Background
Cottle was born on January 22, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, United States; the son of Maurice Hiam and Gitta Gradova (Weinstock) Cottle.
(In Mind Fields, Thomas J. Cottle argues that the period k...)
In Mind Fields, Thomas J. Cottle argues that the period known as adolescence is essentially a social construct influenced greatly by popular culture. To understand young people, therefore, is to recognize how the very consciousness of adolescents is shaped by a culture, dominated by the entertainment industry, and the power of television and the computer, constantly urging them to turn away from the normal evolution of their personal and social lives. In this fundamentally distracting environment, young people explore their consciousness, sharing it with others, as well as form their sense of identity, all the while having these most inner experiences affected as much by the culture as by their own temperaments and personalities. It is the culture that determines the forms of recognition and independence, as well as intimacy and attachment that adolescents must learn. In the end, the author argues for the value of self-reflection as a critical ingredient of identity formation and a fundamental antidote to distracting cultural influences.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820449229/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(This is a sobering look at what happens to men - and thei...)
This is a sobering look at what happens to men - and their families - who are unemployed for six months or longer. An insightful and sensitive account of the social and psychological consequences of unemployment, the book presents portraits of these men coupled with provocative theoretical analysis. It should be of interest to those studying the sociology and psychology of work, male identity, bereavement and trauma.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558494154/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(At its heart, this book is a collection of personal accou...)
At its heart, this book is a collection of personal accounts that speak to a variety of social concerns, from youth crime and domestic violence to public education and health care. Told by children as well as adults, these stories offer illuminating if sometimes disturbing testimony about the circumstances of life in the contemporary United States. One story, for example, depicts the precarious world of a thirteen-year-old drug dealer. Another presents the searing narrative of a woman convicted of killing her abusive husband. Still another tells the painful saga of an "atomic" war veteran fighting the ravages of a disease induced and then denied by his own government. If the stories gathered by Thomas J. Cottle seem removed from the experience of some Americans, his telling of them often blurs the line between the extraordinary and the ordinary. As he explains in his introduction, the rules and rituals, institutions and conventions that define our social life link us in a fragile web of interdependence, what Cottle calls "the ecology of peril." Viewed in this light, the lives we lead are all in some sense "at risk," ever vulnerable to the harsh vicissitudes of inequity and injustice. Cottle organizes his narratives into four sections―on the perils of health, family, school, and society at large. He concludes with an afterword that addresses some of the methodological issues raised by his approach. A blend of subjective insight and objective assessment, art and science, this book represents a vision of sociology as Cottle has practiced and refined it for more than thirty years. Alternately described as "story sociology" or "life study research," its aim is to recover the personal, human dimension so often overlooked in the scientific study of society.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558494030/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(A clinical psychologist as well as a sociologist, Thomas ...)
A clinical psychologist as well as a sociologist, Thomas J. Cottle is the author of more than twenty-five books. At the heart of his work is a concern with the problems confronted by ordinary people in their everyday lives, the kinds of issues that shape who we are and how we interact with the world around us. In A Sense of Self, his focus is on affirmation, on that mysterious process by which the self comes to know itself in relation to others and forges an identity. He pays particular attention to the role of devotion, showing how the taking of responsibility for another is the essence of affirmation, which in turn is the fundamental ingredient in the development of a self.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558493670/?tag=2022091-20
2003
Cottle was born on January 22, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, United States; the son of Maurice Hiam and Gitta Gradova (Weinstock) Cottle.
Cottle received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1959. Four years later he earned his Master of Arts degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1968 from the University of Chicago. Also he was given a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lesley University.
Cottle began his career as an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University in 1965. Four years later he took a position of a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois. Then in 1970, Thomas became a fellow of education and psychiatry department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Also in 1973, he served as a researcher at the Children's Defense Fund. Since 1975 Cottle was a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he held faculty positions at Amherst College, Wesleyan University, and Columbia College in Chicago. Nowadays he is professor of education at Boston University.
(At its heart, this book is a collection of personal accou...)
2003(This is a sobering look at what happens to men - and thei...)
2003(A clinical psychologist as well as a sociologist, Thomas ...)
2003(In Mind Fields, Thomas J. Cottle argues that the period k...)
2001Cottle is a member of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association, National Society of Literature and Arts, Massachusetts Psychological Association, Society Study for Social Problems, Author's Guild and American Sociological Association.
On June 28, 1964 Thomas Cottle married Kay Mikkelsen Cottle. They have 3 children.