Equality and power

Equality and Power is a statement of the problems facing modern man. It affirms that coherent ultimate values do exist: that what is wrong in one context cannot be right in another, that the same code must govern public and private life, and that only by knowing himself can man come to terms with his potentially destructive nature.

The book opens with a consideration of the psychoanalysis of power, since it is the urge to dominate (and its opposite, the tendency to submit) that Sampson sees as having such a crippling effect on human develop ment. There follow detailed case studies of Elizabeth Barrett, John Stuart Mill and Samuel Butler, together with references to Florence Nightingale, Ruskin and others. In each case Sampson reveals the tensions caused by masculine and parental dominance in Victorian England. Only through complete equality, he asserts, can human relationships remain healthy. Some literary evidence is then adduced for the difficulties facing the 'divided self'; characters referred to range from Dickens's Mr Dorrit to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman.

The author later turns to the public and political sphere, and uncovers the 'double values' held by so many people with regard to power. He rigorously analyses the power struggle in the modern world and questions the raison d'etat arguments of politicians and philosophers alike. In both the public world of politics and the private sphere of the individual and his relationships, equality is put forward as the constant goal towards which man must strive for the sake of health and perhaps of survival too.