Background
Ian Craib was born on December 12, 1945, in Croydon.
Ian Craib
103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA, United Kingdom
Ian Craib studied at London South Bank University. He got a Bachelor of Arts.
Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Ian Craib studied at University of Manchester. He got a Doctor of Philosophy.
103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA, United Kingdom
Ian Craib studied at London South Bank University. He got a Bachelor of Arts.
Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Ian Craib studied at University of Manchester. He got a Doctor of Philosophy.
(In the first part of the book, Craib concentrates on Bein...)
In the first part of the book, Craib concentrates on Being and Nothingness and considers how Sartre's brand of phenomenology can inform studies of inter-personal relationships. In the second part, he examines La Critique de la raison dialectique, which deals with the wider structure of society, the nature of social classes, and the development of history. He goes on to investigate the connections between these two levels of analysis, and the complex interrelationships between the sociologist, his fellows, his objects of study, and his theoretical work.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Existentialism-Sociology-Study-Jean-Paul-Sartre/dp/0521109671
1976
(The revised edition of this widely acclaimed textbook pro...)
The revised edition of this widely acclaimed textbook provides a clear, accessible, and comprehensive introduction to modern social theory. As with the first edition, the book is based around the themes of structure and action. After the introductory chapters which examine the nature of theory and its role in the social world, the book then turns to theories of action and the inability of those theories to comprehend social structures in a coherent way.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Social-Theory-Parsons-Habermas/dp/0745010881
1984
(Ian Craib's new book provides an introductory analysis of...)
Ian Craib's new book provides an introductory analysis of attempts to combine cycle analytical and social theory. Starting from a discussion of the work of Freud, the book goes on to look at more recent attempts to combine the two in the work of members of the Frankfurt school and others such as Christopher Badcock, Christopher Lasch, Talcott Parsons, and Eric Erickson. The analysis also covers modern feminist approaches to Freud, notably through the writings of Nancy Chodorow and Juliet Mitchell.
https://www.amazon.com/Psychoanalysis-Social-Theory-Limits-Sociology/dp/0870237020
1989
(This book provides a prudent and essential critical intro...)
This book provides a prudent and essential critical introduction to one of the leading sociologists of our time. The book is intended to provide an accessible introduction to Gidden's work and also to situate structuration theory in the context of other approaches.
https://www.amazon.com/Anthony-Giddens-Routledge-Revivals-Craib/dp/041561595X
1992
(This sane and insightful discussion explores the nature o...)
This sane and insightful discussion explores the nature of identity in late modern societies to criticize how psychotherapy has become an ideology of late modernity and to emphasize the importance of "negative" messages in psychoanalytic theory.
https://www.amazon.com/Importance-Disappointment-Ian-Craib/dp/041509383X
1994
(Written in a direct, personal style, Classical Social The...)
Written in a direct, personal style, Classical Social Theory's thematic structure helps the reader compare the theorists systematically, and the book-by-book approach pays close attention to each thinker's key texts, quoting the most important passages and analyzing them in a clear, straightforward way.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Social-Theory-Introduction-Durkheim/dp/0198781172
1997
(The introduction is a critique of existing sociological a...)
The introduction is a critique of existing sociological accounts of identity, arguing that these are incurably cognitive, treating the people that they study as incapable of experiencing an internal life or internal space. The book then considers the implications of this in social theory and human practice.
https://www.amazon.com/ExperiencIng-Identity-Ian-Craib/dp/0803976925
1998
educator psychotherapist sociologist writer
Ian Craib was born on December 12, 1945, in Croydon.
Ian Craib was a graduate of Borough Polytechnic, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1970, and the University of Manchester, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in sociology in 1973.
With his unique background in both sociology and psychotherapy, Ian Craib helped bring these two disciplines together with his theories of the central importance of human interaction.
He was, on the one hand, a social theorist. His work, Existentialism and Sociology, was demonstrated a form of humanist Marxism that remained influential in his subsequent thinking. Ian was also the author of Modern Social Theory, Classical Social Theory, and Philosophy of Social Science, with his colleague Ted Benton. These books grew directly out of his experience of teaching sociological theory courses in the Sociology Department at Essex University, which he joined as a junior lecturer in 1973. Ian Craib was promoted to reader in 1995 and became a professor in 1997. In his work as a sociology teacher and writer, he resisted the tide of structuralist thought, which swept the humanities and social science disciplines at that time.
