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The Priority of the Other: Thinking and Living Beyond the Self

Online ISBN:
9780199369485
Print ISBN:
9780199759309
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Priority of the Other: Thinking and Living Beyond the Self

Mark Freeman
Mark Freeman

Professor of Psychology

College of the Holy Cross
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Published online:
16 April 2014
Published in print:
18 December 2013
Online ISBN:
9780199369485
Print ISBN:
9780199759309
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book provides a radical reorientation of our most basic ways of making sense of the human condition. Contemporary psychology – as well as our own ordinary understanding of experience – remains largely ego-centric in focus, seeing the self as the primary source of meaning and value. Working from this basic premise, it is proposed that we adopt a more “ex-centric” perspective, one that affirms the priority of the Other in shaping human experience. In speaking of the “Other,” the reference is not only to other people, but also to those non-human “others” – nature, art, God – that take us beyond the ego and bring us closer to the world. At the heart of the book are two fundamental ideas. The first is that the Other is the primary source of meaning, inspiration, and existential nourishment. The second is that it is the primary source of our ethical energies, and that being responsive and responsible to the world beyond us is a defining feature of our humanity. There is a tragic side to this story, however. Enraptured though we may be by the Other, we frequently encounter it in a state of distraction and fail to receive the nourishment and inspiration it can provide. And responsive and responsible though we may sometimes be, it is perilously easy to retreat inward, to the ego. The challenge, therefore, is to break the spell of the “ordinary oblivion” that characterizes much of everyday life. By thinking and living the priority of the Other, we can become better attuned to both the world beyond us and the world within.

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