Dr. Vandana Pathak invites you to explore the very essence of who we are in the modern world. "Is the Self Dissolved?", is her doctoral thesis and tackles a thought-provoking question: whether our sense of self has fundamentally changed? When we r...

Dr. Vandana Pathak invites you to explore the very essence of who we are in the modern world. "Is the Self Dissolved?", is her doctoral thesis and tackles a thought-provoking question: whether our sense of self has fundamentally changed? When we read books of Victorian times, we saw a linearity in characters, there was sense and a clear trajectory, like Pip's love for Estella. But in the Modern age, there is a lack of this centrality of the Self. Let apart loving others, finding meaning in social institutions, we rarely know and love ourselves. Hence, Meursault, Josef K and Roquentin are not just characters in iconic philosophical novels, but rather pieces of the modern, scattered humans who do not feel as whole, as root, or as centered as previous generations.The modern Self seems in constant flux, matching the external problem with an internal dissolution. In this light, this book uses history, philosophy, psychology, and sociology to understand this dissolution of self. This is made particularly poignant in light of recent global turmoil, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine. Through this book, Dr. Vandana also urges readers to navigate these uncertain times with introspection of the Self and universal empathy.