Identity Trap
* Book: The Identity Trap. By Yascha Mounk. Penguin / Random House, 2023
URL = https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712961/the-identity-trap-by-yascha-mounk/
Review
Jonathan Haidt:
"Yascha’s book is brilliant and important because he shows us where these ideas about power and identity came from, how they respond to real concerns and injustices, and how they attract people to embrace them. But he also shows why that attraction is the lure in a trap. People who embrace what Yascha calls the “identity synthesis” are harmed and disempowered. His analysis fits perfectly with my essay on this Substack: Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest. Institutions that embrace the identity synthesis—or that merely enact the policies it demands—end up mired in incoherence and internal conflict (as I predicted in my 2016 Duke University lecture on why a university can have only one telos). And most importantly, in this book excerpt, Yascha shows you how you can respond to people who embrace the identity synthesis once you understand why they say the things they say."