The Call of Character

"This book engages questions of perennial interest to philosophers, theorists, and all individuals, and Mari Ruti is perhaps uniquely qualified to write it. Ruti has an uncanny ability to translate complex theoretical issues into clear and readable – but not the least bit dumbed-down – prose. Her treatment of the timeless question (what makes for a good life?) is both original and insightful. I wholeheartedly recommend this book."
—Amy Allen, Dartmouth College

"The Call of Character presents notions of the subject of character drawn from the most sophisticated psychoanalytic and critical theories in language that actively welcomes a non-academic readership. This book will contribute powerfully to discussions of the self from a position that is both inside and outside the critical psychoanalytic discourse."

—Gail Newman, Williams College

"The Call of Character is another outstanding Ruti book—expansively erudite yet plain-spoken, honest with a dazzling self-consciousness that situates itself historically in our present sociocultural moment. In this work, Ruti’s singular voice gives words to those necessary though often disavowed tensions of human life, rendering the inaccessible accessible. The prose reads like an existential page-turner that you must compel yourself to slow down and savor in its lucid relevance. I have already used insights from this book in my work with patients, to whom I have directly recommended Ruti’s works before. She helps us to understand our private impediments that inherently obscure our relation to our own desires. The Call of Character should be read by academics, clinicians, and students, but most importantly those who want to live with authentic vitality in a world that makes it seem difficult to do so—namely, all of us."

—Joseph S. Reynoso, Ph.D., Book Review Editor, Psychoanalytic Psychology

"What makes a life worth living? Our failure to find a definitive answer to that age-old question is the focus of Mari Ruti’s fabulous new book. Ruti revels in the unanswerable mystery of the call of character—that aspect of ourselves that makes each of us unique, passionate, but also perpetually dissatisfied and longing for more. In Ruti’s hands, dissatisfaction at our incompleteness becomes not a reason for despair but a source of fascination and political possibility: a summons to pursue an erotics of being in the most mundane aspects of our everyday lives."

—Lynne Huffer, Emory University