Hands

What We Do with Them – and Why

The history of civilization is a history of what humans do with their hands. Inventing tools, writing records, operating machinery, learning to type, to text, to swipe: mankind's progress to modern society has been a steady evolution of how we use our hands.

Why do we play with our fingers when nervous? What causes us to doodle while concentrating? Why are the motions of cooking soothing and the motions of online gaming addictive? And what happens when we are prevented from using our hands altogether?

Drawing examples from popular culture, art history, technology and clinical research, Darian Leader explores how the things we do with our hands reflect our psychological state - and can also change that state profoundly.

Publisher's description. Why do we play with our fingers when nervous? Why do zombies walk with their hands out? What connects prayer beads with iPhones? Journey down the psychoanalytic rabbit hole to discover the strange and fascinating secrets of what our hands really say about us...

Penguin

About Darian Leader

Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst and the author of many books, including The New Black, What Is Madness? and Is It Ever Just Sex?. He practises psychoanalysis in London, and he is a founding member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and a member of the College of Psychoanalysts UK.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241973998
  • Length: 176 pages
  • Price: £5.99
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