The Reflexive Self: a Critical Assessment of Giddens's Theory of Self- Identity

The Reflexive Self is a critical discussion of contemporary self-identity as a reflexive project, which Anthony Giddens claims has emerged as a result of recent and radical social upheavals in late modernity. It initially traces the development of an account of social change and self-identity in Giddens¿s writing. The author then offers a critical analysis of Giddens¿s key claims. Drawing on a wide range of critical social and psychological theory, the idea of a reflexively formed self- identity is problematised by various issues: the culturally situated nature of modern identity; aspects of self-experience which may compromise a reflexive understanding of the self; and the importance of social relations of power in a theorisation of self-identity. These discussions are clarified by reference to various illustrative psychosocial topics such as social class, intimacy, fate, trust. and power. The author claims that Giddens¿s notion of reflexivity needs to be extensively revised in order to more accurately represent contemporary forms of self-identity.