Winner ofThe Boyer Prize from the Society for Psychological Anthropology!!! This book explores the experience of suffering in order to shed light on the nature of the human self. Using an intimate life history approach, it examines ways people struggle to cope with experiences that can shatter their lives: a diagnosis of cancer, the death of a spouse, a parent s mental illness. The volume takes readers deep into private worlds of suffering in American culture, and invites reflection on what the subjectivity of suffering tells us about being human. Addressing universal themes in a way that fully recognizes the individuality of those who experience a personal crisis, Parish shows how individuals personalize the cultural and psychological resources in which they find their possible selves.

Autorentext
Steven M. Parish is Associate Professor of Anthropology atUniversity of California, San Diego.

Inhalt
Possible Selves * Born into Our Lives: Other People and the Work of Self * What a Tangles Web She Weaves: An American Widow * California Dreaming: My Days on the Cancer Ward * The Psychology of Sufferign * The Subjectivity of Suffering * Wandering Home