What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life amidst Uncertainty and Danger

By Arthur Kleinman

Book Overview

Life can sometimes thrust us into troubling circumstances that threaten to undo our thin mastery over those things that matter most. In this moving and thought-provoking volume, Arthur Kleinman tells the unsettling stories of a handful of men and women, some of whom have lived through some of the most fundamental transitions of the turbulent twentieth century.
Here we meet an American veteran of World War II, tortured by the memory of the atrocities he committed while a soldier in the Pacific. A French-American woman aiding refugees in sub-Saharan Africa, facing the utter chaos of a society where life has become meaningless. A Chinese doctor trying to stay alive during Mao's cultural revolution, discovering that the only values that matter are those that get you beyond the next threat. These individuals have found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them--their desires, status, relationships, resources, political and religious commitments, life itself--have been challenged by the society around them. Each is caught up in existential moral experiences that define what it means to be human, with an intensity that makes their life narratives arresting. Their stories reveal just how malleable moral life is, and just how central danger is to our worlds and our livelihood. Indeed, Kleinman offers in this book a groundbreaking approach to ethics, examining "who we are" through some of the most disturbing issues of our time--war, globalization, poverty, social injustice, sex, and religion--all in the context of actual lived moral life.
Here then are riveting stories of ordinary men and women, in extraordinary times and threatening situations, making sense of their worlds and facing profound challenges to what matters most in their lives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195180984
• ISBN13: 9780195180985
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.8" x 1.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

What's your definition of "morality"?

From his own full life experience, Dr. Kleinman (distiguished Psychiatrist and Anthropologist) has leant us invaluable insight into a potential structure in the approach to difficult areas in our lives where there are seemingly no real answers, in which many struggle for meaning. The stories in this book will certainly expand your understanding of the breadth of human experience, and thus the potential meanings of life. Just as the title states, he sets out to explore how various experiences in times of "uncertainty and danger" help elucidate the shared frailties of the human condition, and the fine line that separate moral collapse from moral transformation. Dr. Kleinman utilizes narrative life stories to explore his thesis. He spends a significant amount of time both relating and distinguishing two levels of "morality": local/situational/internal morality, from more theoretical/intellectual/external morality. This work is not merely another subjective/postmodern attempt to dismantle previously conceived notions of morality. Dr. Kleinman's work is constructive (in lay terms, as opposed to destructive, not necessarily meant in the philosophical sense), and takes the next step in synthesis. Its arrangement... Chapter 1. Introduction Chapters 2-8. Seven diverse illustrative life experiences, including his own. Each enjoyable and fascinating in its own right. The majority of each chapter is the life story of the subject, with Dr. Kleinman's commentary and interpratation in the closing pages. Chapter 9. Epilogue *Bibliographic note -- excellent resource for sources to further understand his sources, and for further reading in areas of perticular intersst (call me dry, but I also particularly enjoyed this section) You may be able to fit this book neatly on your bookshelf, but its contents will not fit squarely in any cubbyhole. My only criticisms, include one good one -- I wish there were more stories!, and another -- Dr. Kleinman injects his own morality not so subtly in various portions of the text belying what seem superficially to be the usual (though slightly more complex & mature of thought) bi-coastal, urban, academic, American liberal political sentiments. He cannot help but be shaped by his own "local morality," now can he? Of this I am sure he is acutely aware. No doubt an author's own biases are unavoidable in such a work. Regardless, his viewpoint has tremendous worth, and this actually serves to further strengthen his thesis, which in my opinion does not detract from the overall value of the text at all (unless you tend to find certain viewpoints too much of a distraction to garner value from the rest). Is there a life without "uncertainty and danger," and if so, how can such a person find her/his own meaning? ... until it's too late? Overall, a relatively quick & active read, that I highly recommend. Read openly & critically, and you will certainly come out richer in thought at the end. I'm

This Was My Christmas Gift Book last Year

A wonderful book on what matters in life. Kleinman is a mental health professional who uses those whom he has seen over the years as a vehicle to discuss life, materialism, ethics and morals. More philosophical than his Illness Narratives, but maybe more weighty. The section devoted to the UN aid worker who dies and his remembrance of how she approached life is worth the price of the book. One of those books that I will read again and again. The people whom I gave the book to as a gift all really enjoyed it.

What Really Matters

This life changing book, filled with profound insights, takes one beyond platitudes and despair. It is holy in the most complete sense of the word. The Reverend Margaret Quill

Raised my level of consciousness about moral choices

I loved this book, though the intellectual level of the prose was sometimes difficult to grasp with just one reading. Hence I read some sections a number of times, and it was well worth it.

Wisdoms on every page

This is a beautiful book, and a bold and affecting one. Kleinman works miracles with a breadth of information and with bushels of compassion; he has wisdoms to offer up on every page. Fully delivers on the sterling promise of its title, and then some.