Driving Passion - Hardcover

In an instructive and entertaining study of the increasingly important place that the automobile has appropriated in our lives since its invention, British psychologists Marsh and Collett examine the unconscious motivations and fantasies of drivers to whom, they show, the car is not only a status symbol but often functions as a surrogate womb or as a means of self-expression, escape, romance and thrill. Citing drive-in restaurants, movies, banks and churches, the authors note that the car has become a room in itself, some fitted with bed, bar, phone, stereo, etc. Besides providing mobility and freedom, including sexual opportunities, the automobile, as the authors note, has its negative aspectsdeaths, suicides and injuries, pollution, noise, traffic and parking problems among them. Marsh and Collett also rue advertising and culturally fomented images of auto-associated violence as evidenced in bloodthirsty trade names and movies. Photos
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.