Chapter 8 Suggested Readings

Berne, Eric. Games People Play. New York: Grove Press, 1964. A highly readable book about the influence of life scripts and game-playing on interpersonal relationships. By identifying these games in your own relationships, you can determine whether the self-concepts these games reinforce are really worthwhile.

Collier, James Lincoln. The Rise of Selfishness in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. An excellent historical review of how the obsession with the self-concept and related notions of literary and artistic expression, leisure pursuits, and various forms of vice sprang full-force in American life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Collier’s sketch of the emerging entertainment industry and its influence on self and selfishness is intriguing.

Cushman, Donald, and Dudley Cahn, Jr. Communication in Interpersonal Relationships. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985. This book focuses on interpersonal communication as the major force in developing, presenting, and validating individual’s self-concepts. No other book we’ve seen emphasizes the role of self-concept as much as this one.

Gergen, Kenneth. The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Kenneth Gergen, one of our most prolific researchers on the self-concept, chronicles the historical evolution of the self from the romantic self of the 19th century to the modern self of the early 20th century, and now the emerging saturated self of the postmodern era. This is a book that will challenge one’s taken-for-granted views of the self.

Grodin, Debra, and Thomas Lindlof, eds. Constructing the Self in a Mediated World. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1996. This book is a collection of essays by 14 highly respected authors on subjects ranging from women’s identities in self-help literature to identities in virtual reality to advice on conducting relationship therapy in a postmodern world.

Hofstadter, Douglas R. I am a Strange Loop (New York: Basic Books, 2007). Blending neuroscience and personal memoir, Hofstadter explores how the nature of consciousness and self-awareness.

Hofstadter, Douglas R. I am a Strange Loop. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Blending neuroscience and personal memoir, Hofstadter explores how the nature of consciousness and self-awareness.

Melucci, Alberto. The Playing Self: Person and Meaning in the Planetary Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Melucci explores in depth the concepts of relational and multiple selves, including a very interesting chapter on the role of our physical bodies as interpersonal and intrapersonal messengers.