Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Enigmas of Identity

Enigmas of Identity

Brooks, Peter

Paperback

Literary CriticismCognitionGeneral Psychology

ISBN10: 069115953X
ISBN13: 9780691159539
Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr
Published: Oct 13 2013
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.75
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English

From eminent critic Peter Brooks, an exploration of the modern preoccupation with identity

We know that it matters crucially to be able to say who we are, why we are here, and where we are going, Peter Brooks writes in Enigmas of Identity. Many of us are also uncomfortably aware that we cannot provide a convincing account of our identity to others or even ourselves. Despite or because of that failure, we keep searching for identity, making it up, trying to authenticate it, and inventing excuses for our unpersuasive stories about it. This wide-ranging book draws on literature, law, and psychoanalysis to examine important aspects of the emergence of identity as a peculiarly modern preoccupation.

In particular, the book addresses the social, legal, and personal anxieties provoked by the rise of individualism and selfhood in modern culture. Paying special attention to Rousseau, Freud, and Proust, Brooks also looks at the intersection of individual life stories with the law, and considers the creation of an introspective project that culminates in psychoanalysis.

Elegant and provocative, Enigmas of Identity offers new insights into the questions and clues about who we think we are.

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