Table Of Content“Peter Gabel is one of the grand prophetic voices in our day. He also
is a long-distance runner in the struggle for justice.”
—Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy,
Harvard University
“This book is a major contribution to critical social theory and to the
ongoing project of respiritualizing our lives in the family, the market,
and the state. It is broad and deep at the same time, with grace and plea-
sure to be had on every page.”
—Duncan Kennedy, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence
Emeritus, Harvard Law School
“Karl Marx considered the class struggle the engine of human history. In
The Desire for Mutual Recognition, however, Peter Gabel boldly asserts the
existence of a deeper underlying motive factor: the dynamic of our human
yearning, whether towards frustration or fulfillment, to co-create
and inhabit a universe of authentic, loving connection, and mutual rec-
ognition. Human liberation requires us to intentionally embed social-
spiritual strategies within socio-political movements to radically challenge
social fear while generating powerful experiences of mutual recognition
that support the evolution of humanity toward its full realization. To
read this entrancing work is itself to gain entrance into a re-sacralized
dimension, evocative of a new future.”
—Fania E. Davis, long-time activist, civil rights lawyer, and restorative
justice scholar and practitioner
“Peter Gabel’s The Desire for Mutual Recognition may soon reshape the land-
scape of contemporary social theory. With great sophistication and yet
accessibility for those with no previous background, Gabel reveals the key
to healing and transforming our world. Demonstrating why those who
seek liberation must move past liberalism, Marxism, and deconstruc-
tion, Gabel shows how a respiritualization of every aspect of our world
can move us beyond the alienation that characterizes so much of human
interactions and the institutions in which we are continually imagining
ourselves to be stuck. Far from utopian, liberation is in our own hands
and could be achieved very quickly once we break through the false vision
of reality that can be overcome if we follow Gabel’s sage advice.”
—Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun; author of
The Left Hand of God and Jewish Renewal
“Peter Gabel is a God-wrestler and has been one for years and decades.
In this important and needed book he brings his passion for justice and
healing of our world along with his well honed analytical skills to bear
on the pressing issue of our time: How to let go of the “false self” and the
“false we” that poisons our political discourse and stifles our social imag-
inations. A deep contribution to a needed movement of sacred activism
and the return of conscience to our civic life. Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
reminded us that “true peace is the presence of justice.” In this regard,
this is a book about true peace-making.”
—Matthew Fox
“In The Desire for Mutual Recognition, Peter Gabel unfurls a nuanced phe-
nomenology of the social world, a theory of human interbeing as expe-
rienced from within its often confounding relational depths. Gabel’s
ability to think and reflect with his whole organism (with his heart as
well as his head) illumines both the uncanny inertia of a destructive civ-
ilization seemingly unable to change course, and the erotic energy-flows
that provide the ever-present wellspring for such transformation.”
—David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and
Becoming Animal
“Now more than ever, progressives need a transformed way to under-
stand ourselves, our world, and the future we imagine. Peter Gabel’s
extraordinary book demonstrates the revolutionary truth that meaning-
ful social change depends on ordinary people overcoming the alienation
from the social world and from each other that frames each of our lives
in liberal societies. Contemporary radical theory has been adept at iden-
tifying the myriad forms in which social power is manifest, but it has
paid little attention to how power works at the level of consciousness and
everyday experience to provide a (false) substitute for the mutual recog-
nition and connection that we all desire. The Desire for Mutual Recognition
reveals the spiritual and psychological dynamics that form the existential
ground for social alienation and that must be addressed for redemptive
social change to take hold. It is a beautifully written and evocative work
of social theory, and a prophetic and practical call for social change.”
—Gary Peller, author of Critical Race Consciousness: Reconsidering
American Ideologies of Racial Justice
“Peter Gabel’s synthesis of political and spiritual activism is exactly
what we need for the future. Gabel offers insights into how we can over-
come our “fear of the other” and expand authentic social connections
into peaceful and loving communities. This book’s fresh perspective on
movement building should be widely read and discussed.”
—George Katsciaficas, author
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he esire for uTual ecogniTion
The Desire for Mutual Recognition is a work of accessible social theory that
seeks to make visible the desire for authentic social connection, emanat-
ing from our social nature, that animates all human relationships.
Using a social-phenomenological method that illuminates rather
than explains social life, Peter Gabel shows how the legacy of social alien-
ation that we have inherited from prior generations envelops us in a
milieu of a “fear of the other,” a fear of each other. Yet because social real-
ity is always co-constituted by the desire for authentic connection and
genuine co-presence, social transformation always remains possible, and
liberatory social movements are always emerging and providing us with
a permanent source of hope. The great progressive social movements for
workers’ rights, civil rights, and women’s and gay liberation, generated
their transformative power from their capacity to transcend the recipro-
cal isolation that otherwise separates us. These movements at their best
actually realize our fundamental longing for mutual recognition, and for
that very reason they can generate immense social change and bend the
moral arc of the universe toward justice.
Gabel examines the struggle between desire and alienation as it
unfolds across our social world, calling for a new social-spiritual activ-
ism that can go beyond the limitations of existing progressive theory and
action, intentionally foster and sustain our capacity to heal what sepa-
rates us, and inspire a new kind of social movement that can transform
the world.
Peter Gabel is the former president of New College of California and
was for over thirty years a professor at its public-interest law school. He is
a founder of the critical legal studies movement and the Project for Inte-
grating Spirituality, Law, and Politics. Editor-at-Large of the progressive
Jewish magazine Tikkun, he is the author of numerous books and articles
on law, politics, and social change. He lives in San Francisco with his
partner Lisa Jaicks, a union organizer for the hospitality workers union,
and they have one son, Sam, 22, a hip-hop artist and emcee.
T D M
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Social Movements and the
Dissolution of the False Self
Peter Gabel
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Peter Gabel to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-09527-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-09528-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10575-8 (ebk)
Typeset in ITC Legacy Serif
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