Meaningless Suffering

"It is gratifying to discover, just as the field of the Psychological Humanities establishes itself, that there is a book, which in its scope, richness and intellectual rigor, serves to foreground all that this domain of scholarship is capable of. The editors have assembled a remarkable array of contributors, each of whom brings genuine insight and ethical urgency to questions pertaining to the myriad forms of suffering that characterize our contemporary world. Meaningless Suffering is a visionary collection, one which enables us to think anew the possibilities that the intersections of psychological, literary, ethical, philosophical and anthropological thought might bring about."

Derek Hook, Duquesne University, USA

"Goodman and Manalili have curated an urgent, timely and ambitious volume that uses a psychoanalytic register to grapple with the most pressing questions of our world. The effect is a stunningly rich collection that holistically attunes us to the clinical and ethical imperative to contend with the conditions of oppression. Perhaps more importantly, the volume movingly orients us to the ways in which acts of acknowledgement, remembering, witnessing, and life-making are central to alleviating suffering."

Lara Sheehi, The George Washington University, USA

"Meaningless Suffering is a needed text. Featuring an impressive array of scholars at the forefront of their fields, it addresses the perennial question of human suffering through ethical engagement with contemporary forms of discriminatory inequality. With admirable clarity and penetrating insight, essays demonstrate suffering’s ability to make and remake the subjective self, while also disambiguating such productive suffering from the social distresses highlighted by the recent pandemic and increased visibility of police violence. It is toward the task of combating these meaningless forms of suffering that the collection urgently calls its readers."

Sheldon George, Simmons University, USA