Sex, Metaphysics, and Madness : Unveiling the Grail on Human Nature and Mental Disorder.
Title:
Sex, Metaphysics, and Madness : Unveiling the Grail on Human Nature and Mental Disorder.
Author:
Cook, Jane Alexandra.
ISBN:
9783035105698
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (347 pages)
Contents:
Cover -- Acknowledgements -- Table of Contents -- Section I: Metaphysics, Essences and Sexes -- Illustrations -- Section I: Metaphysics, Essences and Sexes -- CHAPTER 1: Philosophy and its Discontents 13 -- 1.1 The Problem 14 -- 1.2 The Metaphysical Muddle 21 -- CHAPTER 2: A Genealogy of Essence 31 -- 2.1 Pro-essentialist Philosophies 31 -- Plato 31 -- Aristotle 35 -- Saint Augustine 40 -- René Descartes 45 -- John Locke 50 -- Immanuel Kant 53 -- Edmund Husserl 58 -- Saul Kripke 64 -- 2.2 Anti-essentialist Philosophies 69 -- Heraclitus of Ephesus 69 -- Arthur Schopenhauer 75 -- Friedrich Nietzsche 79 -- Jacques Derrida 84 -- CHAPTER 3: Rethinking Essence, Metaphysics & Human Subjectivity 91 -- 3.1 Deconstructing Essence 91 -- 3.2 Aristotle's (il)Logical Misconception of Essence 94 -- 3.3 A Trail of Misconceptions: Unveiling the Holy Grail 99 -- 3.4 A Sexed Spirogenetic Reconception of Essence 108 -- Section II: Research - Is there a Spirogenetic Essence & Essential Female Self? -- CHAPTER 4: (Re-)Conceptions of Anorexia 117 -- 4.1 A Genealogy of (Etiologies of) Anorexia / Bulimia Nervosa 119 -- Biomedical Approaches 126 -- Psychological Approaches 127 -- Cultural Approaches 128 -- 4.2 The Metaphysical/Essence Model of Anorexia 136 -- Other 'Forms' of Survival: Hysteria, Bulimia & Obesity 147 -- Intrafamilial & Symbolic Aspects of Anorexia 151 -- Sexual & Historical Aspects of Anorexia/Bulimia 158 -- CHAPTER 5: Silentstones: Real, Lost and Pretend Selves 167 -- 5.1 Methodology 168 -- 5.2 Interviews 172 -- 5.3 Results: Telling (Life) Stories 175 -- The Personal Self 176 -- The Socially (De)constructed, Fragmented Sexual Self 180 -- The Reconstructed, Re-formed, Pretend Self 193 -- The Eating (Dis)ordered Self 213 -- CHAPTER 6: Speakingstones 261 -- 6.1 Life Cycle of the Real Female 261 -- 6.2 Interpreting Life Stories: Does the Theory Fit? 266.
6.3 Situating the Essence Model of Eating Disorders 278 -- Reframing the Psychoanalytic Approach 279 -- Reframing Cultural & Psychological Approaches 284 -- Resituating Biomedical Approaches 286 -- Relating Anorexia Mirabilis & Holy Anorexia 289 -- Hunger Pains 292 -- The Rise & Spread of Eating Disorders 293 -- Section III: Shattering the Philosopher's Stone, Cracking the Holy Grail: Reconceptions of Essence, Subjectivity, Logic & Metaphysics -- CHAPTER 7: The Case For A Sexed Spirogenetic Model 297 -- 7.1 Contemporary Manifestations of Phallo-Logical Crucifixions of Essence and/as Woman 298 -- Ancient Inscriptions on Living Bodies 299 -- Christian & Māori Carvings 301 -- Modern Incisions: Sliced, Diced & Priced 306 -- Postfeminist/Postmodern Erasures 314 -- 7.2 A Spirogenetic Ressurection of Essences, Essential Subjectivities& Real-ly Logical Metaphysics 324 -- Bibliography 329.
Abstract:
With philosophy traditionally seen as the way to truth, wisdom and goodness, it is to metaphysics, logic and ethics that we have historically turned to solve personal, social, and existential dilemmas, and find peace and contentment. Rarely is it noted, however, that despite two millennia of debate, philosophers have yet to produce a coherent theory of human/worldly existence. At the same time, the global incidence of mental illness has risen to what many see as epidemic proportions. This book argues that this is no coincidence. Its analysis of key metaphysical texts suggests that the entire philosophical (and religious) canon has been founded upon and distorted by an Aristotelian misconception. Through its social/discursive inscription, this misconceived metaphysics is disrupting the development of fe/male selfhood to a degree that, under further conditions, is causing mental illness. Thus, our metaphysics is making us mad, and the more muddled it gets, the more disordered we become. The testing of this theory via eating disorder research supports a new 'spirogenetic' model of subjectivity that resolves not only mental illness, but also the ancient mysteries of the Holy Grail and Philosopher's Stone.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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