The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution
By: Carl R. Trueman

This is a fairly long book that was a bit more academic than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are going to fail to finish it even though there is a lot of important information to be had in these pages. (Maybe my review can convince you to still give it a chance. or at least read the quotes I posted below) Carl Trueman is a historian and this book is him identifying historical figures and ideologies that have led to and influenced how people today view the 'self' and how that in turn has been expressed by the sexual revolution we see in today's culture.

Regardless of your views on how sexual identity should take form, I still believe this book is worth your time because it helps us identify areas of our thinking that are being influenced historically, culturally, emotionally, psychologically, and politically. And ironically, in a culture where the individual is king, our personal thinking is heavily influenced, rather- manipulated, by the masses. I don't know about you, but I'd like to do my own thinking and Trueman's book will at the very least help you become more aware of the potential 'why' you think the things you do.

I'd say one of the main points of the book is this: "The rise of the sexual revolution was predicated on fundamental changes in how the self is understood. The self must first be psychologized; psychology must then be sexualized; and sex must be politicized." And this is the path his book takes, following figures such as Charles Taylor, Paul Rieff, Marx, Rousseau, Freud, Nietzsche, Charles Darwin etc.

It follows: The uninfluenced self is inherently good and society is what corrupts a person or impedes their ability to be their pure selves (driven by feelings) by imposing their traditions, ethics, or the like. Sexual gratification and fulfillment is central to pleasure and what it means to be human. Religious constructs that limit sexual freedom cause repression of people's true identities. The traditional family unit is oppressive. Oppression is less about economics and legal standing and more about psychological victimhood- hate speech, microaggressions, etc which is more subjective.

The sexual revolution he is referring to is "the radical and ongoing transformation of sexual attitudes and behaviors that has occurred in the West since the early 1960s." For example: the normalizing of homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, pornography, and transgenderism.

Why is this important? Well, first and foremost, as Christians, it matters to us because sexual immorality has no place in a life devoted to the Lord and the things listed above go against what the Bible teaches us about sex, self, and natural law. Secondly, it matters because the politicization of normalizing these behaviors has spurred the heavy policing of language and the labeling of dissenters as irrational, hateful bigots- and if it hasn't affected your life yet, it will soon. It could affect your ability to do business or find a job, or infringe on your rights to free speech (could not using the 'proper' gender pronoun be considered a hate crime?). We've seen this just recently as Target removed from its shelves "Irreversible Damage," a book discussing the trend of transgenderism in young girls, because a few people said they were offended by it. It was not a hateful book, but we're seeing more and more the 'canceling' of anything contrary to the highly politicized narrative pushed in our culture today.

Even though Trueman is a Christian, this book is not a study in theology on the issue and isn't even necessarily a persuasion against homosexuality or transgenderism. Per the title, it's tracing the rise and acceptance of how we view the self which directly affects the role of 'sexual identity' within that construct. The very last chapter of this long book addresses Christians, but most of the book is an objective, academic, and historical discourse. And frankly, he does not give Christians a 'pass' on all things sexual- he is very critical of the no-fault divorce law, pornography, and sexual promiscuity that Christians are not immune from.

So what does it mean to be a 'self'? Trueman states that it involves the purpose or meaning of your life and "what constitutes the good life" as well as how you understand yourself in relation to others around you. Today, where does one derive the meaning and happiness from their life?

To answer this question, Trueman references Charles Taylor and his term expressive individualism, meaning "that each of us finds our meaning by giving expression to our own feelings and desires." There has been a shift to making our feelings the ultimate authority. There has been a divorcing of morality and identity from a moral structure/authority- or historically speaking what Trueman calls a 'sacred order.' This creates the view that institutions, religions, culture, and even parents are inhibiting people's ability to be their "authentic" selves: "That which hinders my outward expression of my inner feelings—that which challenges or attempts to falsify my psychological beliefs about myself and thus to disturb my sense of inner well-being—is by definition harmful and to be rejected. And that means that traditional institutions must be transformed to conform to the psychological self, not vice versa." The term 'therapeutic morality' applies here. Do whatever feels right; live your own truth, what's true for you isn't true for someone else etc. He also talks about the philosophy of Nietzsche that says we are to create ourselves and invent our own meaning.

Sex is another thing that has become centralized to 'self.' He writes: "While sex may be presented today as little more than a recreational activity, sexuality is presented as that which lies at the very heart of what it means to be an authentic person. " This can be traced back to Freud, even though much of his work is largely discredited, this ideology has still woven it's way through the years into our culture.

I found interesting his point that recognition is also an integral point of identity. It is not enough to just know in our minds who we are- we desire to be publicly recognized in the way we see ourselves. He applies this to the LGBTQ+ movement in their seeking for full equality under the law and full recognition to the extent that, for example, they must be able to not just buy a wedding cake from somewhere, but they must be able to buy a wedding cake at every possible baker in order to feel like their identity is fully legitimized. It was also interesting to recognize that the LGBTQ movement as a whole can't reconcile with the ideology of feminism.

Issues of identity are wrapped up in ideas of authenticity, language, recognition, value, and belonging- which are inextricably linked to one's interaction with the community around them. There is much to be unpacked within each of these concepts and Trueman acknowledges that a lot of this discussion goes beyond the scope of his book, but I think he does an excellent job giving a somewhat bird's eye view of this historical context of the modern self.

