Beyond Marginality: Constructing a Self in the Twilight of Western Culture

(Hardback)

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Identification of the phenomenon of marginality in The Marginal Selfthe failure to become ones authentic, best self, by refusing to actualize this potential that is inherent in us allturns on recognizing that freedom, and its misuse, underlie most human behavior, normal and pathological. Jean-Paul Sartre insisted that people dont just have freedom, they are freedom. Most philosophical anthropologies, including Freudian psychoanalysis, and the current medical model of mental illness propagated by the American Psychiatric Association and typified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), do not acknowledge this essential reality.

Beyond Marginality came out first eleven years after the initial 1987 publication of The Marginal Self. The author, in the meantime, had become acquainted with the Zen philosophy of D. T. Suzuki, of whom Martin Heidegger said that if he understood this mans work correctly, Suzuki had accomplished what Heidegger had been trying to do all his life. What did Heidegger see in Suzukis anthropology That the Cartesian dualityultimately the dissociation of our inner lives from the world around us and from one anotherwas a distortion created by us that we could overcome through Zens actionable intuition of human wholeness.

How this overcoming might be brought about is the theme of Beyond Marginality, starting with Suzukis intuition and embracing the work of many allied thinkers. Equally compelling are vivid testimonials from those who had stumbled into marginality, some eventually recognizing the negative consequences of their misused freedom, then freely willing themselves out of their marginal states. Helping people move beyond marginality and its attendant psychic pathology parallels the present enthusiasm of the mental health community for a positive psychology. Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin left us with the counter-Cartesian, Zen-like insight that nothing is so practical as a good theory.

Author Bio

Ren J. Muller is a psychologist whose main interests include psychiatric diagnosis and psychiatric medicine. He is the author of over 100 articles and eight books, most recently The Four Domains of Mental illness: An Alternative to the DSM-5.