The AIDS Crisis and the modern self : biographical self-construction in the awareness of finitude
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The AIDS crisis (2000)
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Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
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RINKEN, Sebastian, The AIDS Crisis and the modern self : biographical self-construction in the awareness of finitude, Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/22477
Abstract
In industrialized countries, HIV/AIDS is now increasingly perceived as a chronic condition. Yet initially, before combination therapy became available, this pandemic was widely associated with premature or even imminent death. Receiving the diagnosis typically led to a dramatic biographical disruption. This highly original book turns this basic feature of life with [UV into the vantage point for a fascinating analysis of Western subjectivity. Combining a host of empirical observations with the debate on the modern self, the author argues that the self-construction of people with HIV highlights the precarious yet indispensable status of the self in contemporary Western society. Constructing one's biography in terms of self-actualization is in fact a manifestation of nihilism: it evokes a standard of certainty which, on closer examination, cannot be sustained. Written in a lucid style, this unique book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of sociology, social psychology social anthropology social theory and philosophy, as well, as anybody interested in the relationship between the self and society or the experience of living with HIV/A1RS.
Table of Contents
--Preface ix
--1. HIV and the self 1
--2. The problem of finitude 19
--3. Observing selves .35
--4. The "diagnosis of the self' 56
--5. From invalidation to reinforcement 93
--6. Seeking shelter amongst peers 113
--7. Contrasting patterns .136
--8. Mortal, all too mortal 161
--9. Thinking of finitude 180
--10. HIV, mortality and the self 204
--Appendix 217
--Bibliography 219
--Index 233
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Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 1997