Alex Comfort – författare

Originally published in 1961. The essays in this volume focus on the awareness of science and art, evolution and Freudian psychology. Besides the chapter on Darwin and Freud, the author discusses criticism, the fantasy element in drama and popular literature, the history of the novel, the motivation of science and the function of erotic art.

Originally published in 1961. The essays in this volume focus on the awareness of science and art, evolution and Freudian psychology. Besides the chapter on Darwin and Freud, the author discusses criticism, the fantasy element in drama and popular literature, the history of the novel, the motivation of science and the function of erotic art.

Once in a century an overview shakes the mold of preconception and makes a world model fall into shape. This is such a book-absorbing, provocative, original, skeptical, and often very funny in spite of formidable scholarship. The focus of the book is on the change in self-perception which physics might bring about if it were made in some way empathically real to non-physicists. The common man's "existential" attitude is a product now of nineteenth-century, mechanistic models. But in pursuing this, the author lays out a comprehensive survey of impending changes in the philosophy of science, and ranges through physics, biology, mathematics, Jungian psychology, and evolutionary theory, turning also to look at other, non-Western-scientific, world models."In the task of reshaping the world model of scientists and others, only commitment to the discipline of science will do. It can be combined with enough controlled lunacy to bring conventionally self-evident ideas of reality into question (in mathematics this has always been a winning mixture), but it has to produce testable predictions.""What we are now looking at is the prospect of 'Jungian physics': a physics model which also addresses the image-forming mechanism and possibly even the non-locality of mind.""The hard-hat model of an objective reality has had to yield to a growing perception that the objective is, in form at least, a construct: what we appear to see is a function of the manner of seeing (hardly a new idea to Greek philosophy), but with the awkward complication that the cogitating I arises from the structures which it sees and orders."

Once in a century an overview shakes the mold of preconception and makes a world model fall into shape. This is such a book-absorbing, provocative, original, skeptical, and often very funny in spite of formidable scholarship. The focus of the book is on the change in self-perception which physics might bring about if it were made in some way empathically real to non-physicists. The common man's "existential" attitude is a product now of nineteenth-century, mechanistic models. But in pursuing this, the author lays out a comprehensive survey of impending changes in the philosophy of science, and ranges through physics, biology, mathematics, Jungian psychology, and evolutionary theory, turning also to look at other, non-Western-scientific, world models."In the task of reshaping the world model of scientists and others, only commitment to the discipline of science will do. It can be combined with enough controlled lunacy to bring conventionally self-evident ideas of reality into question (in mathematics this has always been a winning mixture), but it has to produce testable predictions.""What we are now looking at is the prospect of 'Jungian physics': a physics model which also addresses the image-forming mechanism and possibly even the non-locality of mind.""The hard-hat model of an objective reality has had to yield to a growing perception that the objective is, in form at least, a construct: what we appear to see is a function of the manner of seeing (hardly a new idea to Greek philosophy), but with the awkward complication that the cogitating I arises from the structures which it sees and orders."

In Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State, originally published in 1950, Alex Comfort discusses the relationship between crime and power, and traces the mechanisms which may lead to delinquent behaviour by those in office. In the early twentieth century, the literature of abnormal behaviour contained many hints of identity between the psychogenesis of crime and the psychogenesis of political power, and with the recognition of “war crimes”, and the possible criminality of governments, these hints had been brought into the open. His conclusions presented a serious challenge to the traditional conception of Democracy and of the State at the time. He discusses the forces in democratic society which tend to select potential delinquents as candidates for Parliament and for office, or which may operate to produce delinquency in those who obtain power.Dr Comfort, a Lecturer in Physiology at the London Hospital at the time of publication, obtained his psychological training in child welfare work, but was better known as a novelist and poet. This book was a contribution to the theoretical background of political anarchism which hoped to provoke serious and lively discussion among students of politics and of social psychology at the time.

In Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State, originally published in 1950, Alex Comfort discusses the relationship between crime and power, and traces the mechanisms which may lead to delinquent behaviour by those in office. In the early twentieth century, the literature of abnormal behaviour contained many hints of identity between the psychogenesis of crime and the psychogenesis of political power, and with the recognition of “war crimes”, and the possible criminality of governments, these hints had been brought into the open. His conclusions presented a serious challenge to the traditional conception of Democracy and of the State at the time. He discusses the forces in democratic society which tend to select potential delinquents as candidates for Parliament and for office, or which may operate to produce delinquency in those who obtain power.Dr Comfort, a Lecturer in Physiology at the London Hospital at the time of publication, obtained his psychological training in child welfare work, but was better known as a novelist and poet. This book was a contribution to the theoretical background of political anarchism which hoped to provoke serious and lively discussion among students of politics and of social psychology at the time.