Authenticity and Personality Modification

Alexandre Erler studied Philosophy in Switzerland as an undergraduate, after which he completed the BPhil in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Still based at Oxford, he is now working on a doctoral thesis dealing with the topic of authenticity and its ethical implications for our projects of self-transformation and self-creation, particularly those involving the use of so-called “enhancement technologies”, such as psychopharmaceuticals – a much-discussed example is the use of the antidepressant Prozac by people who do not clearly have a psychological disorder. During his stay at the Brocher Foundation, Alex will be focussing on the issues of personality modification and mood enhancement by pharmacological vs. other means, and will consider whether there is any plausible way of spelling out the widespread concern that changing our personality or improving out mood by pharmacological means is fundamentally inauthentic, so that we have a strong reason not to do so.