I hope you read it for yourself. Trueman makes some really interesting connections. If you choose to dive it, I would highly recommend reading the kindle version. There is a lot of jargon and I was very thankful I had it on kindle so I could highlight words and get the definitions of words I didn't know (i.e. Social imaginary, individual expressivism, emotivism, metaphysical, polemic, poiesis, mimesis, etc.) The downside of the kindle version was navigating through all the footnotes. I was reading an advanced reader's copy so I would assume the formatting would be corrected in the published version but for me the footnotes were printed within the text, usually even interrupting mid-sentence. And it was only printed in a slightly smaller font size so it was really tough differentiating where the footnotes stopped. Hopefully the published version makes the footnote numbers hyperlinks to the footnote at the end of the book because there are A LOT of them- it was a highly researched book.

Another note on reading it- I mentioned before that it's pretty dense and sometimes I found myself skipping sections because I wasn't willing to concentrate hard enough to figure out what point he was trying to make. Don't read while you're tired! But to his credit, he does include a 'conclusion' at the end of each chapter that sums up what he just covered and those were easier to follow. And though I highly encourage you read it all, if you just absolutely can't handle it, at the very least, just skip ahead to the last 30% or so. The writing gets a bit more accessible.

I'd like to also share some snippets from the book. There is a lot to mull over here:

"Few, if any of us, are likely to argue that our own moral views are simply based on our emotional preferences. But... seems today to offer a good way of understanding how most people actually live their lives. “It just feels right,”...and... once the basis for such discussion lacks any agreed metaphysical or metanarratival framework, it is doomed to degenerate into nothing more than the assertion of incommensurable opinions and preferences...When it comes to moral arguments, the tendency of the present age is to assert our moral convictions as normative and correct by rejecting those with which we disagree as irrational prejudice rooted in personal, emotional preference. That is precisely what underlies the ever-increasing number of words ending in -phobia... "

"we need to understand that our sense of selfhood, of who we are, is both intuitive and deeply intertwined with the expectations, ethical and otherwise, of the society in which we are placed. The desire to be recognized, to be accepted, to belong is a deep and perennial human need, and no individual sets the terms of that recognition or belonging all by himself. To be a self is to be in a dialogical relationship with other selves and thus with the wider social context."

"The intuitive moral structure of our modern social imaginary prioritizes victimhood, sees selfhood in psychological terms, regards traditional sexual codes as oppressive and life denying, and places a premium on the individual’s right to define his or her own existence."

"This is an important point: culture directs individuals outward. It is greater than, prior to, and formative of the individual. We learn who we are by learning how to conform ourselves to the purposes of the larger community to which we belong."

"That it is the inner voice, freed from any and all external influences—even from chromosomes and the primary sexual characteristics of the physical body—that shapes identity for the transgender person is a position consistent with Rousseau’s idea that personal authenticity is rooted in the notion that nature, free from heteronomous cultural constraints, and selfhood, conceived of as inner psychological conviction, are the real guides to true identity."

"the refusal by any individual to recognize an identity that society at large recognizes as legitimate is [deemed] a moral offense, not simply a matter of indifference. The question of identity in the modern world is a question of dignity."

"...dignity is itself an inference from the Christian teaching that all human beings are made in the image of God. But in our current climate, this universal dignity has come to be psychologized, and the granting of dignity has come to be equated with the affirmation of those psychologized identities that enjoy special status in our culture."

"[Reich's definition of abuse] is a psychological one, specifically one rooted in a highly sexualized psychology. Freud has here been used to transform the classic understanding of oppression, one understood in material terms regarding the well-being of the body, to one that really focuses on the well-being of the mind. And once oppression becomes primarily psychological, it also becomes somewhat arbitrary and subjective...This affects everything, from reasoning in Supreme Court cases to ethics to campus politics and beyond."

"Sexual identity politics might be a good example, whereby sex outside the ideal of monogamous heterosexual marriage has always occurred but has only recently become much easier to transact... The way this occurred is fairly simple to discern: first, there was the promiscuous behavior; then there was the technology to facilitate it, in the form of contraception and antibiotics; and, as technology enabled the sexually promiscuous to avoid the natural consequences of their actions (unwanted pregnancies, disease), so those rationales that justified the behavior became more plausible (and arguments against it became less so), and therefore the behavior itself became more acceptable."

"the sexual revolution ultimately has one great goal, the destruction of the family. It makes sense, of course, for the family is the primary means by which values are transmitted from generation to generation. "

"Setting aside the question of its origins and “sourcing,” we should also note that pornography has deeper social significance. From this perspective, the question whether depicted in pornographic pictures and films have consented to such things is irrelevant to the message that is being communicated. Fantasy worlds left unchecked have a habit of impinging on reality and remaking it in their own image. And that applies as much, if not more, in the realm of sexuality as it does in any other area. "

"Raymond’s feminist concern here is that transgenderism essentially depoliticizes the matter of being a woman.41 Being a woman is now something that can be produced by a technique—literally prescribed by a doctor. The pain, the struggle, and the history of oppression that shape what it means to be a woman in society are thus trivialized and rendered irrelevant. More to the point, this depoliticization is clear from the fact that transgenderism still operates within the gender stereotypes generated by patriarchal society."

"What might seem to be a unified community (LGBTQ) to those on the outside is actually a phenomenon that is the product more of its various constituent elements sharing common ideological and political enemies than of any strong internal coherence. It is also clear that its drive to inclusion ironically involves significant elements of exclusion—for example, those who affirm the normative nature of heterosexuality and those feminists who consider the female body to be decisive for their identity."

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