Inventing Our Selves proposes a radical new approach to the analysis of our current regime of the self, and the values of autonomy, identity, individuality, liberty, and choice that animate it. It argues that psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and other 'psy' disciplines have played a key role in 'inventing our selves', changing the ways in which human beings understand and act upon themselves, and how they are acted upon by politicians, managers, doctors, therapists, and a multitude of other authorities. These mutations are intrinsically linked to recent changes in ways of understanding and exercising political power, which have stressed the values of autonomy, personal responsibility, and choice. This critical history diagnoses and destabilises our contemporary 'condition' of the self, to help us think differently about the kind of persons we are, or might become.

Inventing Our Selves radically approaches the regime of the self and the values that animate it.
Reviews
'The scope and isnights of what Rose has to say about what it is to become, and be, a human alone suffice to ensure the very great importance of this volume.' Paul Heelas, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute



Book Information
ISBN 9780521646079
Author Nikolas Rose
Format Paperback
Page Count 236
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 350g
Dimensions(mm) 227mm * 153mm * 13mm