June Rathbone, PhD

Research Fellow, Department of Psychology

University College London

Gower Street

London WC1E 6BT

Tel: 44 207 435 4801

Fax: 44 207 436 4276

Email: j.rathbone@ucl.ac.uk

1978-99 Academic staff, Department of Genetics and Biometry (now Department of Biology) Galton Laboratory, University College London – Assistant Editor of the Annals of Human Genetics.

1999 PhD in Department of Psychology, UCL.

1999- Research Fellow in Department of Psychology, UCL.

Publications: Short stories, poems, book review

Articles in Psychology (1961,1962), The Times Literary Supplement (1963), Ballet Today (1970), The London Magazine (1981), The Music Review (1986/7)

American Imago (1991).

Book: Anatomy of Masochism (2001) Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

This site is devoted to the study of personal identity, the nature of the Self. What do you think constitutes your Self?

Epicurus identified three prerequisites of happiness: continuous contact with friends, freedom from the external pressures of life, the habit of analysing life's problems.

In his bestselling book The Consolations of Philosophy (2000) Alain de Botton explains the insights of Epicurus: "We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness...True friends do not evaluate us according to worldly criteria, it is the core self they are interested in; like ideal parents, their love for us remains unaffected by our appearance or position in the social hierarchy, and so we have no qualms in dressing in old clothes and revealing that we have made little money this year."

You will find a life narrative here. It is the narrative of an analysed life.

"Slowly the thinker went on his way and asked himself: What is it that you wanted to learn from teachings and teachers, and although they taught you much, what was it they could not teach you? And he thought: It was the Self, the character and nature of which I wished to learn. I wanted to rid myself of the Self, to conquer it, but I could not conquer it, I could only deceive it, could only fly from it, could only hide from it. Truly, nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separate and different from everybody else, that I am Siddhartha; and about nothing in the world do I know less than about myself, about Siddhartha." Herman Hesse (Siddhartha, 1922)

Look well to this day
For it is life,
The very best of life.
In its brief course lie all
The realities and truths of existence,
The joy of growth,
The splendour of action,
The glory of power.
For yesterday is but a memory
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today, if well-lived, makes
Every yesterday a memory of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day.

Sanskrit poem

If you would like to let me know your thoughts upon personal identity, please contact me.