About The Emergent Self
The Emergent Self begins from a simple, unsettling claim: a self is not given. It emerges out of what happens to us, how we interpret it, and how we respond. Those responses shape what happens next. I call this cycle EIR: experience, interpretation, response.
If that is true, then much of what we are told about being human deserves a second look, including the idea that dignity is something we are simply born with. Here I write about how people become who they are: through humiliation and recognition, belief and doubt, loss and meaning. Some of it is scholarly. Some of it is personal. All of it is meant to provoke thought, and I welcome thoughtful disagreement.
About me
A high school guidance counselor once told me to get used to the idea of working on a factory line. With constant turmoil at home, my grades gave him reason to think so. I entered college on academic probation and made the dean’s list my first semester. That turn taught me early that what we are told about who we are is not the final word.
My path since then has been anything but straight. I taught elementary school. I served seven years as a Roman Catholic priest with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, before leaving the Church. I spent more than two decades in information technology, leading process improvement for large organizations. I taught sociology and organizational behavior at the university level.
Along the way I earned a Master of Divinity, an MBA, and an MA and PhD in Human and Organizational Development. My dissertation examined how fat persons find meaning in their experiences of humiliation. It is where the EIR framework was born.
I live in Plymouth, Indiana. I am still emerging.
— Robert K. Green, PhD