Distraction
By: Damon Young
Series: Art of living series; Art of living series (Acumen Publishing)
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Abingdon, Oxon
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9781315710198
Subjects: Distraction (Psychology); Attention
Description: Most of us struggle with distraction every day: the familiar feeling that our attention is not quite where it should be. We feel it at work and at home and it can be frustrating and uncomfortable. But what is distraction? In his lucid, timely book, Damon Young shows that distraction is more than too many stimuli, or too little attention. It is actually a matter of value - to be distracted is to be torn away from what is worthwhile in life. And for Young, what is most worthwhile is freedom: not simply rights or legal liberties, but the capacity to patiently, creatively craft one's own life. Exploring the lives of such luminaries as Henri Matisse, Karl Marx, Seneca and Henry James, Young exposes distraction in work, technology, art, politics and intimacy. With warmth and wit, he reveals what is most valuable, and what is best avoided, in the pursuit of a life of one's own.
Notes: Originally published in 2008 by Melbourne University Press.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Manholes and tears; title: 2. What a piece of work is a man; title: 3. The reins of necessity; title: 4. A farewell to arms; title: 5. Matisse's hernia; title: 6. The private life; title: 7. Footnotes to Plato; title: 8. Balancing the books.