The Force of Fantasy: Its Roles, Its Benefits and What it Reveals About Our Lives

Self-Help

Person, Ethel S.

Motivational

Harpercollins

In Feeling Strong, noted psychoanalyst Ethel S. Person redefines the notion of power. The stigma of evil we associate with the subject of power comes from this one conception of power - the drive for dominance over other people, or, in its most extreme form, an overriding and often ruthless lust for total command. But this is far too limited a definition. Pointing to a more fulfilling sense of self-empowerment than is being touted in pop-psychology manuals of our time, Feeling Strong shows us that power is really our ability to produce an effect, to make something we want to happen actually take place. Power is a desire and a drive, and it is central in our lives, dictating much of our behavior and consuming much of our interior lives. Drawing from her expertise honed in clinical practice, as well as from examples in literature and true-life vignettes, Person shows how you can achieve authentic power to find something that matters; to feel inner certainty; to find a personality of your own and effectively plot your life story.

Feeling Strong: How Power Issues Affect Our Ability to Direct Our Own Lives

Parenting & Relationships

Harper Paperbacks

A leading psychoanalyst examines romantic passion, how it affects our psychological growth, and the differences in the way men and women experience romance

Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Passion

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Penguin??Books

We’ve been taught that fantasies are a waste of time, keeping us from focusing on the realities of our lives. But this innovative study shows us how truly valuable these mental emanations can be. Drawn from clinical experience and research as well as examples from literature and art, here is evidence that fantasies fuel our behavior, test our limitations, and deepen our connections with others. They protect us from acts of desperation and serve as viable life plans. Find out why each of us plays out specific themes from childhood through old age, how we guard our fantasies even from ourselves, and why most of our fantasies are sexual ones. Most important, this groundbreaking study offers encouraging proof that spinning fantasies is no idle pursuit, but rather a critical component in shaping our behavior and personality, and ultimately the path we travel through life.

By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives

Personal Transformation

Challenging Freudian opinions that state that happy, well-balanced people do not fantasize, a revealing look at the benefits of positive fantasy lives explains why they are crucial to emotional health

By Force Of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives

Basic Books

In Feeling Strong, noted psychoanalyst Ethel S. Person redefines the notion of power. Power is often narrowly understood as the force exerted by the politicians and business leaders who seem to be in charge and by the rich and famous who monopolize our headlines. The whiff of evil we often catch when the subject of power is in the air comes from this one conception of power -- the drive for dominance over other people, or, in its most extreme form, an overriding and often ruthless lust for total command. But this is far too limited a definition of power. 
Pointing to a more fulfilling sense of self-empowerment than is being touted in pop-psychology manuals of our time, Feeling Strong shows us that power is really our ability to produce an effect, to make something we want to happen actually take place. Power is a desire and a drive, and it central in our lives, dictating much of our behavior and consuming much of our interior lives. We all have a need to possess power, use it, understand it and negotiate it. This holds true not just in mediating our sex and love lives, our family lives and friendships, our work relationships but in seeking to realize our dreams, whether in pursuit of our ambitions, expression of our creative impulses, or in our need to identify with something larger than ourselves. These separate kinds of power are best described as interpersonal power and personal power, respectively, and they call on different parts of our psyche. Ideally, we acquire competence in both domains.
Drawing from her expertise honed in clinical practice, as well as from examples in literature and true-life vignettes, Person shows how we can achieve authentic power, a fundamental and potentially benevolent part of human nature that allows us to experience ourselves as authentically strong. To find something that matters; to live life at a higher pitch; to feel inner certainty; to find a personality of your own and effectively plot our own life story -- these are the forms of power explored in the book. To achieve and maintain such empowerment always entails struggle and is a life-long journey. Feeling Strong will lead the way.

Feeling Strong: The Achievement of Authentic Power

Relationships

William Morrow

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Books by Person, Ethel S.