Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is one of the most important books that will be written before the third millennium begins." -- Larry Dossey, M.D., dust jacket blurb, "Coming to Our Senses"

"[Berman has] stepped beyond intellectual history to become our foremost historian of experience" -- Guy Burneko, World Futures, vol. 30, 1990

"a thought-provoking, boldly original book" -- Alex Raksin, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 1989

Product Description

Originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1989, "Coming to Our Senses" is the second volume in a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness, and the recipient (in 1990) of the Governor's Writers Award for Washington State. (The first, "The Reenchantment of the World," was published in 1981 by Cornell University Press; the third, "Wandering God," was released in 2000 by the State University of New York Press.) The focus of this particular volume is the relationship between culture and the human body, and the somatic basis of Western religious experience. Whereas the first volume in the series is largely historical, and the third largely anthropological, "Coming to Our Senses" focuses on human psychology, especially the earliest years of life, and how this has historically influenced the nature of adult life and institutions in the West.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Seattle Writers' Guild (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096641683X
• ISBN-13: 978-0966416831
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Historian's Historian, March 7, 2000

By	"nigell" (Prescott, AZ) - See all my reviews

Mr. Berman, is, I believe, a truly masterful writer and historian. His writing is not only accessible to a middling intelligence such as myself, but brings one's knowledge and understanding of the history of the West to a more sophisticated, subtle level. His examination of human beings' current dread of what he terms the Void, and how this relates to the root cause of human suffering, addictions and even mass genocide is wide in scope and amazingly detailed and precise. What many scholars will find most unique about this book is the way Berman inserts his own persona into the telling, (as he must to avoid hypocrisy to his theme!) and his proposal that history is, finally, not ever truly objective, nor should it be. His book provides a prototype and exploration of the possibilities of a type of history which is essential, that of somatic, or bodily experience. The depth to which Berman pursues the root cause of human tribulation is exceeded only in Eastern philosophy: thus my only criticism is that his command of this area of knowledge were more complete. If only Berman and Ken Wilbur could collaborate on a book!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars almost, but not quite, April 25, 2005

By	Louis Berger ([e-mail] Forsyth, GA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Coming to Our Senses (Paperback)

It is interesting that what all the Amazon reviews to date have ignored or missed is Berman's deep foundation in a psychoanalytically informed understanding of ontogenesis (especially the very earliest developmental era). Berman, though no psychoanalyst, does know a good deal of the literature (Winnicott, Balint, Kohut, Klein, Barrett) but not quite enough about the clinical aspects of the discipline itself. (For example, he seems unaware of Paul Gray's work, an approach I see as a crucial addendum to the psychodynamic literature that Berman does know about.) He has much to say, and reading him carefully, slowly (a la Nietzsche's "slow reader"), thoughtfully, and via a series of circling converging passes through the work will repay the effort. I've scanned his "Wandering God," intend to study it, and it seems a more mature summing up of his position.

Incidentally, in this book I recommend especially chapter 1, a thorough introduction to ontogenesis, and chapter 10, a highly interesting and comprehensive analysis of two classes of creativity.

Although he has much to say (about Western insanity--for example, about the "psychotherapeutic use" of pets [p. 90]--a minor but telling example!), I think he's off the mark and misleads his readers by predicating his analyses on the mind-head vs body-experience polarity. I don't think the very important split to which he refers is well characterized in that way. (It so happens this split is a topic that interests me greatly---my new book [The unboundaried self] which should be out in 2-3 months focuses on this issue in a somewhat different way.)

Nevertheless, I think his work is just about the best in the vast subject area he has selected; there is approximately a decade between each of the three trilogy books, and his maturational path and progress are evident. All three works merit reading, as I have indicated, as does his "The twilight of American culture" which seems very much on the mark. He writes from a cultural historian's perspective about much of what I've written about from my renegate psychoanalyst's orientation.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somatic Epistemology for the Post-Cartesian Paradigm, October 7, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Brea, CA USA) - See all my reviews

In this densely-researched work, Berman explores the world's major paradigm shifts from the criterion of heresey. Beginning with the heresey of Jesus Christ and culminating with that of the Third Reich of Nazi, Germany, Berman questions the underpinnings of the status quo civilization.

"Coming to Our Senses," like Berman's first work, "The Reenchantment of the World", reconciles the somatic relationships fundamental to the human condition with those that define the accepted realities of modern science.

"Coming to Our Senses" should be required reading for those interested in the histories of science and morality in the western world, how they could change, and why.