He Ecstatic Adventure

The adventures of a midshipman, by Oliver Optic

Adventures in the Archaic

Examines how four intellectuals with ties to the French social sciences articulated a new primitivist sensibility between 1945 and 1975. We tend to associate primitivism with the nostalgic idealization of origins, often aimed at parts of the world that are viewed as closer to that idealized past than modern post-industrial society. Primitivist impulses still exist in popular culture, whether in paleo diets or returns to foraging, and they can also be seen in intellectual and political circles in debates around the possibility of degrowth. In this book, historian Ryan L. Allen examines primitivism anew through four fascinating figures: Georges Bataille, Henri Lefebvre, Georges Devereux, and Mircea Eliade. In the postwar period, Allen shows, the French social sciences reappraised the primitive and archaic from anthropological, sociological, psychiatric, and religious angles. These four thinkers sought past alternatives to midcentury hypermodernization and capitalist excess. They put forth trenchant critiques of contemporary society and sought in the archaic past a way to imagine a more sustainable future. Adventures in the Archaic rehabilitates these thinkers, showing how their critique of growth and consumerism was nourished by an engagement with primitive cultures as potential sources of cultural and ecological wisdom. As we confront planetary crisis, Allen suggests, there is still much we can learn from these iconoclastic approaches.

Primitive Expression and Dance Therapy

This book provides a rigorous and comprehensive account of primitive expression in dance therapy, focusing on the use of rhythm and exploring the therapeutic potential inherent in the diverse traditions of popular dance, from tribal shamanic dance to styles such as rock, rap and hip-hop strongly present in our contemporary society. Drawing on the author’s vast experience in the field of dance therapy, the book examines biological, psychological and anthropological foundations of rhythm based therapies, considering their roots in biological rhythms such as the heartbeat and using such rhythms in therapy. Chapters include: • The link between animal and man: ethology • Shamanism • Gestural symmetry coupling with the other • Bilateralism as structuring dialogue • Rhythm dance therapy • New fields in the application of dance therapy. Clinical examples are provided throughout the book to comprehensively demonstrate how dance rhythm therapy can contribute to the use of the arts therapies. It offers a fresh perspective for researchers, psychotherapists and clinicians who want to use dance therapy techniques, as well as arts therapists and those who want to learn more about artistic and cultural dance.