At Home in the World

A Study in Psychoanalysis, Religion, and Art

by Donald Capps

Book cover: At Home in the World

Extent: 212 pages

Publisher: The Lutterworth Press

Subjects: Art & Art History

Language: English

Paperback (No longer our product)

(September 2013)

ISBN: 9780718893224

5.98 x 9.02 inches

Price: $33.00

In stock

PDF (No longer our product)

(September 2013)

ISBN: 9780718841676

Price: $24.00

A psychoanalytical study of the male search for a sense of belonging in the world and the religious sensibilities that arise from it, as explored through artistic images of mother and nature.


The emotional separation of boys from their mothers in early childhood enables them to connect with their fathers and their fathers’ world. But this separation also produces a melancholic reaction of sadness and sense of loss. Certain religious sensibilities develop out of this melancholic reaction, including a sense of honor, a sense of hope, and a sense of humor. Realizing that they cannot return to their original maternal environment, men, whether knowingly or not, embark on a lifelong search for a sense of being at home in the world. ‘At Home in the World’ focuses on works of art as a means to explore the formation and continuing expression of men’s melancholy selves and their religious sensibilities. These explorations include such topics as male viewers’ mixed feelings toward the maternal figure, physical settings that offer alternatives to the maternal environment, and the maternal resonances of the world of nature. By presenting images of the natural world as the locus of peace and contentment, ‘At Home in the World’ especially reflects of the religious sensibility of hope.

  • By (author) Donald Capps

"Without feigning to give the final word on any of his chosen works of art, these careful and studied reflections by Capps are a means of developing a healthy, restorative vision of the melancholy self, and both undergraduate and graduate researchers will find the monograph both accessible to their abilities and quite applicable to the interests of pastoral theology."-Taylor Worley, Theological Book Review, volume 26, no 1, 2014"...this book does offer an intriguing foray into the dynamic dialogue which emerges from psychoanalysis, religion and art."-Jessica Bratt, Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 69 Issue 02, May 2016
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