Review: “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self”

Professor Carl Trueman warns of the pernicious challenges posed by postmodern thought.

Christians need to get a grip on the challenges of postmodernism, worries Dr. Carl Trueman. In “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution,” Trueman pens a brilliant history of the evolution of personal identity since the Reformation.

He argues that, in the past, the main components of “self” were dictated by church, family and various associated tribes. But, he notes, over the past 500 years, other influences such as literary, artistic and cultural phenomena have nudged many old notions aside.

In making his case, Trueman draws from a breadth of experience as a scholar of history and religion. A former William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University, Trueman is a professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College and has written a dozen books.

Trueman speaks of a three-step process. First, the self was psychologized through the examination of individual consciousness. Next, there followed a process of internal self-sexualization, where sex became a significant aspect of the individual human makeup. Finally, in the last century, using Marxian teachings, Frankfurt School members Herbert Marcuse and William Reich initiated an effort to politicize the growing influence of psychology and sexuality in the human self-assessment.

The book is about the resulting cultural divide and how it might be resolved. The clearly visible signs of the new culture, made particularly manifest through social media, are, first, the refusal of the radical political left to discuss any contrarian arguments to its views and, second, LGBTQ+ activist pressure to normalize transgenderism by allowing men identifying as women to compete in formerly women’s only sports.  College campus life has been put at great risk from these and associated developments.

In the introduction, he refers to a famous quotation about the human connection between mind and body that helped launch the transgender revolution: “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.”

While the sexual revolution of the 1960s created a significant proving ground for the culture transformation the book addresses, Trueman’s intent is to focus on the evolving nature of selfhood over time.  He states: “In short, the sexual revolution is but one manifestation of the larger revolution of the self that has taken place in the West.”

Trueman defines selfhood as “an understanding of what the purpose of my life is, of what constitutes the good life, of how I understand myself — my self — in relation to others and to the world around me.”

He declares that individuals who experience this transformation tend to prioritize “feelings” and “intuitions” to determine their self and identify their life purpose.

Trueman goes on to explain that neither the sexual revolution nor technology, such as the pill or the internet, caused this development. A major portion of his book explains a variety of causal factors, such as the evolution of philosophy and poetry beginning with the Romantic Period, aesthetics, pop culture, surrealism, the rise of psychological intervention, consumerism and revolutionary political thinking.

He believes these trends began with the Reformation, when the Catholic Church was challenged by the creation of alternative protestant religions providing more spiritual choices for the masses.

A book nearly 400 pages in length, it is scholarly and academic. For a layman, such as myself, it can be challenging at times. It is organized into four major parts dealing with the Architecture, Foundations, Sexualization and Triumph of the Revolution; this revolution being the creation of the well psychologized, expressive self, fueled by the Triumphs of the Erotic, Therapeutic and the “T” (Transgenderism).

As someone schooled in university and lifelong learning in the liberal arts, I found fascinating chapters on Rousseau and the Romantic Period: Wordsworth, Shelley and Blake, who Trueman labels “Unacknowledged Legislators”; Nietzsche, Marx and Darwin identified in the Emergence of the Plastic People; and a chapter on the New Left (Reich and Marcuse) and the Politicization of Sex. Professor Trueman’s book, published in 2020, is a compelling read.

Under a chapter heading entitled “Marcuse and the Wider Implications of the Sexual Revolution,” Professor Trueman writes: “To follow Rousseau is to make identity psychological. To follow Freud is to make psychology, and thus identity, sexual. To mesh this combination with Marx is to make identity — and therefore sex — political. Given this context, in 1965 Herbert Marcuse crafted an essay entitled “Repressive Tolerance.”

Professor Trueman’s goal has been to write a thorough and accurate history of the development of an emerging anticulture, and I believe he has done so successfully. I recommend it as a highly educational read. Matthew Lee Anderson also breaks down the book with Trueman on the “Mere Fidelity” podcast.

I close with summaries on two existing cultural issues that should serve as lenses through which to follow and measure progress on today’s heated cultural struggle. One is Free Speech and the other is the rights of the states to have a voice in public medical policy for youth.

Regarding free speech, in the above referenced essay on “Repressive Tolerance,” Marcuse makes the point of using “undemocratic means” against any one with opposing views.  He states: “They would include the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc.”

The practical result of this is a strident radical left who, often by shouting down speakers or ignoring faculty chilling classroom speech, deny the expression of alternate views. This leads to extensive self-censorship by students on today’s college campuses or can result in faculty employment disagreements.

In responding to the whole of Marcuse’s long paragraph promoting censorship, Trueman writes in accusatory opposition: “The struggle to cultivate the right form of political consciousness, or psychology, means that things such as education and speech, need to be carefully regulated in order to ensure the correct outcome.”

Regarding transgender medical care matters, the State of Tennessee is one of 26 states having passed legislation on this issue. In early December 2024, it argued its case before the Supreme Court making the point that it has the power to regulate the practice of medicine for all youth.

As an active Christian, Trueman is hopeful the religious community will come together to resist this well emerged anti-culture after the attention it has received. The recent national election arguably indicates that many have yet to adopt the role of the expressive self or accept claims that the new definitions of gender and sex, such as represented by the LGBTQ+ community, will be the cultural champions. Nor did the majority of voters call for its prescribed policies and practices to restrict speech. The bottom line is that the citizen jury is still out on the cultural assault underway against the West and much of the rest of the globe.