David
McAdam

Thesis Title:  The Class Inhibitors of Human Flourishing: Examining the Social, Cultural, Ontological Psychological Facets for Reclaiming an Authentic Self

I am a PhD student in the School of Social Sciences. My thesis is entitled The Class Inhibitors of Human Flourishing: Examining the Social, Cultural, Ontological Psychological Facets for Reclaiming an Authentic Self.

The aim of my thesis is to address the following two research questions:

1. How, and in what forms, do the cultural influences and shifts in class relations create ontological tensions and psychological instabilities in the self?
2. How, and in what forms, do class aspirants, striving for a more fulfilled life, actually inhibit an authenticity-of-self and undermine the process of their flourishing?

To answer these questions my thesis will cover the following themes:

• Establish the nature and operational parameters of authentic selfhood
• Define and justify the ontological and socio-cultural need for human flourishing
• Establish the nature, tensions, contradictions and impacts of a class based society on human flourishing and authentic selfhood
• Develop and justify a theoretical framework which has class, authenticity and self as its main components.

Director of studies

Prof. Dalvir Samra-Fredericks