Says Who?

the struggle for authority in a market-based society
Paul Verhaeghe (trans. David Shaw)

‘We live in an extremely controlling society in which authority has disappeared … traditional authority is lapsing into brute force … and we ourselves must take the first steps towards creating a new social order.’

This was the trenchant diagnosis by Paul Verhaeghe at the end of his acclaimed book about identity, What About Me? Now he returns to investigate another aspect of our lives under threat: authority.

In Says Who?, Verhaeghe examines how authority functions and why we need it in order to develop healthy psyches and strong societies. Going against the laissez-faire ethics of a free-market age, he argues that rather than seeing authority as a source of oppression we should invest in developing it in the places that matter. Only by strengthening the power of horizontal groups within existing social structures, such as in education, the economy, and the political system, can we restore authority to its rightful place. Whether you are a parent or child, teacher or student, employer or employee, Says Who? provides the answers you need.

BUY EBOOK

Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:272pp

ISBN (13):9781911344445

RRP:£12.99

Pub date:13 Jul 2017

Rights Held: World English

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Paul Verhaeghe

Clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe is head of the psychoanalytical department at the University of Ghent. With his books Between Hysteria and Woman (1996) and On Being Normal and Other Disorders (2002) he gained international recognition as an expert on Freud and Lacan. He acquired a broad readership with Love in a Time of Loneliness (1998, updated 2011) and The End of Psychotherapy (2009), while The Effects on Identity of a Neoliberal Meritocracy won him a prize for the best essay of 2011 from Liberales. The American edition of On Being Normal and Other Disorders (2002) was awarded the Goethe Prize. His latest work What About Me? The struggle for identity in a market-based society was published in German, English, Chinese, Korean and Slovenian.

TRANSLATOR

David Shaw

David Shaw works as a journalist for Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, as well as translating from several languages, including German, Dutch, Russian, and French. He lives in Berlin.