FOOD FOR THOUGHT/UNDERSTANDING: IDENTITY

Amy Ellis Nutt, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family (New York; Random House, 2015) ("We are all born with traits, characteristics, and physical markers that allow others to identify us, to say, 'He's a boy' or 'She's a girl.' None of us, however, is born with a sense of self. By the age of two, children recognize themselves in a mirror, but so do chimpanzees and dolphins. Even the humble roundworm can distinguish its body from the rest of its environment via a single neuron. But of our 'who-ness' or 'what-ness'--our essence--there is no single place in the brain, no clump of gray matter, no nexus of electrical activity we can point to and say, Aha, here it is, here is my self, here is my soul." Id. at xviii.).