Through engaging characters--China-bound missionaries, an Indo-Persian diplomat, a Turkish exile in India, a French teacher in America, Arab students in Moscow, a Japanese woman writer in Europe--Illusion and Disillusionment examines travel writing beyond colonialism, imperialism, and Orientalism, focusing on the experience of travel itself.

Most people go through life chasing illusions of success, fame, wealth, happiness, and few things are more painful than the reality-revealing loss of an illusion. But if illusions are negative, why is the opposite, being disillusioned, also negative? In this essay based on his inaugural writer-in-residence lecture at Athabasca University, internationally acclaimed writer Steven Heighton mathematically evaluates the paradox of disillusionment and the negative aspects of hope. Drawing on writers such as Herman Melville, Leonard Cohen, Kate Chopin, and Thich Nhat Hanh, Heighton considers the influence of illusions on creativity, art, and society. This meditation on language and philosophy reveals the virtues of being disillusioned and, perhaps, the path to freedom.

Illusion, Disillusion, and Irony in Psychoanalysis explores and develops the role of illusion and daydream in everyday life, and in psychoanalysis. Using both clinical examples and literary works, idealised illusions and the inevitable disillusion that is met when reality makes an impact, are carefully explored. Idealised phantasies which involve a timeless universe inevitably lead to disillusion in the face of reality which introduces an awareness of time, ageing, and eventually death. If the illusions are recognised as phantasy rather than treated as fact, the ideal can be internalised as a symbol and serve as a measure of excellence. Steiner shows that the cruelty of truth needs to be recognised, as well as the deceptive nature of illusion, and that relinquishing omnipotence is a critical and difficult developmental task that is relived in analysis. Illusion, Disillusion, and Irony in Psychoanalysis will be of great use to the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist seeking to understand the patient’s withdrawal into a phantasy world, and the struggle to allow the impact of reality.

Since winning the Pulitzer for his Glengarry Glen Ross, playwright David Mamet has written only one original, full-length play, Speed-the-Plow--yet he has written nearly ten original screenplays. His movement in this direction is both surprising and, ironically, inevitable. Studied here are Mamet's screenplays (such as The Postman Always Rings Twice and We're No Angels), the influence of film on his recent plays (The Shawl and Speed-the-Plow), his theory of directing refined from his writerly principles of montage storytelling, and the reciprocal impact of his films and plays are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the author-director relationship in House of Games and Things Change. A complete filmography includes his 1992 work on the film version of Glengarry Glen Ross and Hoffa.

Mourning the loss of core illusions and coping with the impact of disillusionment are critical issues in psychotherapy. In this informative and readable book, Teitelbaum explores this therapeutic issue in depth from a developmental, theoretical, and clinical perspective and emphasizes its particular importance in the treatment of depressed and narcissistic patients.

This current volume by successful consultants to leading organizations and institutions combines two of their recent papers. The first paper, 'Disillusionment', looks at the phenomenon of illusion and disillusion in organizations. The authors believe that illusions construct us, as opposed to the commonly-held view that we create them. This is the main hypothesis in the book, which is examined with the help of examples from personal and institutional points of view. The authors claim we can learn to recognize our own illusions and learn from them, and this is the process they call 'disillusionment'. Dialogue of Lacks follows on from the first paper and further elaborates on the process that is disillusionment and discusses "lack of dialogue". 'The trudging that each of us is engaged in - over a shorter or longer distance - whilst grappling with our own illusions is a fundamental journey, intimate and unique, passing through our own construction and touching on the very essence of our life.