Customer Reviews

Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although David Loy's touchstones in Western thought are Nietzche, Freud, and Heidegger, this book does not require any extensive familiarity with these figures (as a person trained in Anglo-American analytic philosophy, I wouldn't know a Heidegger if fell over one!). In any case, Loy investigates the idea that the basis for much of our unease and dysfunctional behavior is not so much fear of future death, as Freud thought, but rather a sneaking suspicion that we have no substantial self, that we are not really real, but rather, as the Buddhists teach, a kind of convenient fiction. It is a treat to follow Loy as he follows up on the implications of this possibility, and I think that even those without an interest in Buddhism will find themselves reflecting deeply on their own lives and on some of the institutionalized forms of craziness that affect modern society. This book has stimulated my thinking like very few others, and I strongly recommend it.

I encountered this book in the University of Massachusetts library. I usually don't go in for books that deal with "Western" philosophy in-depth, but something about it made me check it out. I'm so glad I did.

It's a fantastic book. Loy contrasts the Buddhist outlook to the outlooks of some Western thinkers (Freud, Nietzsche, Heidegger, etc) . It was a good feeling to see sketched out the relationship between my religion and modern philosophy, that they were motivated by the same questions but have come to different responses. This was one of the few books that have given me an "aha!" experience, where lots of disparate things fall into place and start to make sense.

You don't need to have a lot of background in philosophy, either Western or Buddhist, to appreciate this book; the author goes into enough detail about each field to bring a novice up to speed. If you're an American or European Buddhist and/or you have ever wondered how Buddhism relates to mainstream Western thought, you should definitely read this book.

I am a psychotherapist with a long history of involvement in phenomenology (mostly interested in the worksk of Heidegger). I was attracted to Buddhism though a couple of years ago and stumbled onto David Loy's work. David has a number of books out, one on non-duality, a couple extending his notions of "Lack" to the socio-political arena. All are innovative, interesting, accessible and for my money, extreemly important. I highly recommend this book, though people intersted in philosophy and/or psychology are probably going to warm to it the most quickly. Or... if you are interested in Buddhist thinking (especially those interested in Zen), this is an invaluable book. I have found that I have to read maybe 6 or 8 books about Zen to find one that really stands out. Over the past couple of years, my bookshevles have bowed under the wieght of new Zen books. But Loy's works stand out like few others. I hope this book provides you with the same kind of psychological "glue" it did me. Buy it, and happy reading.

This is a truly amazing book, and I certainly hope that there are eventually some new developments in psychotherapy that come from this text. I think some are already brewing. First, I won't spoil it, but the author finds our ultimate fear--and it's not death, although death is a close second. This ultimate fear drives all of our ego-machinations and makes the ego want to keep itself around--and part of that process is finding something, anything, more concrete and 'real' to fear and defend against. However, from a Buddhist perspective, there is really 'no one' there, so by implication the target of intervention, at least eventually, is to make the ego more translucent and/or dissolve it. It helped me to think of the so-called 'ego' as some very ingrained, well-learned mental processes that have gotten good at cooperating and 'feeling like' a 'self.' I think those who will like this book are already starting to the get the idea...and should read it--twice!

Contrary to the 'out of print' notice, this book is now available in paperback (since December 2000) from Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books.

I rate this book a 5, but then I'm biased -- I'm the author!

David Loy, scholar-comparative philosopher-Zen Buddhist, does a wonderful job of giving both an overview of the perennial philosophy/quest, and the most modern understanding of it; in a nutshell, the paradox of 'lack' (the fact of our groundlessness) and 'transcendence' (the awareness of all this). This is a tour de force synthesis of Existentialism, Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, a dense and rich and sometimes difficult, but rewarding study. (In this regard it is the opposite of, yet complimented by, his more recent, accessible, poetic, down to earth, yet reaching for the stars book, The World Is Made of Stories.)

Some quotes for a taste of what you have to look forward to;

"If transference is distortion of encounter, what transferences are more powerful than hatred and resentment? Negativity is the best example of a karmic projection that rebounds to haunt us. It is our usual way of dealing with what Jung so aptly called 'the shadow', those aspects of ourselves that we cannot cope with because they threaten the particular identifications by which we try to overcome our sense of 'lack'. If that sense-of-lack manifests in consciousness as an obsession with certain symbols, the shadow is a constellation of those symbols that represent failure to us, which we cannot accept or integrate." (pg 14)

(Ortega's and Becker's assumption is) "Once we realize that the human condition is chaotic and terrifying, we must cling to whatever we can in order to make sense of it. But what if, instead of finding oneself in such a fashion, one were truly to lose oneself - that is, let go, sink, drown? What might happen then? R.D Laing opined that the mystic swims in the same sea the psychotic drowns in. Are there different ways to die, with different consequences? Can one die to oneself? Then what is it that remains to live? And if we do not know the answers to these questions, how may we find them?" (pg 21)

"By now it has become clear that, from the Buddhist perspective, our most problematic duality is not life against death but self versus nonself. In psychological terms, our primal repression is not denial of death-fear, which still holds the feared thing at arm's length by projecting it into the future, but the sense-of-self repressed in suspected nothingness right now." (pg 94)

"When the real world becomes what's in the newspapers or on television, to be unknown is to be nothing. If my sense-of-self is internalized through social conditioning, that is, if others teach me that I am real, the natural tendency will be to cope with my shadow sense of unreality by continually reassuring myself with the attention of other people. Yet, if my sense of reality is gained by others' perception of me, then, no matter how appreciative that attention may be, I am restrained by those perceptions." (pg 137)

Personally, although I do feel the synthesis of existentialism, depth psychology and buddhism is both the challenge and solution for our modern times, I also feel there is a more direct way to approach the whole issue of the search for meaning within this process - perhaps what the synthesis is like, when the contributing parts are no longer distinct. Not only do we want to seek immortality through reputation and noticeable accomplishments (and acknowledgement), in the face of our inherent lack of self, but we also want to act and make an impact as a conscious force of nature, a natural expression of our buddha-nature. This simple doing, as an expression of the self-aware universe, is our source or primary action, yet is not separate from our animal instinct to survive (which we psychologically experience as our ego's drive to make a mark). Like the ocean making waves endlessly - the waves are the ocean, and the ocean's effortless force of change.