The formed self is a continual strain that dreads losing itself to other life.

Evidence

Men had to do fearful things to themselves before the self, the identical, purposive, and virile nature of man, was formed, and something of that recurs in every childhood. The strain of holding the I together adheres to the I in all stages; and the temptation to lose it has always been there with the blind determination to maintain it … The dread of losing the self and of abrogating together with the self the barrier between oneself and other life, the fear of death and destruction, is intimately associated with a promise of happiness which threatened civilization in every moment. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1405

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This compactly states the Frankfurt School’s theory of selfhood: the ego is a delicate construction, and its dissolution into other life is both the great dread and a promise of happiness.
• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s own writings and to psychoanalytic theory (Freud’s ego formation) that the Frankfurt School absorbed. — connects to: The unified self is a fragile construction sustained against the lure of dissolution. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 48; Habit’s simplification costs spirit a sacrificial alienation of itself.; Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 454 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The unified self is a fragile construction sustained against the lure of dissolution. #corroborates (0.92) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 48
• Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 454
• Habit’s simplification costs spirit a sacrificial alienation of itself. #expands (0.78)