Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity

Abstract

tive bristles with a naive but potentially dangerous new form of psychological determinism.A chapter on psychosomatic illness proposes that cancer be understood as an existential choice, and that childhood autism be seen as an extreme psychogenic failure of mirror identification with the primary caretaker.It would be unfortunate if readers decided to dismiss Lacan on the basis of such far-fetched exaggerations of the explanatory uses of psychoanalytic theory.For readers unfamiliar with Lacan's basic concepts, the presentation is far too elaborate, complex, and fragmented.For readers who have had considerable exposure to Lacan, these essays may be of more interest, though their ponderousness may weigh more heavily on the side of death than that of pleasure. Brookline, MA