ABSTRACT
The fascination with self 1 pervades modern society, from the popular media to the research journals (Baumeister, 1987). Seeking, learning about, asserting, cultivating, repairing, fulfilling, and otherwise tending the self seems a national preoccupation. The colloquial metaphors for this inner search, such as identity crises and finding oneself, are so familiar that they have become almost clichés.
