Multiple Selves

Multiple Selves offers an original take on identity, self-fashioning, and the problems of identity politics. It bridges the genres of political science, sociology, philosophy, and even self-help. It draws on current debates in psychology, philosophy and political science, as well as art and literature, to address a serious life issue that has important political and ethical implications.

Multiple Selves denies that we have a single identity, are unique, or could use either identity or uniqueness as a source of political and ethical guidance. We are a jumble of multiple self- and social-identifications, that change in character and rise and fall in importance over time. Some of these identifications are reinforcing, others are in conflict, and all are context-dependent.

The book offers a critique of identity politics, on both the right and the left. It proposes more realistic ways of self-fashioning, described as much as a social, as an individual enterprise. Recognition of our fragmented selves can produce important ethical insights and greater psychological contentment.