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Book Cover
E-book
Author Verhaeghe, Paul, author

Title What about me? : the struggle for identity in a market-based society / Paul Verhaeghe ; translated by Jane Hedley-Prôle
Published Victoria, Australia ; London : Scribe Publications, 2014
©2014

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Description 1 online resource (272 pages)
Contents About the Author; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; INTRODUCTION; 1 IDENTITY; 2 ETHICS: FROM SELF-REALISATION TO SELF-DENIAL; 3 THE PERFECTIBLE INDIVIDUAL; 4 THE ESSENCE OF IDENTITY; INTERMEZZO: SOCIETY AND DISORDERS; 5 ENRON SOCIETY; 6 IDENTITY: POWERLESS PERFECTIBILITY; 7 THE NEW DISORDERS: RANK AND YANK; 8 THE GOOD LIFE; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; NOTES
Summary According to current thinking, anyone who fails to succeed must have something wrong with them. The pressure to achieve and be happy is taking a heavy toll, resulting in a warped view of the self, disorientation, and despair. People are lonelier than ever before. Today & rsquo;s pay-for-performance mentality is turning institutions such as schools, universities, and hospitals into businesses, while individuals are being made to think of themselves as one-person enterprises. Love is increasingly hard to find, and we struggle to lead meaningful lives. In What about Me?, Paul Verhaeghe & rsquo;s main concern is how social change has led to this psychic crisis and altered the way we think about ourselves. He investigates the effects of thirty years & rsquo; acceptance of neo-liberalism, free-market forces, and privatisation, and the resulting relationship between our engineered society and individual identity. It turns out that who we are is, as always, determined by the context in which we live. From his clinical experience as a psychotherapist, Verhaeghe shows the profound impact that social change is having on mental health, even to the extent of affecting the nature of the disorders from which we suffer. But his book ends on a note of cautious optimism. We can once again become masters of our fate & mdash; if we accept the challenge
Analysis Australian
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed April 5, 2014)
Subject Identity (Psychology)
Social change.
Individual differences -- Social aspects
Success -- Psychological aspects.
Failure (Psychology)
Social, group or collective psychology.
Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography.
Popular culture.
Cultural studies.
The self, ego, identity, personality.
Society & culture: general.
Psychology - Social Psychology.
Social Science - Sociology - General.
Social Science - Anthropology - Cultural.
Social Science - Popular Culture.
JUVENILE FICTION -- Social Issues -- Values & Virtues.
FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS -- Life Stages -- General.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Developmental -- General.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Developmental -- Lifespan Development.
PSYCHOLOGY -- General.
Failure (Psychology)
Identity (Psychology)
Social change
Success -- Psychological aspects
Form Electronic book
Author Hedley-Prôle, Jane, translator
ISBN 9781922072948
192207294X
192186379X
9781921863790