The Thumbnail Book Reviews

by John Q McDonald --- 17 February 1998

House as a Mirror of Self

Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home

by Clare Cooper Marcus

In this book Clare Cooper Marcus investigates the remarkable relationship we all have with our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces. The subject is disceptively innocuous. This book, though, shows the reader how significant place is to our well-being and in our search for meaning in life. Approaching the topic from a Gestalt method, launching from Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections, the author interviews many people about their relationship to their homes and discovers deep emotional ties. Most of the people she interviews live in the Berkeley area (the author herself lived and worked in Berkeley), and most -- she sets this out as a prerequisite of her study -- have the resources to change their environments. The book is engaging and very personally written. The subjectivity, however, is one of its drawbacks, and the slightly touchy-feely tone may be a turnoff for some. Cooper Marcus presents interviewees who are mostly well-off women. Even when the topic is marital conflict in the home, she tends to get only one side of the story. This may also be because women are more likely to find Cooper Marcus' methods appealing. Also, those less likely to be able to change their environment (i.e. unable to move from a slum to a suburb) are minimally addressed. Nevertheless, Cooper Marcus explores meaningful territory. The opening chapters about childhood and home draw the reader into memories and can awaken one to what is missed or to incomplete goals in life. Exercises at the end of each chapter can help the reader explore these topics in more detail.

[Mail John][To List]

Also by Marcus: [Iona Dreaming]