On Reinvention

March 30, 2015 12:29 PM

I've been asked to talk with some folks about reinvention. It’s not geared toward any specific context (e.g. career, relationship, location, etc.) but more generally about the idea of reinvention - a conceptual approach to the topic. I'm not finding any great writing/thinking on the concept of reinvention. Help?

There might be some talk about generalized strategies, but it will be mostly a conceptual discussion. I haven’t done any formal work in this area. The organizers have approached me because of what they perceive as my multiple successful reinventions. I can talk about my approach from my own experience (which is what they expect, and from which I’ll base the discussion), but I’d like to have a broader foundation to better inform the discussion.

Unfortunately, nearly everything I've found on the topic is either self-help (how to reinvent yourself in 30 days) or biography (here’s one person’s journey of reinvention).

Can you point me to any sources of deeper thinking on the topic? Otherwise, do you have thoughts on the topic that might be worth pursuing? (I hope this doesn't veer into chat-filter. I’m just looking for suggestions on discussion topics and/or lines of thinking to pursue on my own as I prepare.)

posted by ericc to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Joan Didion's early essays, particularly The White Album, talk at length about the concept of reinvention as it pertains to the mythos of the American West. She always sticks in my mind as a thoughtful writer on this subject. (If you haven't already, you may as well pick up this compendium of her nonfiction work.)
posted by mykescipark at 12:52 PM on March 30, 2015

Dan McAdams' work on personal narratives in identity might be useful - he studies one strategy for how people invent themselves that involves re-inventing the self, after a fashion: The Redemptive Self.
posted by katya.lysander at 1:37 PM on March 30, 2015

I would be interested to follow your work. You could check out Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl and the book by his disciple Alex Pattakos, Prisoner of Our Thoughts. I think Pattakos would be willing to share notes with you.
posted by parmanparman at 3:41 PM on March 30, 2015

U-Turn is a nonfiction book about how people change their lives. I didn't find it all that profound but it's an accessible overview of the topic from a pop-science sort of viewpoint.
posted by restless_nomad at 6:17 PM on March 30, 2015

Is this limited to people, or would it also include things like repurposing as a form of reinvention? Reinvention makes me think of people (especially Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's), but also of making something new out of an old item. My therapist recently told me a story about turning an old dress of hers into art paper. So when reinvention is a transformation of a material item, it has something to do with carrying the energy of what it was into this new thing for the future.
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:28 PM on March 31, 2015