Self and modernity on trial: A reply to cergen's saturated self

Abstract

In The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, Kenneth Gergen (1991) suggests that the rising uncertainty ushered in by the postmodern age has resulted in the collapse of traditional conceptions of self, truth, and social life. Although we agree that meaning is a product of social construction, we believe that Gergen has overextended his case. We argue that there is a need to maintain a notion of personal agency in constructionist models of human functioning and that an epigenetic-systems model of development (Gottlieb, 1991a, 1991b) provides a useful framework for doing so. We also suggest that even though social frameworks structure people's observations, data from their worlds nevertheless constrain theory making and foster scientific progress. Finally, we question whether postmodernism has provided a convincing strategy for dealing with the conflicts that arise from competing value systems.