Cultivating the Soul

By Luigi Zoja

In Cultivating the Soul Luigi Zoja argues that the soul's 'cultivation' underpins all cultural phenomena. The author examines the mythopoetic function in human beings by locating Psychoanalysis within the history of the Western world and firmly rooting it in the classical tradition. When, for example, Zoja links psychoanalytic narration with the epic-tragic narration in Greek civilization, he is establishing a remarkable kind of continuity, one which transcends centuries of economic, political and social change to insist on the timeless human need to tell a life story with passion in order to make sense of it. Zoja's masterful knowledge of the classical world is here used dialectically, to understand and explicate our modern-day predicaments. Whether employing classical notions, like hubris, (to analyze the modern phenomenon of arrogant acquisitiveness), or deploying a contemporary perspective on antiquity (to examine, for instance Homer's own technique of "mass communication"), Zoja'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1853437581
• ISBN13: 9781853437588
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Free Association Books
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.1"