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What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life amidst Uncertainty and Danger
Life can sometimes thrust us into troubling circumstances that threaten to undo our thin mastery over those things that matter most. In this moving and thought-provoking volume, Arthur Kleinman tells the unsettling stories of a handful of men and women, some of whom have lived through some of
the most fundamental transitions of the turbulent twentieth century.
Here we meet an American veteran of World War II, tortured by the memory of the atrocities he committed while a soldier in the Pacific. A French-American woman aiding refugees in sub-Saharan Africa, facing the utter chaos of a society where life has become meaningless. A Chinese doctor trying to
stay alive during Mao's cultural revolution, discovering that the only values that matter are those that get you beyond the next threat. These individuals have found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them--their desires, status, relationships, resources,
political and religious commitments, life itself--have been challenged by the society around them. Each is caught up in existential moral experiences that define what it means to be human, with an intensity that makes their life narratives arresting. Their stories reveal just how malleable moral
life is, and just how central danger is to our worlds and our livelihood. Indeed, Kleinman offers in this book a groundbreaking approach to ethics, examining "who we are" through some of the most disturbing issues of our time--war, globalization, poverty, social injustice, sex, and religion--all in
the context of actual lived moral life.
Here then are riveting stories of ordinary men and women, in extraordinary times and threatening situations, making sense of their worlds and facing profound challenges to what matters most in their lives.
the most fundamental transitions of the turbulent twentieth century.
Here we meet an American veteran of World War II, tortured by the memory of the atrocities he committed while a soldier in the Pacific. A French-American woman aiding refugees in sub-Saharan Africa, facing the utter chaos of a society where life has become meaningless. A Chinese doctor trying to
stay alive during Mao's cultural revolution, discovering that the only values that matter are those that get you beyond the next threat. These individuals have found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them--their desires, status, relationships, resources,
political and religious commitments, life itself--have been challenged by the society around them. Each is caught up in existential moral experiences that define what it means to be human, with an intensity that makes their life narratives arresting. Their stories reveal just how malleable moral
life is, and just how central danger is to our worlds and our livelihood. Indeed, Kleinman offers in this book a groundbreaking approach to ethics, examining "who we are" through some of the most disturbing issues of our time--war, globalization, poverty, social injustice, sex, and religion--all in
the context of actual lived moral life.
Here then are riveting stories of ordinary men and women, in extraordinary times and threatening situations, making sense of their worlds and facing profound challenges to what matters most in their lives.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 25, 2021
I will have to reread this book to arrive, to be able to better extrapolate the findings and the argument. The author being an anthropologist, researcher, and a psychiatrist certainly allows him to analyze different patients in several lights. Very interesting. I have actually retained only 20% of what I have read due to not having written notes. Will reread and update. Any individual interested in human rights advocacy, or any other kind of advocacy should mandatorily read the book.
March 14, 2021
Difficult but lovely work. Read it slowly.
February 25, 2017
This is a book written in 2007, and I read about it while reading another book. Thought-provoking work of a psychiatrist, and a professor of medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry.
We meet key characters based on his patients, an American soldier who shot a Japanese doctor during WW2, an aid worker who worked tirelessly in Africa, a Chinese professor who lived in Mao's China - all of these individuals found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them (their desires, status, relationships, resources, political and religious commitments, life itself) were challenged by the circumstances they were faced with. This challenge, and how each grapples with how to do the right thing in those circumstances, becomes a defining moral, existential experience.
As a psychiatrist, Kleinman shows that while modern psychiatry aims to eradicate the feelings on suffering, anxiety, pain, guilt, that perhaps facing the feelings, the crisis so to speak is an essential part of human life and enables us - at that point of danger/crisis to realise what matters to us.
We meet key characters based on his patients, an American soldier who shot a Japanese doctor during WW2, an aid worker who worked tirelessly in Africa, a Chinese professor who lived in Mao's China - all of these individuals found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them (their desires, status, relationships, resources, political and religious commitments, life itself) were challenged by the circumstances they were faced with. This challenge, and how each grapples with how to do the right thing in those circumstances, becomes a defining moral, existential experience.
As a psychiatrist, Kleinman shows that while modern psychiatry aims to eradicate the feelings on suffering, anxiety, pain, guilt, that perhaps facing the feelings, the crisis so to speak is an essential part of human life and enables us - at that point of danger/crisis to realise what matters to us.
