The Withdrawal of Human Projection is a work of fundamental significance that will alter the shape of social theory. To assure this book achieves the widest possible circulation, we are providing college instructors with a free copy if you will simply ask your library to order a copy. Please respond directly to this email or write to oanderson@libraryofsocialscience.com saying that you will request that your library order The Withdrawal of Human Projection. When you respond, provide your name and the name of your college or university. We will send you a free electronic copy of the entire book—identical to the hard copy, including the front and back covers. Pages:  118 pages Publisher:   Library of Social Science Author:   M. D. Faber Date of Publication:   June 1, 2013 Paperback:   List Price $34.95   ISBN: 091504207X Hardcover:   List Price $39.95   ISBN: 0915042088 Professor emeritus of English at the University of Victoria, M. D. Faber is a renowned authority on the psychology of religion and author of nine books, including Culture and Consciousness, The Psychological Roots of Religious Belief, and The Magic of Prayer: An Introduction to the Psychology of Faith.

CHANGING THE COURSE
OF SOCIAL THEORY

Scholarly thought for the past forty years has been ruled by the belief that human beings define themselves exclusively through language and discourse. Tied to the symbolic order, we become “subjects.” However, do we possess existence when we are not bound to culture?

We achieve identity by virtue of our relationship to society. Yet Freud spoke about the “discontent” engendered by civilization. In academia, society often is identified as the cause of domination and oppression. If our relationship to society is the source of suffering, why do we attach to it so passionately and obsessively?

In The Withdrawal of Human Projection, M. D. Faber interrogates the roots and meanings of our tie to the symbolic order, showing how our relationship to society evolves as a response to anxiety surrounding separation and loss. As we move away from primary love objects, we simultaneously link ourselves to transitional objects in culture. Each step toward autonomy holds the threat of loss, triggering an “endless search for replacement.” We bind ourselves to symbolic objects as a response to our fear of separation  and death, eventually becoming those objects with which we identify.

ASIAN PSYCHOLOGY
AND SOCIAL THEORY

Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” Zen master Taisen Deshimaru counters, “I do not think, therefore I am.” The foundational idea of Hinduism and Buddhism is that one discovers the self to the extent that one abandons thinking—our tie to the symbolic order. Yet—in spite of the popularity of meditative practice—Asian philosophy and psychology has not found its way into social theory.

Faber proposes “concentrative meditation” as a technique for moderating our tie to culture. In place of language and discourse, Faber suggests focus upon the “direct, non-symbolic awareness of one’s body from the inside.”

Faber’s The Withdrawal of Human Projection sets a new path for social theory by embracing the body and experiencing self as the site of reality. Meditative practice facilitates letting go of that to which we are attached; relinquishing our ties to cultural objects.

WITHDRAWING ENERGY FROM CULTURE

In Everyday Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck explains that her practice is to “die slowly, step by step, gradually disidentifying with wherever we’re caught in.” As we identify ourselves with less and less, we can “include more and more in our lives.”

Disidentification means withdrawing psychic energy from those symbols into which we have projected our existence. Separation from the symbolic order—that vast world of “discourse”—means accepting separation and loss.

If one were no longer a “subject of the symbolic order,” what kind of human being might one become?