On Being Authentic

To thine own self be true. From Poloniuss words in Hamlet right up to Oprahwe are constantly urged to look within. Why is being authentic the ultimate aimin lif... » 

To thine own self be true. From Poloniuss words in Hamlet right up to Oprahwe are constantly urged to look within. Why is being authentic the ultimate aimin life for so many people and why does it mean looking inside rather thanout? Is it about finding the real me or something greater than me even God?And should we welcome what we find? Thoughtprovoking and with an astonishingrange of references On Being Authentic is a gripping journey into the selfthat begins with Socrates and Augustine. Charles Guignon asks why beingauthentic ceased to mean being part of some bigger cosmic picture and withRousseau Wordsworth and the Romantic movement took the strong inward turnalive in todays selfhelp culture. He also plumbs the darker depths ofauthenticity with the help of Freud Joseph Conrad and Alice Miller andreflects on the future of being authentic in a postmodern global age. Heargues ultimately that if we are to rescue the ideal of being authentic wehave to see ourselves as fundamentally social creatures embedded inrelationships and communities and that being authentic is not about what isowed to me but how I depend on others. «