James Giles Books

James Giles is a philosopher and psychologist known for his interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to understanding the human condition. His writings, which often draw from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and biology, explore human relationships and are noted for their provocative nature. Giles is particularly recognized for his theory of no-self in personal identity, the vulnerability and care theory of love, and the theory of sexual desire as an existential need. His 'naked love theory,' linking the evolutionary origin of human hairlessness to a mother's pleasure in skin-to-skin contact, suggests that bare skin was a precondition for romantic love. Giles posits that only a comprehensive, cross-cultural perspective can help us grasp the wonder of human existence.

The Spaces of Violence
230 pages
9 hours of reading
Probes the interrelationship of violence and space in ten contemporary American novels In The Spaces of Violence, James R. Giles examines ten contemporary American novels for the unique ways in which they explore violence and space as interrelated phenomena. These texts are Russell Banks’s Affliction, Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark and Child of God, Lewis Nordan’s Wolf Whistle, Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, Don DeLillo’s End Zone, Denis Johnson’s Angels, Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer, Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers, and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. A concluding chapter extends the focus to texts by Jane Smiley, Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, and Chuck Palahniuk, who treat the destructive effects of violence on family structures.

The Spaces of Violence