Sex, Metaphysics, and Madness: Unveiling the Grail on Human Nature and Mental Disorder

ISBN-13: 9783034314114 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 345 str.

Jane Alexandra Cook

Opis

With philosophy traditionally seen as the way to truth, wisdom and goodness, it is to metaphysics, logic and ethics that we have historically turned to solve personal, social, and existential dilemmas, and find peace and contentment. Rarely is it noted, however, that despite two millennia of debate, philosophers have yet to produce a coherent theory of human/worldly existence. At the same time, the global incidence of mental illness has risen to what many see as epidemic proportions. This book argues that this is no coincidence. Its analysis of key metaphysical texts suggests that the entire philosophical (and religious) canon has been founded upon and distorted by an Aristotelian misconception. Through its social/discursive inscription, this misconceived metaphysics is disrupting the development of fe/male selfhood to a degree that, under further conditions, is causing mental illness. Thus, our metaphysics is making us mad, and the more muddled it gets, the more disordered we become. The testing of this theory via eating disorder research supports a new spirogenetic model of subjectivity that resolves not only mental illness, but also the ancient mysteries of the Holy Grail and Philosopher s Stone."

Spis treści

Contents: Philosophy and its Discontents - A Genealogy of Essence - Rethinking Essence, Metaphysics & Human Subjectivity - (Re-)Conceptions of Anorexia - Silentstones: Real, Lost and Pretend Selves - Speakingstones - The Case For A Sexed Spirogenetic Model.

O autorze

Jane Cook was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, and has for thirty years owned and run an organic kiwifruit and avocado farm in Tauranga, New Zealand. With degrees in biological and social sciences and a PhD in philosophy she also works as a philosophical counsellor, psychotherapist, and a research associate with the Philosophy and Societies & Cultures Departments at the University of Waikato.