The Protean Self : Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation

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Summary: An essential book for those seeking resilience (proteanism)
Review: in a global age of increasing rigidity (totalism).

Rating:
Summary: The Self in a Changing World
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Self in a Changing World
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on the Self for Postmodernists
Review: 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.