The Project examines the
current crisis of
selfhood as a problem of
too little inwardness in
a culture that places a
premium on outward
appearance at all costs.
The Project explores
different concepts of
selfhood at work today.
It will shed light on
several areas that are
related to the central
themes of the RIHA
Program: 1) It examines
just what we mean by
inwardness, a concept
that helps organize the
study, focusing it on
this precious but almost
indescribable quality of
experience that makes us
sound, complete, and
most capable of
meaningful connections
with others. 2) It
sketches the long-term
and more recent history
of American self-help
movements, expert
advice, and therapies,
in order to explore how
a culture so steeped in
therapy and self-concern
could lead to the
current crisis in
subjectivity. 3) It
points out what concepts
are now most available
for self-formation and
self-definition, and
introduces others that
are lacking from current
conversations, both
scholarly and popular.
The chief outcome of the
Project will be a
book-length manuscript
suitable for publication
by a major trade or
university press.
Elisabeth
Lasch-Quinn is
professor of history and
senior research
associate in the
Campbell Public Affairs
Institute in the Maxwell
School of Citizenship
and Public Affairs at
Syracuse University. She
has written extensively
on modern selfhood and
civil rights themes,
including Black
Neighbors: Race and
the Limits of Reform
in the American
Settlement House
Movement
(University of North
Carolina Press, 1993)
and Race Experts:
How Racial Etiquette,
Sensitivity Training,
and New Age Therapy
Hijacked the Civil
Rights Revolution
(Norton, 2001).
associate in the
Campbell Public Affairs
Institute in the Maxwell
School of Citizenship
and Public Affairs at
Syracuse University. She
has written extensively
on modern selfhood and
civil rights themes,
including 
