The Ninth Street Center What People Say About Us

Review of Paul Rosenfels'
Love and Power:
The Psychology of the Creative Process

by KimMarie Pozar Gaye

In this book Paul Rosenfels discusses his theories on gender identity. This seems to me to be a milestone book because of both the date of publication and his description of Social Identity politics.

The book consists of 78 chapters divided into three sections: PART I. The Mechanisms of Psychological Growth, PART II. Creative Maturity and PART III. Individual Growth and Social Progress.

The editor of the Paul Rosenfels Collection webpage (http://eserver.org/gender/rosenfels) says that Rosenfels is "the first American social scientist to defend homosexuality in print as a valid lifestyle. Rosenfels is also known for having made a conscientious lifelong effort to develop the foundations of a 'science of human nature.'"

. . . . I found it very interesting to find that Rosenfels described some of the same attitudes towards sexuality that I had developed to help me understand myself. For example the concept of development of dominance and submission in the relation of sexuality and as part of the family structure.

Other concepts that are discussed in the first section of the book include roles of gender, family position and social position, the dichotomies of truth and right, security and freedom and aggression and passivity. In the second section of the book he discusses the maturation process especially in the overview of sexuality. This is where I find that I strongly differ in opinion with this book. Too much emphasis on sex rings too strongly of Freudian theory. This makes sense in a way because Rosenfels was highly influenced by Jung according to Dean Hannotte. The third section of the book seems to develop in a hierarchical way towards a goal of self awareness .

A good link about the work of Paul Rosenfels in action is found at The Ninth Street Center Website, http://www.ninthstreetcenter.org. A link to the written works of Paul Rosenfels is found at the EServer website, http://eserver.org/gender/rosenfels. Eserver is also a great link for arts and humanities.

— January 4, 2000