- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Philosophy
Full Description
Why do we sometimes feel powerful, expansive, and driven—only to feel small, humbled, or overwhelmed moments later? This book proposes that much of human experience is shaped by a fundamental psychological rhythm between two states the authors call Bigness and Smallness.
Blending psychology with insights from biology, development, culture, religion, history, and mental health, the book introduces a theory of Dynamic Magnitude: the idea that human flourishing depends on our ability to move fluidly between striving for significance and yielding to forces greater than ourselves. Through vivid examples drawn from everyday life, art, love, parenting, politics, extremism, ritual, and belief systems, the authors show how modern societies have come to privilege Bigness while neglecting the human need for Smallness. They explore how imbalance between these states fuels burnout, polarization, addiction, anxiety, depression, and radicalization, while their healthy alternation underlies creativity, intimacy, resilience, and meaning. Rather than offering self-help prescriptions or single-factor explanations, the book provides a unifying lens that connects personal psychology with larger cultural and historical patterns.
Written for psychologists and social scientists, this book also speaks to a wider audience of intellectually curious readers—students of culture and history, philosophers, clinicians, and thoughtful observers of contemporary life—interested in how inner experience, social forces, and meaning-making intersect.
Contents
1. Feeling Big, Feeling Small: An Introduction 2. The Need that Makes the World Go Round 3. The Importance of Being Small 4. Bigness and Smallness on a Seesaw 5. It Runs in Our Blood: The Biology of Bigness and Smallness 6. From The Cradle to the Grave: Bigness and Smallness Across the Lifespan 7. The Muse and the Moneymaker: Creativity on the Seesaw 8. Cultures of Bigness and Smallness 9. The Extremes of Bigness and Smallness 10. Of Gods and Humans: Smallness and Bigness in the World's Religions 11. Mental Health and Bigness/Smallness Dysregulation 12. Love as Dynamic Magnitude: The Interplay of Bigness and Smallness 13. So What? Index
