Voluntary Disappearances: Creative Destruction and the Remaking of Personal Identity

Abstract: Ever wanted to disappear completely and never be found? It's not an easy thing to do. This critical essay analyzes existing handbooks on how to accomplish your disappearance and how to build a new identity. Building on the theory of identity formation that he offered in his book Metanoia: Rhetoric, Authenticity, and the Transformation of the Self (2020),Ellwanger elaborates a new dissociative mode of personal reinvention: one that is unique to our schizophrenic age.