Description

This book studies the psychology surrounding the development of owning and sharing in humans across different cultures. The way in which we acquire and become attached to our possessions reveals both the similarities and differences between humans and other animals as psychological entities. This book discusses the psychology surrounding how humans experience possession, claim ownership, and share from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective. The way in which we acquire and become attached to our possessions reveals both the similarities and differences between humans and other animals as psychological entities. This book discusses the psychology surrounding how humans experience possession, claim ownership, and share from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective. Human possession psychology originates from deeply rooted experiential capacities shared with other animals. However, unlike other animals, we are a uniquely self-conscious species concerned with reputation, and possessions affect our perception of how we exist in the eyes of others. This book discusses the psychology surrounding the ways in which humans experience possession, claim ownership, and share from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective. Philippe Rochat explores the origins of human possession and its symbolic development across cultures. He proposes that human possession psychology is particularly revealing of human nature, and also the source of our elusive moral sense. Introduction: making sense of human possession; Part I. Psychology: Principles of Human Possession: 1. Experiencing possession; 2. Claiming ownership; 3. Possession and ownership transfer; 4. Symbolic spinoffs of possession; Part II. Development: Human Ontogeny of Possession: 5. First possession; 6. Ownership in development; 7. Sharing in development; Part III. Culture: Human Possession in Context: 8. Culture and possession; 9. Possession in children across cultures; Conclusion: great transformation. 'Throughout his work, Philippe Rochat attempts to identify what is uniquely human. In this book he yet again moves one step closer to a truly intellectually satisfying description. Origins of Possession is essential reading for all those of us who are in the profession of working with the human mind, particularly when it is troubled and is at risk of losing its essential qualities of self-awareness and symbolization. It is a highly significant contribution which builds on Rochat's unparalleled depth of understanding of child development to deliver a view of the nature and experience of possession that transcends development and individual differences - and illuminates both - whilst striking very close to what lies at the core of our experience of ourselves and of others as sentient beings.' Peter Fonagy, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Head, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London 'This is a rare, unique, and exciting book that could not have been written except by a scientist who, like Darwin, has travelled to diverse places and made the insightful observations that open a new perspective on everything of concern to human psychology. Rochat probes a concept so central and pervasive that it is commonplace: possession. He develops a psychology that penetrates deeply into philosophical and ethical realms, and that raises questions that to my knowledge have not been raised before about issues relevant t