Loss of the Assumptive World (Series in Trauma and Loss)

The assumptive world concept is a psychological principle of the conservation of human reality or "culture" - it is a lens for seeing the psychological disturbances that occur in times of change. In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583913130
• ISBN13: 9781583913130
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.8" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Deserving of a Wider Audience

This book is a collection of articles and essays which reference, compliment, and examine various facets of Ronnie Janoff-Bulman's psychological "assumptive world" theory. Written by clinical psychologists for clinical psychologist, it is refreshingly lucid and free of the pandering gibberish that one frequently encounters in psychology for the general reader (i.e. the "self-help" industry). Of particular interest is a lengthy essay in the middle of the book which links assumptive world theory with Ernest Becker's work on death denial. Here, the specific focus on traumatology as a sub-discipline of clinical psychology widens to address larger issues of day-to-day coping and value judgments of non-traumatized individuals. It's difficult, given the convincing nature of many (although not all) of these essays, to escape the conclusion that the miniature traumas of everyday life - and how we each confront them - can be fairly characterized as windows into the nature of the universe and, conversely, into our own unique natures (or souls). Further, the value and purpose of dramatic narrative - collectively and individually - are touched on here in meaningful ways. Anyone interested in the causes of conflict, neuro-biological motivators of behavior, and the pathways to a more meaningful life will find this material positively provocative. In the most banal sense, it reveals to the reader his or her most basic assumptions about "reality" - and exposes them as tenuous, albeit necessary, illusions.