Meaning and Melancholia : Routledge : 9781138497429 : 1138497428 : 06 Apr 2018 : Meaning and Melancholia: Life in the Age of Bewilderment sees Christopher Bollas apply his creative and innovative psychoanalytic thinking to various contemporary social, cultural and political themes. This book offers an incisive exploration of powerful trends within, and between, nations in the West over the past two hundred years. The author traces shifts in psychological forces and ?frames of mind', that have resulted in a crucial ?intellectual climate change'. He contends that recent decades have seen rapid and significant transformations in how we define our ?selves', as a new emphasis on instant connectedness has come to replace reflectiveness and introspection. Bollas argues that this trend has culminated in the current rise of psychophobia; a fear of the mind and a rejection of depth psychologies that has paved the way for what he sees as hate based solutions to world problems, such as the victo