Daemon in the Sanctuary

"Daemon in the Sanctuary"explores the uncanny contradiction between the phenomenological experience of home as a site of nurture and security and the empirical reality that people are far more likely to be hurt and even killed in their own homes by their intimates, rather than at the hands of strangers.Moving from the syrupy tributes of the god of love in Plato's "Symposium"to the subject of domestic violence appears to be a giant leap, but he author shows that embroidered romantic...
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"Daemon in the Sanctuary"explores the uncanny contradiction between the phenomenological experience of home as a site of nurture and security and the empirical reality that people are far more likely to be hurt and even killed in their own homes by their intimates, rather than at the hands of strangers.Moving from the syrupy tributes of the god of love in Plato's "Symposium"to the subject of domestic violence appears to be a giant leap, but he author shows that embroidered romantic ideas about love prepare the initiate poorly for the reality of intimate connection. Poets and philosophers who lead us to believe that love is heaven sent can leave us craving an extreme experience.We crave an earth-shaking, life-altering intrusion on our tranquility as evidence that love is real. Thus the naive initiate can easily mistake the flutter of the pulse, the quickening of the heart rate, the flush, the confused emotions, and the painful longing as signs of the god's gift. But these are also the signs of fear!Wendy C. Hamblet, a philosopher in the phenomenological lineage, examines the truth value of phenomenological experience, through the lens of the problem of intimate violence. If Husserl is right and phenomenological method provides the ground of all empirical truth, then what is to be made of the fundamental contradiction between the lived experience of home as a site of nurture and security and of intimates as guardians and caretakers, and the empirical fact, evident in every human society, that people are far more likely to be harmed, and even killed, in their homes or in the homes of their intimates and at the hands of those charged with their care?Hamblet carefully choreographs a dance between the two opposing 'truths' to expose how the lived sense of home, colored by ideals, can tint people's expectations about intimate connection and cloud their ability to recognize the signs of intimate abuse. This book illuminates the dangers and pitfalls of unhealthy intimacy and offers a regimen for loosening the grip of a sickened love's pathological hold.