The Self: A Reader

Issues of the self have become increasingly important in contemporary debate. Key aspects of modern political, ethical and cultural thought hinge upon the self, its nature, capacities, rights and duties. Cultural studies, feminist theory and contemporary analyses of multi-culturalism are each shaped, in different ways, by controversies over the nature of the self and its identity. Psychologists and psychoanalysists are increasingly aware of the historical and cultural specificity of the self that they theorize and engage with in therapy, and the varieties of forms of selfhood in different ethnic groups and cultures. In popular discourse, ideas of the self are also central to contemporary debates about sexual relations, life styles, marriage, consumption, conflicts over national identities and much more. This is the first single volume that brings together classical and contemporary writings on the self from across the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology, politics and philosophy.