Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self, is a history of the idea of the self, told mainly with reference to diaries, memoirs, and other forms of first-person literature. It was released by Bloomsbury in February 2013, and is available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers.
In January 2014, Writing the Self was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013, by Choice.
In her review of the book in the December 2013 issue of Choice, Professor Heidi Storl wrote: “This concise yet comprehensive work by Heehs (independent scholar) fills a large niche in the literature on the nature and history of self. It offers an account of the self over the last two millennia, thereby capturing fully the idea that the self ‘has changed from a ghostly spirit to a substantial soul to an autonomous individual to a center of expression to a fiction constructed by social or biological forces.’ ”
Storl concluded her review: “In moving beyond standard Anglo-American and Continental approaches, Heehs ensures a rich future for selfhood scholarship.”
Books by Peter Heehs 