Luce Irigaray 
A New Culture of Energy 
Beyond East and West

In
A New Culture of Energy, Luce Irigaray reflects on three critical concerns of our time: the cultivation of energy in its many forms, the integration of Asian and Western traditions, and the reenvisioning of religious figures for the contemporary world. A philosopher as well as a psychoanalyst, Irigaray draws deeply on her personal experience in addressing these questions. In her view, although psychoanalysis can succeed in releasing mental energy, it fails to support physical and spiritual well-being. In pursuit of an alternative, she took up the bodily practices of yoga and pranayama breathing, which she considers in light of her analysis of sexuate belonging and difference. Reflecting on these practices, Irigaray contrasts yoga’s approach to the natural world with how the Western tradition privileges mastery over nature. These varied sources provoke her to question how a tradition imagines transcendence and the divine. In the book’s final section, she reinterprets the figure of Mary through breath, self-affection, and touch, recalibrating her physicality within a natural world. A reflection on the liberation of human energy, this book urges us to cultivate an evolutionary culture in harmony with all living beings.

Tabella dei contenuti

Part I: A New Culture of Energy
Introduction
The Liberation of Energy Through Psychoanalysis
Yoga as a Road to Recovery
Gaining Autonomy
Humanizing Our Breath
Our Body as Mediator
The Emphasis on Performance Is Rarely Conducive to Exchange
More Than Not Harming: Loving
Compassion: The Basis of a Universal Sharing
Incarnating Ourselves with the Help of Animals and Angels
Arriving at Speech Thanks to Silence
The Spiritual Path Opened by Sensory Perceptions
Unity and Duality
Gods, God, or another relationship to the divine
A New Culture of Energy
Myths and History
Part II: The Mystery of Mary
Prologue
Divine from Birth
The Event of the Annunciation
The Virginity of Mary
The Silence of Mary
Visible and Invisible
Touched by Grace
A Figure of Wisdom
A Bridge in Time and Space

Circa l’autore

Luce Irigaray is an acclaimed French philosopher, linguist, and psychoanalyst, the author of more than thirty books, which have been translated into a number of languages. Her previous Columbia University Press books include
Between East and West: From Singularity to Community (2001) and, with Michael Marder,
Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives (2016).