October 17, 2013
This was one of those rare 'ahhhhhhhh' books: a sheer pleasure to read--not as entertainment but as a meaningful experience. As Kleinman states in the Introduction, dangers and uncertainties are an inescapable dimension of our lives and they make life matter. He then explores the 'quality of the anti-heroic everydayness' through stories some of his patients and friends have told him about their lives. This is a book that lives and breathes for me and that I'll be referring back to for many years to come. I'm also going to lobby hard to have it as a future health sciences common book at my university.
July 28, 2015
This book left a lasting impression on me i find myself referring to it often. I highly recomend it and regret selling this one.
September 22, 2008
*very* interesting
March 12, 2017
Firstly, I should underscore that this wasn't the easiest book to read, not in the sense that the author has not provided the clarity of language to the reader. What I would caution the reader is to follow and read the narrative and the language of Dr. Kleinman in as much clarity of mind that you, the reader, could afford to muster. Fear not, this book is not densely packed with anthropological lingo. It provides a "front-seat“ view of the doctor's most private conversations with his patients which he has interviewed over different periods of his practice, illuminating in each chapter the humanity, mental struggles, and ethical conundrums that have befallen each of them. These lives have prompted the good doctor to ask: what then, really matters to us, and what are the effects that they have on our lives as we strive to live by them or to shape our paths towards them? This book does not aim to tell you what really matters to each of us. Rather, Dr. Kleinman provides the arguments, the questions, illustrates someone else's scenarios to guide us through a mental exercise. At the end of the book, I found a part of my mental self a bit more filled up with the confidence to answer that question truthfully. To know what really matters is, inevitably, the only way to live honestly.
June 18, 2024
Although it styles itself as a work of moral philosophy, this book is actually a series of autobiographical essays. Are they interesting? Sure. But are they educational? I'll let the author answer that himself with an excerpt from the conclusion of the book:
"How, then, to live? What to do? Those huge questions are
foundational to ethics, religion, and political theory. They are
not ones that I am prepared to answer with a specific prescription for living. I barely am able to muddle through; I
have no such prescription. No one does, I contend."
230-ish pages, and that's the conclusion we're left with. Thanks, Arthur.
To be clear, I enjoyed the book. If we're judging it as a memoir, then I found it pretty adequate. But as a work of philosophy, it is floundering and vague. Despite the title, Kleinman has no idea "what really matters" in life.
"How, then, to live? What to do? Those huge questions are
foundational to ethics, religion, and political theory. They are
not ones that I am prepared to answer with a specific prescription for living. I barely am able to muddle through; I
have no such prescription. No one does, I contend."
230-ish pages, and that's the conclusion we're left with. Thanks, Arthur.
To be clear, I enjoyed the book. If we're judging it as a memoir, then I found it pretty adequate. But as a work of philosophy, it is floundering and vague. Despite the title, Kleinman has no idea "what really matters" in life.
October 4, 2018
Kleinman uses the life stories of 6 people plus his own to discuss the philosophical issues of "what really matters". I was very moved by two of the portraits: Idi Bosquet-Remarque and Yan Zhongshu. Their life stories should be discussed in schools to help young people think about the choices they have to make in this world, what kind of person are they going to be, what will be their values, what kinds of sacrifices are they willing to make for those values? All readers will be prompted to think about their own decision in life.
Kleinman focuses on the concept of "being moral", using a very broad definition of that. I personally would not have used that particular concept because to me it has too much of a religious connotation. I would have used concepts from existential psychology, but Kleinman is the author, not me.
I suspect that each reader will find something different to value in this book. If you have any interest in philosophy and psychology, give it a try...
Kleinman focuses on the concept of "being moral", using a very broad definition of that. I personally would not have used that particular concept because to me it has too much of a religious connotation. I would have used concepts from existential psychology, but Kleinman is the author, not me.
I suspect that each reader will find something different to value in this book. If you have any interest in philosophy and psychology, give it a try...
June 25, 2023
Beautifully written. Kleinman tells the tales of a variety of people, including himself, which brings insight into the complexity of the human condition. He is a psychiatrist who is also an anthropologist, and although he hasn't a formal degree in it, I'd argue he is also a philosopher. He's morally engaged with his reflections, and although not against prescribing medications where apparently needed, he appreciates the moral struggles that we humans face which aren't necessarily psychiatric conditions. He argues that our moral reality is within our localised situations, and that can be extremely difficult to navigate. In navigating our moral situations, we often encounter suffering. It is in this suffering that we often find what matters most.
October 25, 2023
It is a great book to depict why some would throw their lives to conduct the ethical but yet dangerous acts....
