| Summary: | "The development of a science of human nature is primarily a semantic problem. Man dwells in a self-made world of meanings, established through the use of words, and an equally self-made world of values, brought into being by the creation of procedures and techniques. Important psychological abstractions like love, mercy, and honesty must be understood in depth, which means that they take on a permanent core of meaning which can be readily communicated. If abstractions which describe human nature are to be understood in depth they must be seen in relationship to the experiences which give them depth. Everything of importance in human nature has a paired quality, because it is part of the reciprocal relationship between the submissive and the dominant in the life process. Love takes on its real meaning only in relationship to power; power finds its true value in relationship to love. In this book, Jove and power are considered together, and all important concepts concerned in human nature are placed in similar pairs. This book takes a psychoanalytic approach to civilization, beginning with the abstractions that describe human nature. The author argues that men do not have to fear being abstract in viewing human nature; what they have to fear is the production of abstractions which have no relationship to the concrete world of the life of action"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
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