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On ambivalence : the problems and pleasures of having it both ways
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On ambivalence : the problems and pleasures of having it both ways

Author: Kenneth Weisbrode
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2012.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Why is it so hard to make up our minds? Adam and Eve set the template: Do we or don't we eat the apple? They chose, half-heartedly, and nothing was ever the same again. With this book, Kenneth Weisbrode offers a crisp, literate, and provocative introduction to the age-old struggle with ambivalence. Ambivalence results from a basic desire to have it both ways. This is only natural--although insisting upon it against  Read more...
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Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Kenneth Weisbrode
ISBN: 9780262017312 0262017318
OCLC Number: 746316042
Description: 81 p. : col. ill. ; 16 cm.
Responsibility: Kenneth Weisbrode.

Abstract:

Why is it so hard to make up our minds? Adam and Eve set the template: Do we or don't we eat the apple? They chose, half-heartedly, and nothing was ever the same again. With this book, Kenneth Weisbrode offers a crisp, literate, and provocative introduction to the age-old struggle with ambivalence. Ambivalence results from a basic desire to have it both ways. This is only natural--although insisting upon it against all reason often results not in "both" but in the disappointing "neither." Ambivalence has insinuated itself into our culture as a kind of obligatory reflex, or default position, before practically every choice we make. It affects not only individuals; organizations, societies, and cultures can also be ambivalent. How often have we asked the scornful question, "Are we the Hamlet of nations"? How often have we demanded that our leaders appear decisive, judicious, and stalwart? And how eager have we been to censure them when they hesitate or waver? Weisbrode traces the concept of ambivalence, from the Garden of Eden to Freud and beyond. The Obama era, he says, may be America's own era of ambivalence: neither red nor blue but a multicolored kaleidoscope. Ambivalence, he argues, need not be destructive. We must learn to distinguish it from its symptoms--selfishness, ambiguity, and indecision--and accept that frustration, guilt, and paralysis felt by individuals need not lead automatically to a collective pathology.

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"Ambivalence haunts individuals and societies, intensifying as the world moves toward global modernity. What a relief and a pleasure, then, to be able to recommend, without ambivalence, this elegant Read more...

 
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