{"id":2696,"date":"2023-04-01T17:38:26","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T00:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.armenshirvanian.com\/podcast\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2023-04-01T17:38:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T00:38:29","slug":"388-brian-lowery-how-our-self-is-a-social-creation-in-selfless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armenshirvanian.com\/podcast\/388-brian-lowery-how-our-self-is-a-social-creation-in-selfless\/","title":{"rendered":"388: Brian Lowery | How Our Self Is A Social Creation In “Selfless”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brian S. Lowery is an American social psychologist. Lowery obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana\u2013Champaign in 1996, and subsequently began graduate study at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a master’s degree in 1998 and a doctorate in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery presents a provocative, powerful theory of identity, arguing that there is no essential “self”\u2014our selves are social creations of those with whom we interact \u2014exploring what that means for who we can be and who we allow others to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing we spend more time with, but understand less, than ourselves. You\u2019ve been with yourself every waking moment of your life. But who\u2014or, rather, what\u2014are you? In Selfless<\/em>, Brian Lowery argues for the radical idea that the \u201cself\u201d as we know it\u2014that \u201cvoice in your head\u201d\u2014is a social construct, created in our relationships and social interactions. We are unique because our individual pattern of relationships is unique. We change because our relationships change. Your self isn\u2019t just you, it\u2019s all around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowery uses this research-driven perspective of selfhood to explore questions of inequity, race, gender, politics, and power structures, transforming our perceptions of how the world is and how it could be. His theory offers insight into how powerful people manage their environment in sophisticated, often unconscious, ways to maintain the status quo; explains our competing drives for deep social connection and personal freedom; and answers profound, personal questions such as: Why has my sense of self evolved over time? Why do I sometimes stop short of changes that I want to make in life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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