As evidenced by the spread of temporary development techniques or the awkward questioning of gender identities, the individual of today is in crisis. Traditional value systems no longer work, whether it concerns the morality and gender relations that were previously transmitted by the patriarchal system through religions or the vision of progress that has been replaced by certain political ideologies.

In the face of this confusion, Gerard Mendel demonstrates in this outstanding book that the psychological methods currently in vogue overlook the essential, the fact that in our post-patriarchal society where the value-money prevails, each person must and will increasingly have to invent at least in part their life, that is, the meaning they must give to their existence.

For no one can live without some value system as the central core of their identity. Could such an individual system align with the functioning of society? Gerard Mendel draws on the sources of general anthropology to rethink the question of universal values.

And he explains how -and under which social conditions- the psychological possibilities of today’s individual can allow them, through their participation in various collective entities, to construct the meaning of their life reconciling individuality and the social.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]