Collecting: An Unruly Passion: Psychological Perspectives
by Werner Muensterberger
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 0691604282
- ISBN 13
- 9780691604282
- Seller
-
Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Paperback / softback. New. From rare books, valuable sculpture and paintings, the relics of saints, and porcelain and other precious items, through stamps, textiles, military ribbons, and shells, to baseball cards, teddy bears, and mugs, an amazing variety of objects have engaged and even obsessed collectors through the ages. With this captivating book the psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger provides the first extensive psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another collectible. Muensterberger's roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed--and then merely temporarily--only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new "find." In an easy, conversational style, the author discusses the eccentricities of heads of state, literary figures, artists, and psychoanalytic patients, all possessed by a need for magic relief from despair and helplessness--and for the self-healing implied in the phrase "I can't live without it!" The sketches here are diverse indeed: Walter Benjamin, Mario Praz, Catherine the Great, Poggio Bracciolini, Brunelleschi, and Jean de Berry, among others. The central part of the work explores in detail the personal circumstances and life history of three individuals: a contemporary collector, Martin G; the celebrated British book and manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps, who wanted one copy of every book in the world; and the great French novelist Honore de Balzac, a compulsive collector of bric-a-brac who expressed his empathy for the acquisitive passions of his collector protagonist in Cousin Pons. In addition, Muensterberger takes the reader on a charming tour of collecting in the Renaissance and looks at collecting during the Golden Age of Holland, in the seventeenth century. Throughout, we enjoy the author's elegant variations on a complicated theme, stated, much too simply, by John Steinbeck: "I guess the truth is that I simply like junk." Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Synopsis
In a book that the New York Times called “engaging...dramatic,” Werner Muensterberger plumbs the psychology behind the act of collecting, profiling individual collectors and their habits and looking at the cultural and historical patterns of collecting.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Saint Bookstore (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- A9780691604282
- Title
- Collecting: An Unruly Passion: Psychological Perspectives
- Author
- Werner Muensterberger
- Format/Binding
- Paperback / softback
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0691604282
- ISBN 13
- 9780691604282
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- This edition first published
- 2014
Terms of Sale
The Saint Bookstore
Refunds or Returns: A full refund of the price paid will be given if returned within 30 days in undamaged condition. If the product is faulty, we may send a replacement.
About the Seller
The Saint Bookstore
Biblio member since 2018
Southport, Merseyside
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- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...