The glorification of the “real” in Western societies is reaching new heights. Or perhaps new lows, I should say. Craving the “real” to satiate ourselves, we eagerly embark on the quest to find our “real” and “authentic” self, without giving much thought to the cost. After all, even in the midst of the haunting fear of failing in any of our social roles, one of our greatest fears is—as Richard Rorty has accurately pointed out—the horror of finding oneself “to be only a copy or a replica.”[1]

But what kind of a promise does the idea of authenticity hold that makes it so desirable? Well, the strongly simplified answer is that it holds a promise to provide an “inner bastion”—a sanctuary offering a strong sense of self and purpose in a rapidly changing environment. But several critics have argued this is an illusion and self-defeating. The philosopher Theodor W. Adorno warned that the “liturgy of inwardness” is an empty substitute for lost ethical values, and it relies on a crude picture of the self-possessing individual.[2] The historian Christopher Lasch warned that the quest for authenticity regresses into narcissist behavior that may actually undercut a stable sense of self.[3]

Still, one might think that the “inner bastion” can at least offer some protection from the influence of expanding market forces that promote conformism and compliance. This could occur in the realm of work, which has stereotypically been depicted as a social sphere where individuals relinquish their personal values and commitments that define who they are. On this point, critics like sociologist Daniel Bell were less concerned that authenticity is an illusion, but more that it adds to the erosion of the foundations of market mechanisms that are “based on a moral system of reward rooted in the Protestant sanctification of work.”[4]