"Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same. Leave it to the bureaucrats to see our papers are in order" -Michel Foucault Nothing in our world seems more obvious, real, and commonsensical than the idea of the self. Self lies at the heart of much of what we do and what we think about, including politics, religion, psychology, economics, psychotherapy, relationships, nationality, gender, and race. But in the fast-changing contemporary world, the traditional concept of the bounded, internal, stable self is under siege and may well be headed for extinction sooner than any of us suspects. Walter Truett Anderson considers different ideas about the self that have been held by people in the past. He visits disciplines and arenas within which modern ideas of identity are being questioned and other ways of experiencing life are being invented - cognitive science, medicine, cyberspace, and political and economic globalization. What emerges is an opportunity for a new vision of who and what we are. Essential to our understanding of the emerging postmodern era, Future of the Self will help readers explore the possibilities of life in a changed and changing world.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Starting Point For Further Inquiry,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Future of the Self (Hardcover)
As a novice to the world of post-modern philosophy, I found this book helpful in starting the inquiry into the terms, ideas, and metaphors used to explain the post-modern point of view. While obviously not an academic rendering, Anderson's style of writing is informative and journalistic. He may not be accurate in all that he reports, but his book has motivated me seek out more information.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good introduction to one area of post-modern thinking,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Future of the Self (Hardcover)
The idea of a solid, centrally located "I" or "self" somewhere in our psyche is fast becoming history. We are all becoming chameleons responding to ever expanding social roles and identities. The "I" is becoming a group of "we" in the post-modern age. Anderson does a good job in exploring the ground of this aspect of psychology. Some chapters are better than others, but all in all a good introduction. I am not a psychologist but a general reader, and this book was pleasant and easy to read, and was filled with lots of others names associated with the field. However I'm sure someone in the field would find it a trifle superficial and old hat. So be it.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly special book,
By "drsmith26" (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Future of the Self (Hardcover)
I can honestly say that this book has changed my view of myself and the world we live in. Anderson starts off with a great review of the history of "self", the tools we use to construct our definition of self, and then moves on to clearly explain the modern and post-modern ideas of self. For me, the insight provided by this book was a bit of an enlightening experience. At first, as I started to apply these ideas to my own self, I found the myself slightly disoriented. But as I emerge on the other side of my internal monologue I find I feel I have a new level of understanding about who I think I am. There are very few books that I have read that I feel have had the kind of personal impact this book has had on me. Part of me wishes it could be required reading, as a natural consequence of understanding these ideas is a tolerance of the vast variety's of different ways we can define ourselves. Read this with an open mind and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I highly recommend it.
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