Collecting: An Unruly Passion

Download or Read eBook Collecting: An Unruly Passion PDF written by Werner Muensterberger and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Collecting: An Unruly Passion
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 320
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781400863471
ISBN-13 : 1400863473
Rating : 4/5 (71 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Collecting: An Unruly Passion by : Werner Muensterberger

Book excerpt: From rare books, valuable sculpture and paintings, the relics of saints, and porcelain and other precious items, through stamps, textiles, military ribbons, and shells, to baseball cards, teddy bears, and mugs, an amazing variety of objects have engaged and even obsessed collectors through the ages. With this captivating book the psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger provides the first extensive psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another collectible. Muensterberger's roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed--and then merely temporarily--only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new "find." In an easy, conversational style, the author discusses the eccentricities of heads of state, literary figures, artists, and psychoanalytic patients, all possessed by a need for magic relief from despair and helplessness--and for the self-healing implied in the phrase "I can't live without it!" The sketches here are diverse indeed: Walter Benjamin, Mario Praz, Catherine the Great, Poggio Bracciolini, Brunelleschi, and Jean de Berry, among others. The central part of the work explores in detail the personal circumstances and life history of three individuals: a contemporary collector, Martin G; the celebrated British book and manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps, who wanted one copy of every book in the world; and the great French novelist Honoré de Balzac, a compulsive collector of bric-a-brac who expressed his empathy for the acquisitive passions of his collector protagonist in Cousin Pons. In addition, Muensterberger takes the reader on a charming tour of collecting in the Renaissance and looks at collecting during the Golden Age of Holland, in the seventeenth century. Throughout, we enjoy the author's elegant variations on a complicated theme, stated, much too simply, by John Steinbeck: "I guess the truth is that I simply like junk." Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Collecting: An Unruly Passion Related Books

Collecting: An Unruly Passion
Language: en
Pages: 320
Authors: Werner Muensterberger
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-07-14 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From rare books, valuable sculpture and paintings, the relics of saints, and porcelain and other precious items, through stamps, textiles, military ribbons, and
Collecting
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Werner Muensterberger
Categories: Collectors and collecting
Type: BOOK - Published: 1995 - Publisher: Mariner Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With this captivating book, a psychoanalyst provides the first psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another co
Cultures of Collecting
Language: en
Pages: 324
Authors: Roger Cardinal
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-09-02 - Publisher: Reaktion Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book traces the psychology, history and theory of the compulsion to collect, focusing not just on the normative collections of the Western canon, but also
A Companion to the History of the Book
Language: en
Pages: 617
Authors: Simon Eliot
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-03-30 - Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A COMPANION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK A COMPANION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK Edited by Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose “As a stimulating overview of the multid
Inside the Head of a Collector
Language: en
Pages: 192
Authors: Shirley M. Mueller
Categories: Antiques & Collectibles
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019 - Publisher: Lucia Marquand

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Collecting objects gives enormous pleasure to approximately one third of the population. On the other hand, the same pursuit can engender pain. Now, for the fi