On the other hand, Ian was a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. In the late 1970s, Craib underwent psychoanalysis before training as a group analytic therapist in the mid-1980s.
His interest in his two areas of a study led him to help create the first master's degree program in England that combined sociology and psychotherapy. Ian's early work explored the relationships between philosophy and social theory, and he remained committed to a vision of the importance of this connection throughout his career.
When Ian Craib found out that he had cancer, he wrote The Importance of Disappointment in which he encourages readers not to avoid anxiety and disappointment but to face it head-on. The book provided a commentary on modern attitudes to death. In place of mourning, bereavement counselors provided "abstract guidelines" aimed at relieving, rather than confronting, the experience of guilt and the intensity of pain that surrounds death.
Other Ian Craib's works include Classical Social Theory, Experiencing Identity, and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Introduction. He continued to teach, and participate fully in the department at Essex University, until the week before his death.
Ian Craib was well known as a sociologist, psychologist, and writer. While he taught at the University of Essex, he gained an international reputation in sociology.
Ian was widely known as a theoretician who linked sociology and psychoanalysis. His interest in that two areas of a study led him to help create the first master's degree program in England that combined sociology and psychotherapy. Also, he was known as the author of books, also concerning themes sociology and psychology.
(Written in a direct, personal style, Classical Social The...)
1997(This sane and insightful discussion explores the nature o...)
1994(The introduction is a critique of existing sociological a...)
1998(In the first part of the book, Craib concentrates on Bein...)
1976(The revised edition of this widely acclaimed textbook pro...)
1984(Ian Craib's new book provides an introductory analysis of...)
1989(This book provides a prudent and essential critical intro...)
1992In Ian Craib's teens, he supported Trotskyist parties. But later, he rejected them because of their unfair treatment and unequal distribution of power.
Through the 1970s, Ian Craib's advocacy of a humanist Marxism, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, sustained his political activism, first in the International Socialists, and then within the Labour Party.
Ian Craib's insight, to see the bad in good and on the contrary, was part of his profound, sensitive view of the complication and contradiction in life. He argued that "late modern" society presents new possibilities of living that are, in fact, illusions. People come to believe that they can create themselves, that people have "rights" to aspects of life such as happiness, a "fulfilling relationship." People recognize that they can find a "real self" or, alternately, they believe that they can be anything that they want to be as the occasion arises. The shift from existentialism to psychoanalysis turned out to be a way of bringing new intellectual resources to maintain the central concern of his earlier humanism: the claim of the inner life of individuals to be respected and defended from reductive simplifications.
In his work as a sociology teacher and writer, he resisted the tide of structuralist, thought which swept the humanities and social science disciplines at that time. He argued that "the power of the theory is its ability to transform consciousness, to change people not necessarily by intellectual conviction but by enabling them to grasp their world and their own experience in a radically new way and to become aware of ways of changing the world."
Quotations:
"For some people, education is a value in itself, something to be sought after, because the more educated we are, the more civilized we become. Through education, we become better people more sensitive able to appreciate the true and the beautiful, able to find sophisticated pleasures in the world we become better citizens."
"I had never before allowed myself to recognize the fear of death that must be common to us all, and neither had I properly understood its implication: that life is immensely precious and the links we have with other people, in all their dreadful complexity, are all that we have, and if there is such a thing as evil, it lies in the deliberate breaking of those links."
Ian Craib was an implacably rigorous, usually iconoclastic, wickedly insightful, but uniquely honorable, generous, and forgiving person. His characteristically impish, subversive chuckle never left him, even in the days of his illness.
Quotes from others about the person
Ben Craib: "My dad lived and saw a world of complexity, instability, and ambiguity. But one unwavering constant in all this was his huge capacity to give and love. Whether it was to students, readers, patients, friends, partners, or family, he gave to so many people: Whether it was the clear, lucid explanation of a complex idea or a simple cuddle."
Ian Craib was married to Fiona Craib. They had a son, Ben Craib.
