God in the Shadow of Man

This tantalizing book is based on the pioneering work of Claude Levi-Strauss, who postulated that myths are links between nature and culture. Shoham enlarges this concept and claims that myth in the form of a mythogene, the structural longings and experiences of the individual as projected onto mythology, links history and transcendence, the individual and society, and consciousness and energy-matter. The mythogenes are related to Shoham's personality theory, which, in essence, postulates that personality types can be taxonomized along a continuum with one pole having the Tantalic type, which aims to melt into the object, and the other pole having the Sisyphean type, which aims to overpower and control the object. This incredible tour-de-force that spans the great works of science, literature, philosophy, sociology and religion will shake you to the roots of your being. It is hard to come away from this book without asking, who am I, and have I really came that far? And what future is there?

This tantalizing book is based on the pioneering work of Claude Levi-Strauss, who postulated that myths are links between nature and culture. Shoham enlarges this concept and claims that myth in the form of a mythogene, the structural longings and experiences of the individual as projected onto mythology, links history and transcendence, the individual and society, and consciousness and energy-matter. The mythogenes are related to Shoham's personality theory, which, in essence, postulates that personality types can be taxonomized along a continuum with one pole having the Tantalic type, which aims to melt into the object, and the other pole having the Sisyphean type, which aims to overpower and control the object. This incredible tour-de-force that spans the great works of science, literature, philosophy, sociology and religion will shake you to the roots of your being. It is hard to come away from this book without asking, who am I, and have I really came that far? And what future is there? Contents: Introduction 1. The Mythogene and the Myth of the Logos 2. The Mediation 3. Epilogue and Overture Glossary

Prof. Shlomo Giora Shoham was born in Lithuania in 1929 and immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1935. During Israel's War of Independence he served in the Nebi Daniel Convoy which was called in to help the Gush Etzion settlements. The bloc surrendered and he was captured by the Jordanians. Upon his release he started studying law at the Hebrew University and was among the first class to graduate from the Faculty of Law. He was later also the first to receive a PhD in law from the Faculty. He then went on to study criminology at Cambridge University in England, and upon his return to Israel founded the Institute of Criminology at the Bar-Ilan University. A decade later he founded the Department of Criminology at the Tel-Aviv University and is a teacher and scholar at the Faculty of Law till this day. Over the years he developed, with Prof. Yehuda Fried, a new method for treating drug-addicts, which was applied in Israel with impressive results. In his studies he examined social deviance and elaborated a unique personality theory to explain crime and deviation. His Stigma Theory, published in his book The Mark of Cain, which was translated into many languages, made it possible to understand the meaning of recidivism in the fields of crime and social deviance. In recent years he developed a new micro and macro theory in criminology. In his book Valhalla, Calvary and Auschwitz he proved that it is possible to explain the Nazi movement using a macro-criminological point of view, while the Holocaust may be understood from a macro-victimological aspect. His studies were published in numerous books and articles in the field of criminological theory and its application. As member of the Cohen Committee which was set up to discuss penal methods he dealt with the applicable aspects of criminological research for many years. His eldest son Giora was killed in the Yom Kippur War and Prof. Shoham has since added his son's name to his own. For his work he was awarded the Israel Prize in 2003.