom to combat the fragmentation and depersonalization of our technological civilization.
Trade ReviewRichard Stivers' work has always proven groundbreaking, disrupting our comfortable assumptions about modern life and world, and prompting us to question our lifestyles and our value systems. In his latest work, Shades of Loneliness, Stivers presents the reader with another compelling argument that challenges the popular myths of history as progress and technological advancement as morally provocative. * Metapsychology Online *
A powerful, compelling book that reaches out and touches every reader who has ever felt the master emotions of our technological era: loneliness, depression, alienation, mental illness. Stivers issues a passionate call for a return to a critical moral consciousness that will allow all of us to combat the crippling, destructive features of this new global age. -- Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Technology, Character, and Personality Chapter 3 Technology and Stress Chapter 4 Cultural and Psychological Conflict Chapter 5 Culture and the Neurotic Need for Affection and for Power Chapter 6 Compulsive and Impulsive Styles Chapter 7 Narcissism and Depression Chapter 8 Paranoia and Schizophrenia Chapter 9 Shades of Loneliness
