Why there is no me without you – the new major book by bestselling author Joachim Bauer
Recent neuroscientific research indicates that human beings are born without a self. But how do we develop this “self”, this “me” that can later define itself as distinct from others? How do we manage to think and feel in terms of me, you or we? What makes a human being into an individual?
These are the central questions Joachim Bauer examines in his new major work, in which he demonstrates that our “true self” does not slumber within us like some natural resource waiting to be found and polished. It is rather the product of our encounters and relationships with others – experiences, joys and fears we share. Joachim Bauer makes us realise that this “me”, in contrast to what had long been thought, is not engraved in stone but instead is a process of perpetual self-construction and life-long transition and can grow and change.
In an age of rampant egocentricity and social currents forcing us to assert ourselves by erecting a border between our own self and others, Bauer has drawn a new image of how we become who we are and explains why we can only find this path if we tread it together.