The Transformative Self explains how people create a self-identity in their life stories to cultivate personal growth and the good life. Combining scientific research in psychology with work in philosophy, literature, history, and more, this book shows how personal and cultural narratives shape the development of happiness, love, and wisdom.



The Transformative Self explores three of life's perennial questions: How do we make sense of our lives? What is a good life? How do we create one? In this comprehensive volume, developmental psychologist Jack J. Bauer responds to those three questions by integrating three main areas of study-narrative identity, the good life, and personal growth-to present an innovative model of humane flourishing and human development. The Transformative Self synthesizes an extensive range of scholarship, from scientific research in psychology to work in philosophy, literature, history, cultural studies, and more. The result is a cohesive framework for understanding how personal and cultural stories shape our development and how, through those stories, we might cultivate the growth of happiness, love, and wisdom for the self and others.