The Quest for Identity

The changing character of man in mid-twentieth century America, the loss of his old identity, and his search for a new one or examined in this influential work. Concerned about the relevance of psychoanalysis to the malaise of our age, Dr. Wheelis looks at the implications and consequences of accelerating social change and shows how the decline of the superego, the diminished unconscious, and the undermining of traditional values have caused new patterns of personal unrest. He believes that man's old identity was not lost, but outgrown, and that, therefore, identity is not to be found; it is to be created and achieved in order to to endure in our time. --- from book's back cover