Concepts of the Self (3^rd Ed.) Key Concepts Series

More than ten years on from its original publication, Concepts of the Self still mesmerizes with its insight, comprehensiveness and critique of debates over the self in the social sciences and humanities. Anthony Elliott has written a new preface to this third edition to address some of the most recent developments in the field, and offers a powerful challenge to what he describes as the emergence of anti–theories of the self .

The first two editions have proven exceptionally popular among students and teachers worldwide. Anthony Elliott provides a scintillating introduction to the major accounts of the self from symbolic interactionism and psychoanalysis to post–feminism and postmodernism. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated to take account of more recent theoretical developments, and a new chapter has been added on individualization which focuses on how the self becomes an agent of do–it–yourself autobiographical reconstruction in an age of intensive globalization.

Concepts of the Self remains the most lively, lucid and compelling introduction to contemporary controversies over the self and self–identity in the social sciences and humanities. Written by an author of international reputation, it connects debates about the self directly to identity politics, the sociology of personal relationships and intimacy, and the politics of sexuality, and will continue to be an invaluable introductory text for students in of social and political theory, sociology, social psychology, cultural studies, and gender studies.

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

The Arts of Self 7

Concepts of the Self 12

The Structure of the Book 24

1 Self, Society and Everyday Life 28

Self, Symbols and Others: Symbolic Interactionism 30

Presentations of Self: Goffman 37

Reflexivity and the Self: Giddens 44

2 The Repression of Self 53

Psychoanalysis and the Self 56

Culture and Repression 72

3 Technologies of the Self 85

Technologies of the Self: Foucault 88

Governmentality: New Technologies, New Selves 103

4 Self, Sexuality and Gender 112

Feminism and Psychoanalysis: Two Recent Views 112

The Politics of Gender Performance: Butler 124

Queer Theory: Contesting Self, Defying Gender 130

5 The Postmodern Self 138

All that is Modern Melts into Postmodern? 143

Strategies of the Self: Modern and Postmodern 153

6 The Individualized Self: From Reinvention to Mobile Lives 161

Individualization of the Self 163

Self–Reinvention: The New Individualism 170

The Mobile Self 176

Conclusion 182

Inner Depth, or Inside Out 182

Identity Politics, or Critique of Self 186

Afterword: Global Identities, the Rise of Anti–Self Theories and New Horizons 189

Index 195

Anthony Elliott is research professor of sociology and Director of the Hawke Research Institute at the University of South Australia, and a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He was a distinguished visiting professor at Wesleyan University from 2003 to 2007. His many books include On Society, Contemporary Social Theory and (with John Urry) Mobile Lives.