Second Self, The: Computers and the Human Spirit

'''Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit.''' New York: Simon, 1984. New York: Touchstone-Simon, 1985.

Rev. Susan Chace, The Nation 22 Sept. 1984: 248-50. Chace acknowledges ST an "anthropologist of 'computer cultures,'" looking at "a dramatic shift" in human self-perception: from seeing nonhuman animals as "'our nearest neighbors in the known universe'" to computers vying for this position. Moving through subcultures of heavy users, ST illustrates "a growing tendency to regard the mind as 'mechanized'" (Chace 248). Rev. Michael Rogers, Newsweek 6 Aug. 1984, who finds the book pretty positive even with the "'mind as machine'" model, since ST found many people using "computers to establish identity and gain self-awareness, or to achieve a feeling of mastery over their lives" (Rogers 69). For historical context on the "mind as machine" issue, see in this Category the entries for R. Decartes, Materialism, Mechanism, and B. Spinoza, and the works cross-referenced there.