The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving [Paperback]

Sam Keen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1992

A new edition of the philosophy of love and sex that underlies Keen's bestselling Fire in the Belly. "An outline of an erotic developmental psychology [that] integrates insights on sex, spirituality, and social criticism in a genuinely provocative way."Library Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper San Francisco (June 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062504681
• ISBN-13: 978-0062504685
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SAM KEEN'S VITA I was over educated at Harvard and Princeton and was a professor of philosophy and religion at various legitimate institutions for 20 years before becoming a contributing editor of Psychology Today, a freelance thinker, lecturer, seminar leader and consultant. I am the author of a bakers dozen books, a co-producer of an award winning PBS documentary, Faces of the Enemy. My work was the subject of a 60 minute PBS special Bill Moyers-Your Mythic Journey with Sam Keen.

When not writing or traveling around the world lecturing and doing seminars on a wide range of topics on which I am not necessarily an expert but a skilled explorer, I fiddle with growing things on my farm in the hills above Sonoma, and practice the flying trapeze.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Live the Passionate Life, July 31, 2000

By 

rareoopdvds (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving (Paperback)

Psycholigst and philosopher Sam Keen explores the inner depths and growth of the human consciousness and observes how we grow to love, grow to hate, or grow to become passionate about life. The book is set up where each chapter is a stage in a persons life. Where they get stuck or caught, how to grow, and the problems that arise out of each stage. Keen not only lets you explore your life, but gives his own as a testiment the problems anyone can have. From death, to seperation to rebirth. Told from a mythological point of view thanks to his good friend Joseph Campbell, Keen defines myth as "the system of basic metaphors, images, and stories that in-forms the perceptions, memories, and aspirations of a people; provides the rationale for its institutions, rituals, and power structures; and gives a map of the purpose and stages of life." This defintion is the epitomy of the entire book which also follows its own rules. What I found most influential about this book is it allowed me to examine my own life, the loves I have gaines and lost, where I have gone on my own personal journey, and who I took with me, and who I want to take with me. There are many moments which I was dumbfounded by a stroke of inspiration and enlightenment. Other times I was upset and depressed by the hard truths and realities of our world. But by the end of the book, whether I was happy or mad, I knew that my thinking had changed and allowed me to be more sensitive to others as well as myself. As a human being, there is the obligation that we must pay to enter into society and be with other fellow human beings. To co-operate with eachother, to inspire, guide, help, and trust others, companion or stranger. The passionate life is not one full of lust and sex - no, that is far from the truth. It is one who lives every moment full of breath. One who sees the mundane as divine. To experience the sensorium of our bodies. Sam Keen has done a remarkable job hitting the nail on the head seemingly every time. This book, written back in 1982 and revised in 1993 seems more relevant today than it did at the time he wrote it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The development of our way of loving, July 4, 2005

By 

Thomas G. Goddard (Kensington, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving (Paperback)

This is an extraordinary book that looks at one of the most essential aspects of developmental psychology. Timeless, readable, and profound, this is an essential view of what it is to be alive, what it is to be a human being.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulls it all together, January 22, 2000

By 

J. Lyda (Raleigh, North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving (Paperback)

I am a glutton for the inward searching book. This one, written in the 80's, but which I only found last year, really covers all the ground in the inward, and outward, journey. Sam is something else. Highly recommended.