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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Illness & addiction: social aspects > AIDS: social aspects
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A Crisis of Meaning - How Gay Men Are Making Sense of AIDS (Hardcover, New)
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A Crisis of Meaning - How Gay Men Are Making Sense of AIDS (Hardcover, New)
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A salutary study - slightly overwhelmed by its enthusiasm for the
theoretical - of strategies for meeting the "crisis of meaning"
triggered by an HIV-positive diagnosis. Schwartzberg is a
psychologist, and the book is clearly shaped by his clinical
scruples and animated by the intermittent presence of 19
HIV-positive gay men he interviewed for the research component of
his recent doctoral training. His study explores the search in the
gay community to find some meaning in the AIDS epidemic, while
concentrating on the behavior of individuals living in extremis.
Schwartzberg identifies four categories of individual adaptation in
those afflicted: Transformation, the optimal mode, wherein "logical
somersaults" are respected as the price of maintaining meaning;
Rupture, the reverse, when every element of one's life seems to
fall apart; Camouflage, or self-deception, the shakiest position,
marked by a desperate juggling of truth and illusion; and
Impassivity, a more constitutional than situational response, of
which inattention to reality is both cause and effect. The 19
subjects function as springboards and exemplars for the discussion
(the profiles being too sketchy to resonate as case histories, and
too few to aspire to statistical significance); Schwartzherg
reports nonjudgmentally on their individual strategies and wisely
recognizes that different choices reflect different thresholds of
tolerance - for grief, anxiety, ambiguity. In elucidating more
broadly the response of the gay community to the AIDS epidemic,
Schwartzberg, who is gay, brings a proud, concerned personal
perspective to bear. He defines the response as three-phased,
disbelief followed first by action and then by grief overload, and
ends by making a strong case for managing the cumulative grief
communally. Ultimately, a textbookish but nonetheless supportive,
enlightened study. (Kirkus Reviews)
For gay men, the demands of the AIDS epidemic are enormous and
unrelenting. Regardless of HIV status, all are called on to
maintain vigilant safety with sex, to face down a cultural stigma
greater even than homophobia, and to somehow find a way to go
forward in a world heavy with loss. As exhaustion and grief
threaten to overwhelm the activism and optimism of earlier years,
and with new infections on the rise among young gay men, the
challenge of finding meaning in a world turned upside down is more
than an idle philosophical exercise. It is a matter of
psychological and perhaps even physical survival.
In this poignant and uncompromising new book, Dr. Steven
Schwartzberg offers a ground-breaking perspective on how gay men
(and particularly HIV-positive gay men) find ways to rebuild a
world of meaning amid the trauma and uncertainty of the AIDS
crisis. Eschewing both glib prescriptions for turning tragedy into
triumph, and theoretical abstractions, Schwartzberg grounds his
insights in his own experiences as a gay man and as a practicing
psychotherapist, and in in-depth interviews with nineteen men
living with HIV. Ranging in age from twenty-seven to fifty, the men
include a construction foreman, a physician, an art historian, a
waiter, a librarian, and a licensed massage therapist. With candor,
insight, eagerness, and a remarkable ability to share of
themselves, they speak eloquently about how HIV has affected their
views of the world, their senses of themselves, and how they live
their lives. Interweaving the men's stories with observations from
his research and clinical practice, Schwartzberg bears witness to
the remarkable transformations some men have accomplished, and the
anguish of meaninglessness that weighs others down. He strives to
uncover why some view HIV as a catalyst for change or growth, while
others see it only as punishment. And though he passes no judgment
on the coping strategies he describes, Schwartzberg does insist on
the vital necessity of balancing somber reality with healing,
life-sustaining hope. He argues that men who opt for too much
illusion and too little reality risk shoddy self-care and
inadequate preparation for the future, while those who find no
escape from reality may teeter into rage or suicidal despair.
Beautifully written, with piercing awareness of the enormity of
the challenges confronting individuals with HIV, this book
celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. It is both a keen
psychological guide and an elegiac chronicle of what life for many
has become. Gently pointing the way to an oasis of growth,
strength, and love that exists amid the epidemic's bleak terrain of
loss, it is essential reading for people living with HIV, for their
friends, families, and the mental health professionals who care for
them, and for all gay men grappling with the enormous changes AIDS
has brought to a community under siege.
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