The Deepening Darkness
Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy's Future

This analysis of love and violence under patriarchy illuminates the most impending threats to democracy's future.

Carol Gilligan (Author), David A. J. Richards (Author)

9781107672338, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 May 2014

352 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

“The Deepening Darkness is that rare thing – a cultural study that is not only a delight to read, but one with important practical implications. Gilligan and Richards expose the fundamental organizing role of patriarchy in western consciousness and show that we have been wedded to a false story about human nature, resistance to which is understood as pathology or sin. They provide fascinating descriptions of the error being transmitted through social institutions, and point out its malignant impact on men and women alike. For example, they trace clearly how even psychoanalysis, which began by liberating the individual, became oppressive due to Freud's inability to escape the patriarchical demands embedded in his own psychology.”
Owen Renik, former Editor-in-Chief of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Why is America again unjustly at war? Why is its politics distorted by wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage? Why is anti-Semitism still so powerfully resurgent? Such contradictions within democracies arise from a patriarchal psychology still alive in our personal and political lives in tension with the equal voice that is the basis of democracy. This book joins a psychological approach with a political-theoretical one that traces both this psychology (based on loss in intimate life) and resistance to it (based on the love of equals) to the Roman Republic and Empire and to three Latin masterpieces: Virgil's Aeneid, Apuleius's The Golden Ass, and Augustine's Confessions. In addition, this book explains many other aspects of our present situation including why movements of ethical resistance are often accompanied by a freeing of sexuality and why we are witnessing an aggressive fundamentalism at home and abroad.

Introduction and overview
Part I. Roman Patriarchy: Entering the Heart of Darkness: 1. Why Rome? Why now?
2. Roman patriarchy and violence
3. Virgil on the darkness visible
4. Apuleius on conversion
5. Augustine on conversion
Part II. Resistance Across Time and Culture: 6. Resistance: religion
7. Resistance: psychology
8. Resistance: the artists
9. Resistance: politics
Part III. Democracy's Future: 10. The contemporary scene
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy [HP]