Kovel, Joel S. 1936-

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KOVEL, Joel S. 1936-

PERSONAL: Born August 27, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Louis and Rose (Farber) Kovel; married Dee Dee Halleck; children: Jonathan, Erin, Molly. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Yale University, B.S. (summa cum laude), 1957; Columbia University, M.D., 1961.


ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 89, Willow, NY 12495. Offıce—Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, NY 12504; fax: 914-679-7535. E-mail—jkovel@ prodigy.net.


CAREER: Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, Bronx, NY, intern in medical service, 1961-62; Yeshiva University, New York, NY, began as assistant resident, became resident in psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, 1962-64, chief resident in psychiatry, 1964-65, instructor at medical college, 1967-69, assistant professor, 1969-74, associate professor, 1974-79, professor of psychiatry, 1979-86; Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, NY, Alger Hiss Professor of Social Studies, 1988—. Psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in private practice, 1967-86. New School for Social Research, visiting professor of anthropology, 1980-85; University of CaliforniaSan Diego, visiting professor of politics and communication, 1986-87.


AWARDS, HONORS: Nomination for National Book Award in philosophy and religion, 1972, for White Racism: A Psychohistory; Guggenheim fellowship, 1987.

WRITINGS:

White Racism: A Psychohistory, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1970, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1984.

A Complete Guide to Therapy: From Psychoanalysis to Behavior Modification, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1976.

The Age of Desire: Case Histories of a Radical Psychoanalyst, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1981.

Against the State of Nuclear Terror, Pan Books (London, England), 1983, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1984.

In Nicaragua, Free Association Books (London, England), 1988.

The Radical Spirit: Essays in Psychoanalysis andSociety, Free Association Books (London, England), 1988.

History and Spirit, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1990.

Red Hunting in the Promised Land, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1995.

The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or theEnd of the World?, Zed Books (New York, NY), 2002.


Contributor to books, including Women in Analysis: Dialogues on Psychoanalytic Views of Femininity, edited by Jean Strouse, David Grossman (New York, NY), 1974. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Telos, New York Times Book Review,Monthly Review, Capitalism,Nature, Socialism, and Psychoanalytic Review.


WORK IN PROGRESS: Dialectical Meditations.


SIDELIGHTS: Joel S. Kovel once told CA: "Having begun with medicine, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, and then increasingly shifted to critical social theory, my writings led me to consider, in turn, racism, schools of psychotherapy, the relations between Freud and Marx, the nuclear arms crisis, Sandinista Nicaragua, radical spirituality, and anticommunism. Now my efforts are directed toward an in-depth study of the ecological crisis—that disordered relation between humanity and nature which threatens to bring civilization to an end. The first volume, The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?, identifies the destructive forces within the prevailing system of social production, capitalism, and discusses ecological alternatives. The second volume, Dialectical Meditations, will undertake various speculative paths in order to fully grasp the true extent of the crisis and the possibilities of overcoming it."


BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kovel, Joel S., The Age of Desire: Case Histories of aRadical Psychoanalyst, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1981.


PERIODICALS

Hungry Mind Review, spring, 1998, review of WhiteRacism: A Psychohistory, p. 57.

Library Journal, May 15, 2002, Robert F. Nardini, review of The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?, p. 113.

Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1982.

Nation, January 30, 1982.

New Leader, October 25, 1976.

New York Times, June 24, 1976; January 14, 1982.

New York Times Book Review, July 18, 1976.

Psychology Today, January, 1982.

Reference and Research Book News, February, 1998, review of Red Hunting in the Promised Land, p. 36.

Synthesis/Regeneration, spring, 2000, Walt Contreras

Sheasby, review of The Enemy of Nature, p. 28.

Times Literary Supplement, July 15, 1977.

Village Voice, January 20-26, 1982.


ONLINE

Joel Kovel Home Page,http://www.joelkovel.org/ (September 11, 2004).

Zed Books Web Site,http://zedweb.hypermart.net/ (August 16, 2002), description of The Enemy of Nature.*

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