Touching the Flame An Enquiry into Deep Desire

by Booker, Mary

• ISBN13: 9781913743680
• ISBN10: 1913743683
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-01-31
• Publisher: Triarchy Press Ltd

Summary

Moving on from her ­ first enquiry into fear and vulnerability (described in her book Nothing Special) Mary Booker here offers a guide to the roots and nature of desire. She draws on her autobiographical writing, movement art, poetry, Buddhist practice and dramatherapy skills to explore the origins, impact, constraints and blossoming of desire in her own life. Amongst the questions she considers: • If desire is for something other, does a sense of lack always accompany it? • Does one desire always point to a deeper desire? • Does desire always lead to suffering, as suggested in Buddhism? • Desire is highly motivating. How can we best access that energy? • Is desire by nature insatiable? Does it always seek more? • Is desire essential to life? • Why do illness and depression remove desire? Are they too absorbing? • What is the relationship between desire and vulnerability? Touching the Flame includes 40 of Mary’s poems and has chapters on Needs and Desire; Lack and Longing; Buddhism and Desire; Greco-Roman Views of Desire; Desire and Creativity; Women and Desire; and the Sumerian myth of ‘The Descent of Inanna to the Great Below’.

Author Biography

Mary Booker was born in Ithaca, NY. She has been living in England since 1971, where she trained as a teacher and then as a dramatherapist. Mary has practised dramatherapy with a wide range of client groups for almost 30 years, 25 of which she was also lecturer and trainer on the Devon-based MA in Dramatherapy. For eleven years she worked in special education as a multi-sensory impairment specialist, and wrote about this work in her book, Developmental Drama, Dramatherapy Approaches for People with Profound or Severe Multiple Disabilities, Including Sensory Impairment (Jessica Kingsley)

Table of Contents

Needs and Desire Lack and Longing Buddhism and Desire Greco-Roman Views of Desire Desire and Creativity Women and Desire the Sumerian myth of ‘ The Descent of Inanna to the Great Below’