Physical Being: A Theory for Corporeal Psychology

Details: Product Description
Body care has never before been so much a focus of public interest, nor have the ways we classify people by reference to their kind of body excited such political passions. This study is an attempt to build a comprehensive account of the roles our bodies play in our lives. Through a series of discussions Rome harre concludes that the roles the body plays in our lives are determined less by organic functioning than by cultural conventions and social meanings.
Review
"A masterly guided tour. Harre surveys a wonderful range of attitudes and aspects of experience, from hysteria to embarrassment, from earnest body-building to corporal punishment, from Kretschmerian body-types to sexual differences."

Times Literary Supplement

"An intriguing and useful set of analyses" Contemporary Psychology
From the Inside Flap
Body care has never before been so much a focus of public interest, nor have the ways we classify people by reference to their kind of body excited such political passions. What bodies we have and how we use them is a central concern in the art of being human. In this book, now available in paperback, Rom Harre attempts to build a comprehensive account of the roles our bodies play in our lives. He argues that these roles are determined less by organic functioning than by cultural conventions and social meanings and that, rightly or wrongly, our type of body is fateful for the way our lives can be lived. From among the vast array of ways our bodies and their nature and condition enter our lives he explores three main questions. The first concerns the
metaphysical:
how we use our bodies to determine and to express the kind of person we are. Next, the various forms of normative judgements and public and private
evaluations
that bodily forms and functions are subjected to are examined. Finally, the body and its parts and functions are looked at in the light of their use both as signifiers, systems of signs, and as blank surfaces on which significance is `inscribed'. Physical Being
concludes Rom Harre's trilogy concerning the ways of being human, and is a fascinating study of the norms and principles of body uses.
From the Back Cover
Body care has never before been so much a focus of public interest, nor have the ways we classify people by reference to their kind of body excited such political passions. What bodies we have and how we use them is a central concern in the art of being human. In this book, now available in paperback, Rom Harre attempts to build a comprehensive account of the roles our bodies play in our lives. He argues that these roles are determined less by organic functioning than by cultural conventions and social meanings and that, rightly or wrongly, our type of body is fateful for the way our lives can be lived. From among the vast array of ways our bodies and their nature and condition enter our lives he explores three main questions. The first concerns the
metaphysical:
how we use our bodies to determine and to express the kind of person we are. Next, the various forms of normative judgements and public and private
evaluations
that bodily forms and functions are subjected to are examined. Finally, the body and its parts and functions are looked at in the light of their use both as signifiers, systems of signs, and as blank surfaces on which significance is `inscribed'. Physical Being
concludes Rom Harre's trilogy concerning the ways of being human, and is a fascinating study of the norms and principles of body uses.
About the Author
Rom Harre's numerous publications include
The Explanation of Social Behaviour (with Paul Secord),
Social Being, Personal Being, Varieties of Realism and, most recently,
Pronouns and People with Peter Muhlhausler, also available from Blackwell Publishers.

EAN: 9780631195054

Package Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.0 x 0.7 inches

Languages: English