Fuel for debate about the semantic and emotional injuries inherent in personal relationships and social marginalization.
A philosopher’s consideration of the broader implications of the toxic behavior known as gaslighting.
“Gaslighters chip away at people’s sense that they can trust their own judgment,” writes Abramson, a professor of philosophy at Indiana University. Since the term has “entered the colloquial lexicon,” she writes, “there’s been a commensurate surge in academic theorizing about gaslighting,” first in psychoanalytic literature as a form of “projective identification.” The author argues that, contrary to some recent discourse, gaslighting is “best understood as a form of interpersonal interaction rather than as a feature of social structures. To put it a bit starkly, people gaslight, social structures don’t.” While arguing against such a structural redefinition, she maintains that gaslighting is generally perpetrated by men, and that marginalized groups are most likely to be gaslit. “Sexist and racist norms can frame gaslighting [and] be employed as leverage by the gaslighter,” writes Abramson. Over seven scholarly chapters, the author focuses on the essential qualities of gaslighting and the tools and motivations of the gaslighter, while limning differences between other “awful” behaviors—e.g., simple manipulation or lying—in order to emphasize “moral reasons to distinguish gaslighting from other morally problematic ways of interacting.” Abramson suggests it is scarily ubiquitous in contemporary relationships, since gaslighters rely on emotional tools including love and empathy and, whether as intimate partners, abusive parents, or unethical bosses, wish “to destroy even the possibility of disagreement.” Abramson capably references related fields like psychoanalysis and gender studies. Her approach to this hot-button issue is thoughtful, yet the academic nature of her discussion might lose lay readers, as it often relies on repetition for emphasis and wanders through long, jargony passages based on a limited number of case studies or cultural references.
Fuel for debate about the semantic and emotional injuries inherent in personal relationships and social marginalization.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780691249384
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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