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The Saturated Self: Dilemmas Of Identity In Contemporary Life Paperback – January 1, 2000

by Kenneth J Gergen (Author)

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Today's ever-expanding communications technologies force us to relate to more people and institutions than ever before, challenging the way we view ourselves and our relationships. This powerful and provocative book draws from a wide range of disciplinesfrom anthropology to psychoanalysis, from film and fiction to literary theoryto explore these profound changes in our understanding of self-identity and their implications for cultural and intellectual life.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 1, 2000
Dimensions

6 x 0.81 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0465071856
ISBN-13

978-0465071852
Lexile measure

1300L
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kenneth J. Gergen, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. He is the author of, among other works, Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge (1982) and, with co-editor John Shotter, Texts of Identity (1989).

From The Washington Post

"Enlightening...a brilliantly argued though disturbing book that offers an intriguing explanation for some of the more maddening and puzzling aspects of contemporary life."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (January 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465071856
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465071852
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1300L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.81 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #540,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #493 in Communication Reference (Books)
- #1,289 in Popular Psychology Personality Study
- #1,534 in Communication & Media Studies

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

46 global ratings

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Michael Revelle

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2017

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Excellent

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Fascinating!

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2016

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Very fascinating perspective!

One person found this helpful

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Chicago Girl

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015

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This is great .

One person found this helpful

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Haley

Bit Dusty but it works

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018

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Cover isn’t the same but the inside is. Very well used and the pages are starting to stain

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abaugher

Losing authentic connections as we become more connected

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2013

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This is an essential book for our high-tech, modern age. While it was written before much of the technology we have now, "The Saturated Self" highlights both the advantages and the pitfalls of being highly interconnected. Although we can now easily fly in an airplane to most destinations and keep track of friends online, we lose an authentic interpersonal connection with people we actually see because of our dependence on electronic gadgets. However, the reality is that technology isn't going to stop.

5 people found this helpful

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Jennifer May, Ph.D.

Very interesting

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2013

This book gives a thorough explanation of the differences between romanticism, modernism, and post-modernism by citing examples from a variety of domains (e.g., academia, media, politics, art, literature, society, relationships, etc.). Although the title is "The Saturated Self" and Gergen does talk about how the self is conceptualized differently across those three different eras, keep in mind that he only focuses on the topic of self for a fraction of the book. And while other reviewers classified this book as "easy to read," I tend to disagree. This is an amazing scholarly work that is very well constructed and well researched (my hat's off to Dr. Gergen), but it is pretty dense and takes a lot of focus and concentration to get through (and I'm a well-educated reader with a Ph.D.). Overall, this work is quite interesting and you will finish with a much clearer knowledge about romanticism, modernism, and post-modernism.

9 people found this helpful

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June Fernan

Incredible

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2009

This book is, simply put, an incredible accomplishment which deserves more 5-star reviews. The book is relevant to anyone's life, as it is addressing widespread social phenomena brought on by the internet, television, air travel, and other technologies that are basically taking the obstacles of space and time and reducing them to mere hurdles.

To me, the book treads between sociology and philosophy, as the author creates new terms to explain his ideas. It can be a bit disturbing reading about our society on the path to a "multiphrenic" consciousness, while later on it is pleasant to be reminded of some of the benefits of contemporary life. Gergen often dips back into the how things were in the "face to face" community of the romantic era, or during the times of machine obsessed modernity, for comparisons. As a result, this book teaches you not just about the current state of society, but about where it's been, where it is, and most importantly where it may be headed.

Before I read this book, I only knew "postmodern" as a term to describe anything contemporary. Now I know what it actually is and what causes it. It gives you plenty of things to wonder about and discuss with friends who are also interested. A college student in any related field of study will find this book a handy source for a paper on just about any topic. The first edition was written almost 20 years ago, and it's still very relevant, and will be for a long time.

8 people found this helpful

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richdiet

A one-sided perspective

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2010

Kenneth Gergen's approach to postmodern theory is one-sided and disorganized. Through a series of unrelated examples of daily life (and occasional references to the development of this new thing called "electronic mail"), Gergen succeeds in sounding exactly like a grumpy old man down the street, waving his cane at those darn kids who step on his lawn. Much of his criticism of modern life seems to stem from the fact that it is unfamiliar to him, rather than inherently flawed. For young readers and those accustomed to the presence of technology in everyday life, most of what Gergen writes will fall flat -- unless, of course, the reader is an angsty teen trying to understand why it is they hate their life so much.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Bradley K. Lewis

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on January 2, 2017

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A+++

Dr. H. A. Jones

What becomes of the overloaded mind?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2009

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The Saturated Self by Kenneth J. Gergen, Basic Books (Perseus); 1991; 2nd edn. 2000; 320 ff.

What becomes of the overloaded mind?
By Howard A. Jones

`The thesis of this book is that the process of social saturation is producing a profound change in our ways of understanding the self.' It is written by a psychologist who is Senior Research Professor at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.

Gergen's idea is that we are now being subjected to excessive social stimulation, both at work and in our `relaxation' hours by the demands of our work itself and work colleagues, who are continually making greater demands upon us for their satisfaction and professional advance; by our partners and children, who also want to lead full and active lives; and even in the time we set aside for relaxation because commercial enterprise has endeavoured, in its quest for profits, to tempt us with ever more exciting opportunities for enjoyment.

Our self-image is continually under review as new opportunities for work, play and belief present themselves. We are becoming overwhelmed even by the technologies provided for our benefit - telephones, computers, television, CDs, DVDs . . . Video and tape recorders, which are relatively recent inventions, are already obsolete. Instead of real relationships with actual people we have vicarious relationships with characters on our TV screens.

We now have 24-hour radio and television channels and 24-hour shopping. Sunday used to be a day of rest in Christian countries but now is little different from any other day of the week. When the whole of society around you is immersed in such activity, it becomes more difficult to remove yourself from it. Marriages, close-knit families and lifelong friendships have now become replaceable by transient relationships. In the absence of meaningful human interaction, we are now increasingly attracted to relationships with these material things.

The result has been that many of us are experiencing social exhaustion. Gergen believes that this is a prime factor in the development of the New Age movement, where people are increasingly attracted to eastern mystical philosophies of quietude and reflection. Nostalgia for simpler past times is a feature of this same mind-set, because the dreamy ethos of Romanticism in the 19th century has been replaced by hard-edged scientific and technological realism in the 20th. For the romanticist conception of the self `is a perspective that lays central stress on unseen, even sacred forces that dwell deep within the person, forces that give life and relationships their meaning.' Depressingly, Gergen feels that this process of social saturation is far from complete.

This is a challenging and thought-provoking book. The author says his aim is `to offer insight into current academic debates to those outside the tower.' However, the breadth and depth of this monograph make it best suited to graduate students in a wide range of disciplines - philosophy, psychology, sociology. There are even perceptive comments on Romantic to postmodern art, music and literature. For the non-academic, this level of scholarship may prove intimidating. For those who stay the course, there are copious Notes and an Index at the end of the book.

Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

Texts of Identity
Memory, Narrative, Identity: Remembering the Self (Tendencies: Identities, Texts, Cultures)

5 people found this helpful

David Williams

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2017

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Interesting book - rapid delivery, reasonable price

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