“We are told to be a self. To have a self. We attach histories and stories and descriptions to this. I have pain. I have losses, or gains. We may fully believe in this idea without knowing anything like what actually underlies it.

What seems more true to me is that we assemble highly structured (i.e. having many distinct member-functions) selves in response to cues we distill from stimuli and our apprehensions of context and environment. That is to say, we assemble selves in the likenesses of relational contexts, and we are fluidly expert at this. This is tragic in the case of cultures that present models which are hyperbolized and uninhabitable, which is, in fact, a common fashion.

How strange and interesting that our cultures would deny or co-opt these abilities instead of nurture them. Could it be because one must have a coherent self in order to suffer indictment, prosecution or… possession? I think this has a lot to do with the whole mythical nightmare of ‘the individual’ who is, as much an expression of even momentary collectives as they are uniquely distinct.”

— an anonymous informant