Throughout history the West has promoted the unified self. Whether it is the Christian emphasis on inner purity or the rationalist focus on eliminating contradictions in thought and reason, we have long believed that the unified self is a worthy objective. In this article, Kenneth Gergen argues that the desire for self-unity is ultimately mistaken. To adapt to the ever-changing modern world and to work with others to achieve the public good, we must shift our starting point from the fixed unified self to fluid and complex social processes. Western culture has had long romance with the idea of a mind within the body, a regnant force somewhere behind the eyes. One could trace such dedication to Aristotle, and his complex vision of an animating soul. Christianity picked up the thread but anointed it with a spiritual oil. For Descartes and Kant the soul reappears in secularised form as thought process, while Freud later spied unconscious forces twisting and distur…

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