1. Poiesis, Therapy and the Arts. 2. Poiesis: From Phenomenology to Imagination. 3. The Way of Poiesis: A Chinese Perspective. 4. Poiesis, Improvisation, Identity. 5. Last Words.
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Description
From my close perspective on Stephen K. Levine's work over the past four decades, I applaud Philosophy of Expressive Arts Therapy and its 'integration' of a lifework of poiesis (making). This volume includes seminal essays on trauma, imagination, and beauty together with new and timely writings on identity and relationships with China and East Asia. I have always admired Levine's unique and dogged affirmation of the productive role of breaking to make anew, described here as 'unintegration', and its vital place in creative expression. I am struck by how he so clearly connects this alchemical process to our common commitment to the classical Chinese emphasis of creating ourselves through artistic expression. Among the book's many achievements is the insistence that the creation of a person, a community, and a world is ongoing, never finished and always transcending fixed identities; it is a process where beauty is the ""presence"" of engagements with each other and the life we make, now.