The New Age Ethic and the Spirit of Postmodernity

"This book is an empirical and theoretical inquiry into what constitutes the "new age," looking specifically at self-help therapy, holistic health, environmentalism, belief in paranormal phenomena, and other current tendencies considered to be "new age." Based primarily on fieldwork of new age travelers, consumers and practitioners, the book examines how these practices are an attempt to democratize scientific knowledge and provide an alternative to consumer society. These practices are in this manner illustrative of the limits of modern narratives of progress, such as science, medicine, democracy, liberalism, and are evidence of what some call the crisis of community/identify.". "The book draws on phenomenology, interpretive hermeneutics, anthropological cultural studies, psychoanalysis, feminism, deconstructionism and Marxism in exploring how the new age can inform us with regard to modern/postmodern relations with Nature, our ambivalent perceptions of self and other, essentialism and relativism, and epistemology and ontology. Further, the book raises the question of the purpose and meaning of subcultures in contemporary society, and our collective relationship to utopias and dystopias."--BOOK JACKET.