Origins of Possession
Origins of Possession
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.
- Deals with the complex and emotionally charged psychology surrounding possession, property, ownership and sharing
- Discusses the extent to which culture determines variations in possession psychology
- Provides a novel take on the origins of the human sense of right and wrong and the primary reasons and functions of morality and sharing with others
Reviews & endorsements
"Relying on Rousseau's 'Second Discourse', Rochat shows how the idea of property led humans to abandon a natural state of sharing with all other animals to a state in which claims of ownership, combined with the acceptance of such claims by others, set a new standard for civil society based on possession. Rochat creates a fascinating discourse by integrating ideas from philosophy, biology, sociology, and anthropology to understand the development of laws of property in Western and non-Western cultures and the impact of these cultural systems on the psychological development of a sense of possession across the life span … Summing up: highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals."
R. B. Stewart, Jr, Choice
Product details
September 2014Hardback
9781107032125
336 pages
235 × 155 × 22 mm
0.6kg
2 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 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.
