A New Culture of Energy : Beyond East and West

In A New Culture of Energy , Luce Irigaray reflects on three critical concerns of our time: the cultivation of energy in its many forms, the integration of Asian and Western traditions, and the reenvisioning of religious figures for the contemporary world. A philosopher as well as a psychoanalyst, Irigaray draws deeply on her personal experience in addressing these questions. In her view, although psychoanalysis can succeed in releasing mental energy, it fails to support physical and spiritual well-being. In pursuit of an alternative, she took up the bodily practices of yoga and pranayama breathing, which she considers in light of her analysis of sexuate belonging and difference. Reflecting on these practices, Irigaray contrasts yoga's approach to the natural world with how the Western tradition privileges mastery over nature. These varied sources provoke her to question how a tradition imagines transcendence and the divine. In the book's final section, she reinterprets the figure of Mary through breath, self-affection, and touch, recalibrating her physicality within a natural world. A reflection on the liberation of human energy, this book urges us to cultivate an evolutionary culture in harmony with all living beings. "This short book argues for the need to build a culture of love by understanding and mobilizing psychic energy, which Irigaray associates both literally and culturally with breathing and the breath, and in the first part she suggests through a series of short chapters how the practice of yoga can help individuals to move towards a culture of breathing, concentration, and meditation, which leads to individuation. The second part focuses on the Virgin Mary in terms of feminist philosophy, informed by questions such as the importance of breathing, the possibility of a couple sharing a physical and a spiritual relationship at different moments in history, and the relationship between the word and the flesh. Together, the two sections analyze the difference between Western and Eastern cultures and build bridges between the two not only at a theoretical level but through practices, especially those of psychoanalysis and yoga. Through her experience of both practices, Luce Irigaray reflects on the respective contributions of each tradition toward the liberation and the cultivation of our human energy and the elaboration of a culture suitable for our present and future evolution in harmony with all living beings"-- Provided by publisher