Strangers to Ourselves
Kristeva, who teaches linguistics at the University of Paris and is also a practicing psychoanalyst, traces the concept of the "stranger" or "foreigner" in various cultures and periods from the Greeks to the present. This--albeit highly selective--excursion through intellectual/political history is influenced by Freud's notion of the alienation, or "splitting off," of the self that comes about as the result of the repression of feelings and the ideational content attached to them. It is the sense, Kristeva argues, that we are also "strangers to ourselves." This book is primarily for academic audiences and, though not an essential purchase, will delight advanced students and faculty in intellectual history, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology.-Leon M. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel , Management Lib., Washington , D.C.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.