This work is an exploration of ideas of the self, in the western cultural tradition, from the Renaissance to the present. The contributors analyze differing religious, philosophical, psychological, political, psychoanalytical and literary models of personal identity. They examine these models from a number of viewpoints, including the history of ideas, contemporary gender politics, and post-modernist literary theory. This study offers a challenge to the received version of the ascent of western man . The book is based on a seminar series held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The contributors include prominent academics from a range of disciplines.