Yochai Ataria – författare

This volume explores themes originating from the work of Jean Améry (1912–1978), a Holocaust survivor and essayist—mainly, ethics and the past, torture and its implications, death and suicide. The volume is interdisciplinary, bringing together contributions from philosophy, psychology, law, and literary studies to illuminate each of the topics from more than one angle. Each essay is a novel contribution, shedding new light on the relevant subject matter and on Jean Améry''s unique perspective. The ensuing picture is rich and multifaceted, uncovering unforeseen traits of Amery''s thought, and surprising correlations that have so far been under-researched. It invites further studies of the Holocaust and its consequences to take their cue from non-neutral first person reflections.

This book offers an uncompromising and unapologetic phenomenological study of altered states of consciousness in an attempt to understand the structure of human consciousness. Drawing on the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, it sets out to decipher the inextricable link between consciousness, body, and world. This link will be established through the presentation of in-depth phenomenological research conducted with former prisoners of war (POWs) and senior meditators. Focusing on two such disparate groups improves our understanding of the nature of the subjective experience in extreme situations – when our sense of boundary is rigid and we are disconnected both from the body and the world (POWs); and when our sense of boundary is fluid and we feel unified with the world (meditators). Based on empirical-phenomenological research, this book will explain how the body that is from the outset thrown into the intersubjective world shapes the structure of consciousness. 

This book offers a critique of a certain contemporary discourse in popular science that consists of (1) identifying the origins and therefore essential nature of Homo Sapiens; and (2) identifying the nature of technology. The author’s critique is that this double gesture generates a deterministic worldview – man is evil and technology has its own necessity – that operates to exonerate humanity from responsibility to the horrors of the 20th century, epitomized in Auschwitz and Hiroshima, for example. The author situates this operation within what he identifies as an “apocalyptical-eschatological state of mind”. Yochai Ataria explains that the dynamics of technology and the quest for the first human are the two central vectors shaping both scientific and popular discourse today, highlighting the importance of understanding the deep connection between the two.

This lofty volume analyzes a circular cultural relationship: not only how trauma is reflected in cultural processes and products, but also how trauma itself acts as a critical shaper of literature, the visual and performing arts, architecture, and religion and mythmaking. The political power of trauma is seen through US, Israeli, and Japanese art forms as they reflect varied roles of perpetrator, victim, and witness. Traumatic complexities are traced from spirituality to movement, philosophy to trauma theory. And essays on authors such as Kafka, Plath, and Cormac McCarthy examine how narrative can blur the boundaries of personal and collective experience.

Among the topics covered: 

This volume appeals to multiple readerships including researchers and clinicians, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and media researchers.