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- Quick Taster
- Overview
- from the publisher's "blurb" [= descriptive advertising text]
- the author's own overview - complete translation
- the chapter titles
- a sample paragraph
- Main Content
from the publisher's "blurb" |
Published 1991, second edition 1996
Jan Helander has a PhD in Gerontology, the study of aging, university lecturer .
"The book is primarily aimed at all who are training for, or have professional contact with people, e.g. teachers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, managers, bosses of various kinds..."
AUTHOR'S OVERVIEW |
You'll see straight away that this book doesn't deal with the short period of life which is concerned with old age. Rather, the texts deal with different conditions for life-long aging. There is a main theme which connects the chapters with one another. The constant question is namely how mankind can use its DNA in the best way, how we could enhance the use of our inherited resources during what is time. The resources we're talking about aren't limited to intelligence and skill, to strength of muscle and quickness. Alongside there are, e.g. emotional life, social aptitude and the like, where the need for and potential for development are clear.
Capability for [taking] one's own responsibility is one of those resources which is commented on again and again in the book. Another is the ability to co-operate. One series of chapters discusses the potential we have and the limitations we're faced with. The content of the book is such that the dividing up into chapters is only superficial. It happens rather often that a thought in one chapter has its forerunners [pre-conditions] or its consequences in another chapter. Some of these contexts are immediately clear, with others it may take time for the reader to recognise them. It is sometimes said that mankind is shaped by the society it lives in. Sometimes there's a happiness or expectancy in such words, sometimes a despondency. In both cases the thought may be that people are supposed to adapt themselves to the reigning order of things. The basic tenet of this book is different. The individual's task is to shape society. Then a person themselves is seen as the goal and the society as a means to that end. (chapter 1)
The three components of time, inheritance [heredity] and environment make up the basic conditions of life, for mankind amongst others. The interplay between them leads to the key-word in this book - phenotype. By that we mean how much of the inheritance between generations is used within a generation (chapter 2).
There are a number of rules-of-play for how one can keep or enhance phenotypes. In the following chapters three of these conditions are described. It can happen if you use your imagination to the right extent (chapter 3), rhythmically (chapter 4), and meaningfully (chapter 5). Apart from that, risks are identified which can cause the phenotypes to be damaged.
These three chapters combined contain a programme for preventive care in all ages. The concept of phenotype makes the idea of preventive measures specially clear. There is scope for such measures only early and late in life(chapter 6). Life contains no guarantees that the course of life leads to a spiritual maturity. But if ones reaches maturity, it has probably taken time.What is meant by maturity is discussed in chapter 7.
Mankind has thus an "inner chapter", the inherited DNA. That can be compared with an "outer chapter", money, economics. In chapter 8 the content of these different chapters is put in relation one to another. Against that background, the concept of welfare is discussed.
These eight chapters make up part A of the book. Their collective purpose is to describe the three conditions for human life: time,inheritance and environment.
Part B deals not so much with the situation within a human being but rather the conditions between us. Thus the step is taken from individual to group. One paramount condition introduces this part of the book, and this characterises most of what comes after. In chapter 9 the thought is rejected that everyday life is made up of a continuous idyll, filled by excellent DNA. We can instead consider that good and evil make a mixture within each individual person.
Similarity of tissue is needed for us to create a species together. But for the species to have good chances of survival, each individual also carries differences in their DNA, e.g. sex (chapter 10). Further similarities and differences exists between us in the question of how we react to the environment.
People can experience both hunger and fullness between one another (chapter 11). At different times, there can be a need for room to move, both towards separation and towards closeness.
That we humans are both similar and different from one another should lead to our reacting to life's [multifaceted] happenings in the same spirit of variety . (chapter 12).
The philosophy [attitude to people] with which the last three chapters deal naturally have consequences from the point of view of the history of ideas, not least from party-political contexts. In chapter 13 questions are asked about group and individual in relation to such (modern-) historical perspectives.
Between people there can be room for freedom and responsibility (chapter 14). When such space is missing, forced obedience can be a cause or an effect. The question is asked what, to take one example, care of the sick looks like when this kind of space is large or small. Environmental conditions also mean that individuals, groups of people or nations can find themselves in conflict with one another. But who has said that we should have any wars to defend ourselves against anyway? The planet which we happen to end up on has no room for violence. In chapter 15 there is a discussion of preventive possibilities for occasions when violence threatens between or within nations.
Violence can also be created in more everyday conditions, e.g. at work. The greatest part of the misery which is then created is unnecessary, as are the sums it costs. But there is a challenge in the opportunity of dealing with things preventively. In chapter 16 there is a discussion of the paramount responsibility of the boss, and the possibility of a personnel audit.
Part C of the book uses parts A and B as background. Here some areas are discussed which are among the conditions which apply to just about every individual. It's not easy to know what time is. Our ideas about it are many (chapter 17). But however we think, we seem to have various different kinds of difficulty in separating ourselves from what is now. Some examples are given.
In many respects we prefer short perspectives to long ones. This can mislead us, so that we misuse time while we think we're using it well (chapter 18).
It needs a certain amount of time for relationships to come about. In the end that same time smashes apart the life which exists between people (chapter 19). Then the value of friendship, of love can be great.
We would have few possibilities of connecting different time events with one another if we didn't have memory. There are a number of difficulties on the scientific level to reach good knowledge of the characteristics of how memory functions (chapter 20).
The journey through life and living gives joy, and it give wounds. Wounded people can be met in such a way that they are healed, or are further wounded (chapter 21).
There are life-journeys which are far from idyllic. Apart from what other people can achieve in the question of the courage to live, the question is what happens to the traveller themselves. What significance can an attitude to life have? (chapter 22).
Chap 23 deals with consolation and getting justice, about being broken part by suffering, or developing from it. A significant part of life's conditions are set by fellow-humans, who are sometimes unaware of their role.
Some of the many phenomena which make up a person's life are described in this book. Sometimes we may be conscious that life is short (chapter 24). This insight can give us the impulse to make the most of life.
CONTENTS: |
Part A - Being a person
1. Starting point and direction
2. Heredity and environment in relation to time
3. The use of faculties
4. The rhythm of use
5. Being part of your actions or not
6. Early and late prevention
7. Maturation
8. What does welfare mean?
Part B - On being a fellow-human
9. On humanity's goodness and evilness
10. On similarity, difference and equality
12. On friendship and time
13. Oneness - Unity and agreement
14. Having alternatives or not
15. Concerning the maintenance of battle-fields
16. The working place as a source of joy
Part C - While time passes
17. Respecting and humiliating time
18. Use and misuse of time
19. The passing of life and relationships
20. Memory, humanity's log
21. To hinder or to help
22. Without seeing meaning or finding the energy
23. Suffering as event or as result
24. Latter-day travellers
One sample paragraph translated : |
In many situations aloneness is evil. It can be evil when it's an enforced aloneness. When aloneness has been chosen, it can also be good. In the same way there is a good and an evil togetherness. The good needs no special description, it can just be enjoyed. What is meant by evil togetherness is described, e.g. by the Kiruna (iron-ore mine) strikers. It's enforced and continuous togetherness which is evil. You can find it in environments which are too small in proportion to the number of people who are supposed to be there, and too long-lasting for the rhythmic conditions for these people. Some military barracks, ships and wards in chronic hospitals are examples of such.
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