Travels with the Self: Interpreting Psychology as Cultural History (Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series)

Reading Philip Cushman reminds us of what matters in psychotherapy and in human life, and of what seduces us away. Culture, both as situation and as overwhelming, indispensable human need, is his subject matter and vocabulary. His clear prophetic voice calls us out on our hypocrisies and temptations to equivocate, while challenging and beguiling us into hermeneutic engagement that might begin to save us in dangerous times. -Donna M. Orange, NYU Postdoc Program and Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City; author of The Suffering Stranger and Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics

Phil Cushman writes about the self, and brings his own self to this book: his style is both intensely cerebral and deeply personal-- fitting for a champion of hermeneutics. These essays show the development of a restless, questing mind evolving over the course of a fruitful career that has bridged theory, practice, and activism. Throughout, Cushman has held himself--and the profession-- to the highest intellectual and ethical standards. His writings demonstrate both how difficult and how necessary it is to constantly question therapeutic institutions and practices as late capitalism unfolds around us. -Trysh Travis, Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies Research, University of Florida, USA

Travels with the Self is an invitation to voyage, once again, with Philip Cushman-a more gracious and inspiring guide can hardly be imagined. Dr. Cushman is psychology's foremost theorist of contemporary individualism. His earlier book, Constructing the Self, Constructing America, is a crucial, now classic study of the intertwined topics of selfhood, hermeneutics, and modern culture. How lucky we are to have this superb new book, which probes further while also breaking new ground at the intersection of psychology with politics. Each chapter is filled with Cushman's signature combination of deep empathy, ethical compass, and critical edge. -Louis Sass, PhD, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University; author of Madness and Modernism, Revised Edition (2017) and of The Paradoxes of Delusion (1994)

In this unique and wonderful book, Philip Cushman offers wise and humane reflections on psychotherapy and its cultural history. His critical disclosure of the place of psychotherapy in our world makes the book required reading for every therapist. It is a deeply cohesive, historically and conceptually cumulative anthology from a treasured teacher and scholar. His warm and questioning nature leaps from every page. -Blaine J. Fowers, Ph.D., Professor, Counseling Psychology, University of Miami, author of Frailty, Suffering, and Vice: Flourishing in the Face of Human Limitations