Meaning and Myth in the Study of Lives e-bog

This book explores major theoretical issues in the study of an individual life through its focus on Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre's quest for an "e;existential psychoanalysis"e; led him to develop what he called "e;true novels"e; in the landmark studies of Flaubert and others. In clarifying Sartre's philosophical ideas in relation to the analysis of the self, Stuart L. Charme examines the attraction/repulsion of Freudian concepts and explores parallels to Erikson's ego psychology. Certain "e;mythic"e; qualities in religious biography and autobiography are seen as central to Sartre, who presents livesincluding his ownas normative models.The book concludes by making a provocative link between the modern preoccupation with self-analysis in biography and autobiography and a fundamental religious need that was once fulfilled by primitive myth.