Sports as Soul-Craft: How playing and watching sports enhances life
by Paul Marcus
ISBN 978-1-62600-046-9
227 pages | 5.5 x 8.5 | Paperback | $23.00 | References | Index
What makes sports so compelling? Beyond the entertainment of watching the amazing physical and mental prowess of athletes as they compete, Marcus, a psychoanalytic psychologist, believes that each sport taken as a totality of circumstances is a “parable of life” that superbly depicts the existential challenges and dilemmas that ordinary people face as they attempt to fashion the “good life.” By “good life”, following Freud, he means a life of deep and wide love, creative and productive work, one that is guided by reason and ethics and is aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, by viewing sports as “moral fables,” we are able to access the landscape of diverse emotions and a rich vocabulary in which sports’ connection to personal and social narratives can be
examined. Sports, conceived as magical amalgamations of visual art, theater, civic religion, and science, have become an important resource for many to shape personal and collective identities.
“Paul Marcus brings out the plenitude of experience sports offers at its best, uniting psychoanalytical and spiritual dimensions, at once down to earth and transcendent. He writes of the emotional as well as physical richness of soccer, baseball, chess, tennis, golf and cycling, play that take you to your limits, loss, coming back. It is a cliché that we learn about life through sports, lessons like getting along together, doing the best one can. But even more is involved, since using oneself fully, drawing on one’s resources can bring the feeling of life, a sense of spirit, to further planes. Marcus’s writing lifts us beyond ourselves and, in so doing, takes us to where we live. You will feel lifted by the love that lifts his words.”
Michael Eigen, Ph.D.
Author, The Birth of Experience and Faith
“Marcus has put forth a compelling thesis that playing and watching sports can be an important contributing factor to living the “good life.” His fascinating psychological and sociological insights about athletes, sports cultures, and why we love to play and watch sports provides much food for thought.”
Professor William B. Helmreich, Ph.D.
Author, The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6000 Miles in the City
Contents Acknowledgments.........................................................................6
Dedication......................................................................................7
1~Introduction..............................................................................9
2~Soccer: The Beautiful Game..................................................13
3~Baseball: The Immortal Game..............................................49
4~Chess: The Royal Game.........................................................83
5~Tennis: A Sportsman’s Pastime & a Fighter’s Game........ 115
6~Golf: A Game of Civility..................................................... 137
7~Cycling: The Freedom-Loving Sport................................. 157
8~Conclusion..............................................................................187
References....................................................................................191
Index.............................................................................................211
Marquette University Press
