A New Culture of Energy

"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"--