The Power of Names: Uncovering the Mystery of What We Are Called

(Hardback)

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Our proper name is as much a part of us as our own skin. It travels with us like a passport, testifying to our unique presence on this earth. The articulation of our name rolls off our tongue with ease and familiarity, yet we rarely turn and examine the part our name plays in what makes us who we are. Our first name reflects the hopes and dreams of our parents and family, our culture, and our own sense of self, while our surname carries our ancestral history, a branding of both affiliation and transmission.

In The Power of Names, Mavis Himes explores both the profound ambivalence that many of us feel toward our names and the conscious and unconscious impact our names have on our lives, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill. She explores such questions as: What do our names mean How do they influence our destiny What does it mean to lose or change our name - and what does this reveal or conceal about who we are

Himes engages readers through a skillful interweaving of reflections on her own Jewish surname, shortened by immigrant ancestors to accommodate a new life in a new world; the historical and cultural impact of a group on naming practices; the various ways different cultures celebrate the naming of infants; the power of names in myth and legend; and the impact of names on friends and patients from her practice. Readers are invited to consider their own names, the names they give others, and the names of those around them as a starting point for understanding the stories of our lives.

Reviews

Himes, a psychoanalyst in private practice in Canada, blends psychology and sociology to offer an account of the conscious and unconscious power of personal names. She analyzes how names call one into existence and the association of names with power, choice, and survival in a world that recognizes individuals chiefly by what they are called. Particular attention is paid to the valuing and force of names across cultures and the effects that voluntary and involuntary name changing have on the personality structures of individuals. Drawing on her clinical work, her autobiographical relation to names, and her research into the broader historical and social meanings of names, Himes offers a lucid account of what is largely and otherwise unarticulated, namely, just how powerful proper names are. The audience for this book will include those interested in psychology, psychoanalysis, and mythology. * Choice Reviews *
There are all kinds of fascinating questions to explore about the whole phenomenon of naming and it is explored so beautifully in [this] book. She has written about this interesting facet of human existence in a very intriguing fashion in part from the perspective of her own Jewish faith, but the book certainly goes beyond that as well and touches on many different traditions and legacies. [This] book spurs us on to think about our names and the importance of names. * WGTD-The Morning Show *
A fascinating book. so many great stories as to how names have come up. I highly recommend this book. * The Maggie Linton Show *
The authors wide-ranging examples throughout the book offer non-specialists a host of ideas to spark further reading. [T]he books culturally and historically wide range of examples makes it an appealing read to non-specialists with an interest in names. The authors own name and family history are shaped by the modern history and diaspora of European Jews, and it is in the passages about the challenges and opportunities of identity in Jewish life that the book (in both parts) is most compelling and the mix of personal experience and history most coherent. The authors curiosity, enthusiasm, and empathy across cultures are also apparent. * Names: A Journal of Onomastics *
This thoughtful and poetic book is not only about names and language, but contemplates a larger picture regarding freedom of thought and the universal human desire to make life significant despite its brevity and apparent absurdity. Fundamental to the human condition, writes Soren Kierkegaard, is the distinction between recollection and repetition, recollection being what is inside us that we inherit from the past, a looking backward - as opposed to the higher form of repetition, which delineates our capacity to look forward. Lyrical, searching, Himes grapples with how we are bound by the string of letters we carry from childhood and how, looking forward, we take them up and continually reinterpret their meaning. * The American Journal of Psychoanalysis *
Mavis Himes' book is an astonishing exploit. She successfully combines two clearly separate genres, autobiography and essay, making both of them enrich each other. Maybe her secret lies in her dedication to psychoanalytic clinic and discourse. The classical questions of the proper name are dealt from the outside with philosophy and from the inside, the result of a fruitful personal life. Thus, she leads the reader to question him/herself about the power and the influence of the names of all the acquaintances in their lives. -- Nstor A. Braunstein, MD, psychoanalyst, postgraduate professor at universities in Argentina, Mexico and Spain

Author Bio

Mavis Himes, PhD, is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist in Toronto where she maintains a full-time private practice. She is also clinical consultant at Wellspring, a cancer centre for patients and their families. Himes is director of Speaking of Lacan Psychoanalytic Group, a Toronto-based forum dedicated to the study of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Her previous book The Sacred Body: A Therapists Journey, is about her work with cancer patients; as well, she frequently contributes to professional journals and books about psychoanalysis.