ABSTRACT
In interactionist social psychology, the individual is never considered to be an entity except insofar as it is an animal organism. Psychologically, the individual is emergent out of a social process and constantly develops or changes. This emergent and ever changing individual — called a “self” in interactionist terminology — has been well studied in its earliest or childhood stages. It has been rather ignored in its adult transformations, except in the study of deviant personalities. Although not the first to analyze the “normal” adult’s transformations of self, Anselm Strauss here presents a highly significant statement of this phenomenon.