內容簡介
＊一位越戰英雄，在離開戰場三十年之後，事業有成，家庭圓滿，卻為何自甘承受自責的苦楚？
＊一位在非洲從事人道救援的年輕女性，歷經了恐怖的戰亂、腐敗、貧窮、疾病、威脅，為何仍能鼓起勇氣，繼續艱難的奉獻工作？
＊一位在文革時期被好友出賣、受盡痛苦凌辱的醫生，當有機會復仇時，他為何選擇將刀劍放下，寧願自己再次受到傷害？
＊一位高大英俊的牧師，為何把身體的慢性疼痛當作上帝的恩典，而甘之如飴？
＊一位聰敏美麗的藝術家，得知罹患愛滋病後，為何反而有勇氣面對生命的陰影，挺身為國際愛滋防治計劃而奔走奮鬥？…
日常生活中經常遭遇到的麻煩和困境，例如：離婚、失去親人、遭受歧視或不公平的對待、工作面臨瓶頸、失業、意外事件、長期病痛、宗教信仰上的疏離等，都可能打擊甚至摧毀我們原本堅信的人生價值或信念，在那當下我們面臨到的威脅是，更難以掌握生命中真正重要的事物。書中描述的生命情境教我們發現，對自己而言最重要的事物，如：慾望、身分地位、人際關係、資源、政治和宗教傾向、以及生活本身等，都必須經過社會大環境的考驗，面臨生存處境時，我們需要知道生命中最重要的到底是什麼。這些故事不僅顯示出真實道德在日常生活中的挑戰，也宣告了這個世界充滿著不確定性和危險。
凱博文是世界頂尖的醫學人類學家，對人類的「受苦經驗」有深刻體察，他以富含情感的筆觸，思索人性和存在的意義：在晦暗不明、驚濤駭浪的現代生活中，沒有一個人能置身於社會變動和道德困境之外，「我們究竟是誰？我們要前往何處？」在人生的每個重要時刻，我們所做出的選擇，就是最佳的回答！
內容簡介
＊一位越戰英雄，在離開戰場三十年之後，事業有成，家庭圓滿，卻為何自甘承受自責的苦楚？
＊一位在非洲從事人道救援的年輕女性，歷經了恐怖的戰亂、腐敗、貧窮、疾病、威脅，為何仍能鼓起勇氣，繼續艱難的奉獻工作？
＊一位在文革時期被好友出賣、受盡痛苦凌辱的醫生，當有機會復仇時，他為何選擇將刀劍放下，寧願自己再次受到傷害？
＊一位高大英俊的牧師，為何把身體的慢性疼痛當作上帝的恩典，而甘之如飴？
＊一位聰敏美麗的藝術家，得知罹患愛滋病後，為何反而有勇氣面對生命的陰影，挺身為國際愛滋防治計劃而奔走奮鬥？…
日常生活中經常遭遇到的麻煩和困境，例如：離婚、失去親人、遭受歧視或不公平的對待、工作面臨瓶頸、失業、意外事件、長期病痛、宗教信仰上的疏離等，都可能打擊甚至摧毀我們原本堅信的人生價值或信念，在那當下我們面臨到的威脅是，更難以掌握生命中真正重要的事物。書中描述的生命情境教我們發現，對自己而言最重要的事物，如：慾望、身分地位、人際關係、資源、政治和宗教傾向、以及生活本身等，都必須經過社會大環境的考驗，面臨生存處境時，我們需要知道生命中最重要的到底是什麼。這些故事不僅顯示出真實道德在日常生活中的挑戰，也宣告了這個世界充滿著不確定性和危險。
凱博文是世界頂尖的醫學人類學家，對人類的「受苦經驗」有深刻體察，他以富含情感的筆觸，思索人性和存在的意義：在晦暗不明、驚濤駭浪的現代生活中，沒有一個人能置身於社會變動和道德困境之外，「我們究竟是誰？我們要前往何處？」在人生的每個重要時刻，我們所做出的選擇，就是最佳的回答！
February 27, 2019
The book had a lot to unpack with each individual story told throughout the book. I think the author does a good job of wrapping up these thoughts in his epilogue. Overall worth reading; if not for the message, then for the historical, social, and moral challenges of real people throughout history!
January 1, 2020
Read this book many years ago but misplaced my copy — very articulate discussion of responses to moral uncertainty and injustice. The second chapter about a humanitarian worker is an accurate depiction of vicarious trauma without using those words. I’ve thought of it many times over the years.
April 16, 2022
A masterfully written, short, paramount book on morality. What the scholar is presenting is a very unique angle. A book in the intersection of all these; religion, philosophy, psychology, anthropology.
January 29, 2024
Had to read this for class. Some of the stories were interesting, and some really dragged.
