ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on conceptualization of self-negation and the challenge of constructing self-negation as an object of inquiry, a challenge term the problem of designation. It presents ground for the task of specifying and exploring the mechanisms whereby self-negation is accomplished, a challenge term the problem of explanation. Considerable difficulties emerge when one tries to delineate self-negation as an object of investigation. The most obvious has to do with the stringency of the criterion. Carrying out a suicide bombing or falling on a grenade may, strictly speaking, be classified as individual acts resulting in self-negation and even self-enlarging or self-affirming, in the sense of linking one to a broader, transcendent purpose or mission. The explanation of self-negation would need to focus comparative attention on the different social circumstances conducive to self-negation: for example, to race, class, and gender variations in the childhood experiences that generate patterns of self-limitation later in life.
