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The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture

Paul W. Pruyser

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Description:Based on the seminar entitled "Psychoanalysis and Cultural Factors" held at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis, "The Play of the Imagination" deals with domains of culture known as science, literature, fine arts, music, and religion. It is a continuation and modernization of these classical interests of the psychoanalytic movement rife with symbolism and symbolic meanings and owes a great deal to Freud's pioneering work and to that of the subsequent generations of psychoanalysts. The author examines ideas first articulated by D.W. Winnicott, notably those of transitional objects, the transitional sphere, and the nature and forms of children's play. How do young children come to terms with such major cultural pursuits as the visual arts, literature, science, religion, and music? What enjoyments do they reap from engaging in these cultural activities, if only as beginners, and what are the prevailing practices that enhance their familiarity with these domains? What pitfalls do they encounter in becoming introduced to the peculiar symbolic entities, ritualized procedures, adventurous thought, and creative departures from common sense that these great goods of culture entail? The author bases his answers to these questions on a unique combination of observational data, introspection, and erudition. He finds that, in addition to engaging in personal autistic fantasy and practicing reality testing, children are trained to use their imagination so as to become adept at dealing with cultural symbol systems: pictures, stories, experiments, myths, melodies, and rhythms. In the family and at school, as well as in their play activities with other children, their imagination becomes tutored to deal with imaginative entities and events in orderly, constructively, and publicly regulated ways, subject to special rules and attitudes. The cultural traditions are passed on to them, with the result that certain imaginative entities and events come to stand apart from their private autistic world on the one hand, and from the realistic world of ordinary sense perception on the other. Children are tutored to come to grips with a third world, highly symbolic yet public, highly imaginative yet not autistic - an illusionistic world that features transcendent objects.Dr. Pruyser calls his writing of this book "a journey of discovery." It promises to be that - and much more - for the reader.A native of Amsterdam, Holland, Dr. Pruyser came to the United States in 1948. He obtained a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Boston University in 1953. He was director of the Department of Education at the Menninger Foundation and Clinical Psychologist at Topeka State Hospital from 1954 to 1956, and at the national Veterans Epilepsy Center, Boston, from 1950 to 1954. When this book was published in 1983, he was a Senior Faculty Advisor for the Menninger School of Psychiatry and on the faculty of the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Pruyser was Henry March Pfeiffer Professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the Menninger Foundation, and Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. He authored several books, among them, The Psychological Examination.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture. To get started finding The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
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Pages: 225

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: International Universities Press

Release: 1983

ISBN

Description: Based on the seminar entitled "Psychoanalysis and Cultural Factors" held at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis, "The Play of the Imagination" deals with domains of culture known as science, literature, fine arts, music, and religion. It is a continuation and modernization of these classical interests of the psychoanalytic movement rife with symbolism and symbolic meanings and owes a great deal to Freud's pioneering work and to that of the subsequent generations of psychoanalysts. The author examines ideas first articulated by D.W. Winnicott, notably those of transitional objects, the transitional sphere, and the nature and forms of children's play. How do young children come to terms with such major cultural pursuits as the visual arts, literature, science, religion, and music? What enjoyments do they reap from engaging in these cultural activities, if only as beginners, and what are the prevailing practices that enhance their familiarity with these domains? What pitfalls do they encounter in becoming introduced to the peculiar symbolic entities, ritualized procedures, adventurous thought, and creative departures from common sense that these great goods of culture entail? The author bases his answers to these questions on a unique combination of observational data, introspection, and erudition. He finds that, in addition to engaging in personal autistic fantasy and practicing reality testing, children are trained to use their imagination so as to become adept at dealing with cultural symbol systems: pictures, stories, experiments, myths, melodies, and rhythms. In the family and at school, as well as in their play activities with other children, their imagination becomes tutored to deal with imaginative entities and events in orderly, constructively, and publicly regulated ways, subject to special rules and attitudes. The cultural traditions are passed on to them, with the result that certain imaginative entities and events come to stand apart from their private autistic world on the one hand, and from the realistic world of ordinary sense perception on the other. Children are tutored to come to grips with a third world, highly symbolic yet public, highly imaginative yet not autistic - an illusionistic world that features transcendent objects.Dr. Pruyser calls his writing of this book "a journey of discovery." It promises to be that - and much more - for the reader.A native of Amsterdam, Holland, Dr. Pruyser came to the United States in 1948. He obtained a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Boston University in 1953. He was director of the Department of Education at the Menninger Foundation and Clinical Psychologist at Topeka State Hospital from 1954 to 1956, and at the national Veterans Epilepsy Center, Boston, from 1950 to 1954. When this book was published in 1983, he was a Senior Faculty Advisor for the Menninger School of Psychiatry and on the faculty of the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Pruyser was Henry March Pfeiffer Professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the Menninger Foundation, and Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. He authored several books, among them, The Psychological Examination.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture. To get started finding The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture

The Play of the Imagination - Towards a Psychoanalysis of Culture

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