May 30, 2024
I liked this one. (I had to read this for my final orale exam). Definitely a new way for me to look at life. Really liked all the ethnographic samples.
March 26, 2011
I'm afraid I came away from this one more disappointed than anything else. Quite frankly if this were a two word review those words would be "confused muddle." I failed to see the connection between the anecdotes (though most were very interesting standing alone), and had I been able to figure out the main point of this book to my own satisfaction I doubt I'd have been able to connect said anecdotes to that point.
And in one sense I really butt heads with the author: I simply could not see in his "Idi" the heroine that he did. Quite frankly portions of her life seemed like nothing so much as some sort of exercise in self-flagellation, whether as some sort of atonement for the sins of her grandfather (which Kleinman brought up many times himself, curiously) or as a weird interpretation of a very weird doctrine -- her "commitment to Liberation Theology" -- or as something else entirely I honestly have no idea. And undoubtedly she did more good in one year than I shall ever do in my lifetime, that part I do not question. It was her motivation and attitude while doing it that rang false with me.
And, even more strangely, if you accept the one place in the work where generalizing occurs, in the Epilogue, I see no way someone like "Idi" could be used as an avatar of this "remaking of the moral life" Kleinman presents. Subjectivity? She was certainly a pragmatist, but it was pragmatism harnessed to an ultimate goal of something she felt was objectively correct, or at any rate I don't see how to conclude otherwise. I'm also unsure how "local cultural representations" and "social experience" apply to her, or even how they avoided colliding as she tried to, say, keep women from being raped. Perhaps there is a "local cultural representation" vis a vis rape as wrong in all cases in the parts of Africa she worked, but the problem seemed so widespread I'd need to see evidence nowhere presented in the book in support of this claim. Leading me to wonder how was it anything but her "social experience" as a Westerner that motivated her to act as she did? (Which I guess would also knock the pin out of the "subjectivity" leg of his triad?)
Perhaps everything I've said in this review is a product of my own ignorance, as I am certainly not the expert in these matters Kleinman is. But I'll go out on a limb and assume I'm also a member of the reasonably intelligent general public Kleinman is hoping to reach via this book. Well, in my case, he obviously did not, whether my thoughts are right, wrong or somewhere in between. A very odd book, at any rate. I had to give him two stars for making an effort to tackle an extremely difficult topic, a topic I personally would not even know where to begin with. But, yes, my "confused muddle" thought still stands.
And in one sense I really butt heads with the author: I simply could not see in his "Idi" the heroine that he did. Quite frankly portions of her life seemed like nothing so much as some sort of exercise in self-flagellation, whether as some sort of atonement for the sins of her grandfather (which Kleinman brought up many times himself, curiously) or as a weird interpretation of a very weird doctrine -- her "commitment to Liberation Theology" -- or as something else entirely I honestly have no idea. And undoubtedly she did more good in one year than I shall ever do in my lifetime, that part I do not question. It was her motivation and attitude while doing it that rang false with me.
And, even more strangely, if you accept the one place in the work where generalizing occurs, in the Epilogue, I see no way someone like "Idi" could be used as an avatar of this "remaking of the moral life" Kleinman presents. Subjectivity? She was certainly a pragmatist, but it was pragmatism harnessed to an ultimate goal of something she felt was objectively correct, or at any rate I don't see how to conclude otherwise. I'm also unsure how "local cultural representations" and "social experience" apply to her, or even how they avoided colliding as she tried to, say, keep women from being raped. Perhaps there is a "local cultural representation" vis a vis rape as wrong in all cases in the parts of Africa she worked, but the problem seemed so widespread I'd need to see evidence nowhere presented in the book in support of this claim. Leading me to wonder how was it anything but her "social experience" as a Westerner that motivated her to act as she did? (Which I guess would also knock the pin out of the "subjectivity" leg of his triad?)
Perhaps everything I've said in this review is a product of my own ignorance, as I am certainly not the expert in these matters Kleinman is. But I'll go out on a limb and assume I'm also a member of the reasonably intelligent general public Kleinman is hoping to reach via this book. Well, in my case, he obviously did not, whether my thoughts are right, wrong or somewhere in between. A very odd book, at any rate. I had to give him two stars for making an effort to tackle an extremely difficult topic, a topic I personally would not even know where to begin with. But, yes, my "confused muddle" thought still stands.
July 22, 2014
Simple questions, heavy answers.
Simple questions that do not trouble much of us nowadays.
Heavy answers that I cannot evict from my head.
Simple questions that do not trouble much of us nowadays.
Heavy answers that I cannot evict from my head.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews