ABSTRACT
In the history of human civilization, the notion of the self is a relatively recent construction. Before the Industrial Revolution people were defined by their connections and affiliations (and still are today in less-developed cultures), with their loyalties almost exclusively to their families-of-origin. Individuation from the family-of-origin is also quite recent. The notion of marrying someone because of romantic feelings versus family arrangements or reasons of financial survival has been a common artifact of only the last century or so. All of this has occurred in the context of increasingly democratic political cultures in which individual and personal freedoms are more valued. Loyalty is now given not to predetermined monarchy but rather to a chosen and changeable leader. Just as changes in global physical climates create new biological adaptations and new species, this revolutionary change in the sociopolitical climate has led to the emergence of a psychological evolutionary adaptation—the individuated person.
