Ego and Soul: the Modern West in Search of Meaning

Much of what people do today disguises a desperate search for meaning, the result of the crisis of belief that has become the West's major problem.

This substantially revised edition of Ego and Soul tackles this underlying reality head-on. It examines main areas of modern life - including work, sport, intimacy, shopping, tourism, computers, and a retreat into nature - to discover what is driving people, and what sense they are making of their lives.

On the one hand, the elites and their high culture suffer a loss of confidence, and aimless consumerism is widespread; on the other, powerful new myths arise, as with sporting heroes.

Ego and Soul also looks at high culture, the upper-middle-class elites and the universities, tracing why they have lost their way, failing to provide a language that might help a new understanding. It counters this weakness by trying to speak on behalf of the time, to make sense of its endeavours.