Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life [Paperback]

Andrew Samuels (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2001

This is an accessible, lucid and stimulating account of the hidden psychology of politics and the hidden politics of the psyche. It is packed with original and imaginative ideas on economics, nationalism, 'good-enough' leadership, the citizen and the state, women and men, fatherhood, and the citizen as a 'therapist of the world'.

'Andrew Samuels' provocative ideas about the meshing of the internal and external life would be commonsense if they were not so rare. His emphasis on the citizen as well as the politician is an important contribution to thinking about politics today. I found his book moving, insightful, and optimistic.' - Former US Senator Bill Bradley

'This highly original book refreshes our thinking on the meaning and possibilities in political life. Andrew Samuels invites us to investigate reasons why we denigrate not just our political leaders but also our own political selves and gives us potent ways to get out of the current malaise.' - Susie Orbach

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; 1st edition (May 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892746832
• ISBN-13: 978-1892746832
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,076,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An intellectually dishonest, self-congratulatory work, April 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life (Paperback)

Samuels seems more interested in showing off how clever and subversive and radical he is than in solving any of the real problems of society and the poor. His proposals are neither deeply thought through nor in any way realistic, and he seems offensively unconscious of his underlying assumption that any reader will have hundreds of dollars to spend for a workshop where he gets to lie on the floor visualizing what it would be like to be homeless, or alternatively how it would feel to live in a world without racism. There is no sense of real concern for the plight of the unfortunate, only an endless preening of what he imagines are his own brilliant, subversive ideas (which are essentially just shallow and silly). A disappointing and infuriating book, a third-rate mind showing off for the (alas) fifth-rate minds who predominate among the Jungians.