The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation [Paperback]

Robert Jay Lifton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226480984 | ISBN-13: 978-0226480985 | Publication Date: November 1, 1999

"We are becoming fluid and many-sided. Without quite realizing it, we have been evolving a sense of self appropriate to the restlessness and flux of our time. This mode of being differs radically from that of the past, and enables us to engage in continuous exploration and personal experiment. I have named it the 'protean self,' after Proteus, the Greek sea god of many forms."—from The Protean Self

"A fascinating and appealing book. . . . As he revises the psychology of the self, Dr. Lifton is subtle, even profound, in drawing a line between multiplicity and fragmentation. To those who are nostalgic for the age of the unitary ego, his message is that it is better to be fluid, resilient and on the move than to be firm, fixed, self-assured and settled. To those who worry that the post-modern age is an age of shattered selves, dissociative states, multiple personality disorders and identity diffusion, Dr. Lifton brings the good news that discontinuity can be a mirror of reality, and the standard for a reasonable life."—Richard A. Shweder, New York Times

"Lifton has challenged the conventional social-scientific wisdom of the last half century. . . .He has called attention to the emergence of a new form of self and considered it in a bold and imaginative light."—Howard Gardner, Boston Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The "protean self," as psychiatrist Lifton defines it, feeds on bits and pieces of experience in our fragmented, deracinated society and continuously reinvents itself. In an ambitious, highly stimulating, original synthesis, the prolific author of Death in Life and The Nazi Doctors contends that the protean self is a phenomenon unique to our centruy. Lifton's growth-oriented, malleable achievers improvise upon the conventional life cycle and seek alternatives to narrowly defined career paths. He profiles protean individuals such as Vaclav Havel, photographer/novelist Gordon Parks and social activists. He tracks the ever-changing self in the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut, Don DeLillo and Gunter Grass. He also interviews Christian fundamentalists, said to be in flight from protean openness, and black ghetto dwellers in whom he found alarming psychic fragmentation. This inspiring essay veers off into social commentary, discussing the U.S. as a laboratory of self-invention and the worldwide plunge into ethnicity.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Over the past few decades, many scholars have theorized that the average person's sense of self is being attenuated by historical dislocation, the influence of mass media, and the threat of extinction, a development Lifton refers to as "proteanism." While most scholars see this development as entirely positive or negative, Lifton argues that proteanism can function as an alternative to violence or as a stepping stone to either crime or fundamentalism. As in such earlier works as The Future of Immortality and Other Essays for a Nuclear Age ( LJ 3/15/87), Lifton places much greater emphasis on exploring his subjects' apocalyptic fears and fantasies than do other authors who have written on similar themes. However, the author's subjects--social activists, slum dwellers, and religious fundamentalists--are so far out of the mainstream that his conclusions seem inappropriate; indeed, at times his subjects appear to be chosen to support his contentions. While this is not a necessary purchase, academic and large public libraries may want to acquire to satisfy fans of Lifton's earlier works.
- Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226480984
• ISBN-13: 978-0226480985
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on the Self for Postmodernists, September 27, 2001

By 

E. Campisi "extrabooksalbany" (Baldwin, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation (Paperback)

This is the most coherent, wise and well-founded book I have read on the topic of how we react to the stresses of postmodernity, which mainly involve historical dislocations (which are traumatic), the mass media revolution, and the threat of extinction. We can react to these by becoming flexible, or protean, which has the potential to create life-affirming species, or communal, consciousness. We can also close down and express some degree of dogmatic or fundamentalist (antiprotean) beliefs. In the process of describing the psychology behind this, which is backed up with interesting interview information, Lifton gives us the most cogent psychological explanation of the kind of fundamentalism that leads to terrorism that I have ever seen. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Self in a Changing World, August 11, 2000

By 

Michael P. McGarry (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Protean Self: Human Resilience In An Age Of Fragmentation (Paperback)

Nothing characterizes the modern age so much as change. Whereas individual of the past could orient their lives within the framework of absolutes recognized by their cultures, we are cut adrift in an ever-changing sea. Yet, we survive and thrive. How? Dr. Robert Jay Lifton explains in this book. He describes "proteanism", the individual's ability to re-create himself as exterior conditions demand it, just as the ancient Greek god Proteus could shapeshift as needed. For anyone grappling with constructing a meaningful life within the rapid changes of the modern world, this might be the best book ever written.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Protean Self and the Fundamentalist Self, July 24, 2007

By 

Harumi O. Moruzzi "hopingforpeaceandharmony" (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation (Paperback)

Originally published in 1993, Robert Jay Lifton's The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation explains the emergence of a new mode of fluid individual self, protean self, in the fragmented contemporary world. As Lifton articulates, three historical forces, "historical dislocation, the mass media revolution, and the threat of extinction," released proteanism, which makes it possible for humans to reconstitute themselves according to the rapidly changing environment. Proteanism, in short, is a survival technique in the fragmented and chaotic world in which we are living. However, as Lifton clarifies, there is another way for individuals to respond to ever-changing and confusing environment, which he calls "fundamentalism and fundamentalist self." He writes: "More than imposing restraints on the self, fundamentalism mounts - in the service of an agenda of its own - an all-out attack on various manifestations of proteanism." I found Lifton's discussions of proteanism extremely insightful and enlightening. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in understanding our contemporary world and ourselves in it.