Existential phenomenology can be a particularly helpful philosophical method for understanding human experience. Starting from the perspective of the subject, it can clarify and problematize subtle everyday relations, enabling greater insight into difficult situations. Used by contemporary philosophers as a way of understanding the embodied experience of illness, this method has been helpful for understanding physical illness in the medical humanities, offering a fruitful way of reading the subjectivity of mental states. An Existential Phenomenology of Addiction examines how the experience of addiction engages both mental and physical phenomena within the existence of a particular human life, using the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas and Søren Kierkegaard. The book maps out an existential phenomenology of subject-in-relation. Both Lévinas and Kierkegaard use decidedly psychological and theological language to situate their philosophy, discussing the subject through concepts of love, otherness, responsibility and hope, while played out in a situation of anxiety, suffering, desire and revelation. Combining existential phenomenological discourse with contemporary addiction discourse, Westin argues that the concept of subject as ‘addict’, as found in the Twelve Steps Program and disease models of addiction, ought to be replaced with the free and relational identity of subject as ‘addicted’.
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INTRODUCTION I. EXISTING DISCOURSES ON ADDICTION II. THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF LÉVINAS: RELIGION, RELATON AND DESIRE III. LÉVINAS: THE HOPEFUL RELATION PRECEDING FREEDOM IV. THE EXISTENTIALISM OF KIERKEGAARD: HOPEFUL EXPERIENCE AND ENTANGLED FREEDOM V. KIERKEGAARD: RELATING TO THE OTHER AS LOVE VI. LÉVINAS AND KIERKEGAARD: LOVE, HOPE AND RELATIONAL SUBJECTIVITY VII. A HOPEFUL DIALOGUE OF ADDICTION: LÉVINAS, KIERKEGAARD AND THE TWELVE STEPS CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
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In this absorbing and original book, Anna Westin explores the contested human experience of addiction through a dialogue between Lévinas, Kierkegaard and the Twelve Step program. Her account offers rich food for thought, showing how it is possible to speak of love, freedom and hope even in the context of addiction.
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In order to address addiction in terms of existential phenomenology, this book uses Levinas and Kierkegaard to understand this meaningful, problematic and dangerous human experience.
A philosophical account of addiction as part of human experience

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350114227
Publisert
2020-02-20
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Academic
Vekt
531 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
256

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Anna Westin is Visiting Lecturer at London School of Theology and Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.