The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution

Have you recently found yourself looking around at the current attitudes toward sexuality and thought, “How did we get here?” Though the sexual revolution and the surrounding debate seems to have ratcheted up in the last few years, it’s grounded in a centuries-old movement that encompasses art, politics, and religion. 

In ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,’ Carl Trueman provides a historic overview of how we got to where we are now in relation to the sexual revolution. The book is guided by a simple sentence: “I am a man trapped in a woman’s body.” Trueman’s goal in writing ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’ is to analyze the statement and seek to figure out why the sexual revolution seems to have triumphed in the West. Trueman has this conviction: “the so-called sexual revolution of the last sixty years, culminating in its latest triumph—the normalization of transgenderism—cannot be properly understood until it is set within the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood” (20). 

In the book, Trueman grounds the sexual revolution and its debate in the meaning of the self, and in so doing, draws on the work of three great, modern philosophers: Philip Rieff, Charles Taylor, and Alasdair MacIntyre. Part 1 seeks to understand their arguments in the making of the modern self. 

Part 2 of the book surveys the 18th and 19th centuries, from Rousseau to Darwin. At the culmination of these two centuries, under the thought of thinkers like Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche, the general understanding of selfhood became ruggedly individual. The poetry and artwork of the time reflected this growing thought-life, and Trueman is helpful to point out some of the significant works that contributed to the public attitude on these new ideas.

Part 3 focuses chiefly on the thought of Sigmund Freud, who sexualized the already psychologized self. During this phase, the sexualization of the self became inherently politicized, as leaders like Reich and Marcuse led to sexualized politics. The table was therefore set for the sexual revolution. 

The final part, Part 4, traces the contemporary debate, considering recent protests, the thought of Peter Singer, and the rise of the transgender debate. Trueman analyzes different Supreme Court decisions and offers concluding thoughts on potential futures based upon this telling of history.

This book is not for the faint of heart. With ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,’ Carl Trueman has provided an academic tour de force. The book is dense. It’s not light reading. But it’s necessary and gives Christians a ground on which to stand when combating the sexual revolution and modern selfism. I would commend this book to seminarians, pastors, and interested laypeople. 

Buy the book here.