The Nazi Doctors, The Future of Immortality , and a dozen more. Nevertheless, Lifton admits that the material in this particular book has occupied his thinking for 30 years. In Lifton's view, life is no longer governed by rites of passage and therefore modern men and women must pursue a personal search for authenticity and meaning. In actuality, the modern pilgrimage takes place between two poles, which we can label the protean and the fundamentalist. Lifton explains that the human potential for proteanism includes a capacity for flexible imagination and action.
Culture is inescapable from symbolization.
We are cultural animals for whom the resources of culture are ingredient and not merely accessory to human thought. The knowledge that we are to die is crucial to the sense of self. The sacred and the secular have become unbonded. Our symbolization of self focuses on our own narrative, a life story that is constantly re-created. America is a protean nation, a nomad people, ever beginning anew.