The Printing Press Was the Beginning of the Fragmented Self

The changing perception of the self is downstream of the printing press.

Fragmentation by the book

Here is how the story usually goes.

The defining feature of the Western Enlightenment subject is radical individualism. He suffers from a social disconnect. His individualism can go two ways. Western man either deludes himself grandiosely into considering himself self-made, or in the negative sense, suffers from radical alienatio…