interviews & reviews
How Is Our Work a Light to the World? One Lawyer’s Efforts
Matthew Fox interviews Peter Gabel for Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
Going to the Heart of the Matter: Peter Gabel Argues for a Psycho-Spiritual Politics
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Michael Bader for Alternet
"Peter Gabel's brilliant new book, The Desire for Mutual Recognition: Social Movements and the Dissolution of the False Self, seeks to understand both the source of our collective suffering and the prospects for a radical social change movement through a lens that draws from psychoanalysis, critical social theory, and his own sophisticated brand of phenomenology―what Gabel calls a ‘phenomenology of social being.’ He uses the high-brow language of philosophy, but his aim is a down-to-earth plea for a dramatic shift in how we understand human alienation and the conditions necessary to effect social change through what he calls a ‘spiritualization’ of politics. Through illuminating the drawbacks of liberalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, and deconstruction, Gabel urges us to create a social movement that expresses and honors our deepest longings for love, understanding and recognition. … In my reading, it is a call for us to find a way to become our best selves and create a better world in the process."
New Social Theory for an Emergent Socialist Movement
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Martha Sonnenberg for Online University of the Left
"Peter Gabel’s new book, The Desire for Mutual Recognition: Social Movements and the Dissolution of the False Self, is at once a startlingly new and groundbreaking contribution to critical social theory, and a call to action for all who desire to be a part of transformative movement beyond a current world of alienated fearfulness, oppression, economic and spiritual deprivation, misogyny, racism and xenophobia. His book provides a refreshing perspective, and one necessary, in my opinion, to save a young progressive movement from the one dimensional thought which has characterized both the old and new left, and all revolutionary movements before and after.”
Book Wisdom: Trailblazing Publications
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Elaine Quinn for Conscious Lawyer
"…A profoundly illuminating book for lawyers and non-lawyers alike … and in the near future it will be recommended reading for new lawyers—the ones bravely envisioning, living, and slowly realising this new legal culture we are dreaming of."
Peter Gabel: The Project For Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics
Elaine Quinn interviews Peter Gabel for Conscious Lawyer
Routledge Author Q&A with Peter Gabel
Meeting the Holy Spirit
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Rick Herrick for ProgressiveChristianity.org
"By ending our sense of separation and fear, we can learn to see and think about the world differently. Movement toward peace, economic and social justice, environmental health all follow from the creation of loving individuals living within a socially connected community."
Peter Gabel, Class of ‘64
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Jan Flaska for Deerfield Magazine
"Gabel’s work empowers the folks behind the social movements that are trying to “liberate and vitalize” being-ness, in the search for a common and authentic life of mutual recognition. In one of his most powerful claims, this recovery and awareness of shared being “releases us from mutually withdrawn locations . . . [to] bring us into each other’s recognizing, loving presence.” Our journey with Gabel to acknowledge our desire for mutual recognition, and the power such a journey possesses, brings us to a human harmony of sorts.”
Integral Leadership Review: Desire for Mutual Recognition: Social Movements and the Dissolution of the False Self
A Review of “The Desire for Mutual Recognition” by Barbara Nussbaum
"Gabel’s work empowers the folks behind the social movements that are trying to “liberate and vitalize” being-ness, in the search for a common and authentic life of mutual recognition. In one of his most powerful claims, this recovery and awareness of shared being “releases us from mutually withdrawn locations . . . [to] bring us into each other’s recognizing, loving presence.” Our journey with Gabel to acknowledge our desire for mutual recognition, and the power such a journey possesses, brings us to a human harmony of sorts.”