Definition of "selfhood" []

• The state of having a distinct identity; individuality. (noun)
• The fully developed self; an achieved personality. (noun)
• Self-centeredness: "the cult of selfhood that became fashionable in the 1960s” ( David Rankin). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The passage of our self is through its selfhood, which is independent, to its attainment of soul, which is harmonious."
• "Such a misapprehension is perhaps especially acute when the character in question is presumed to be more or less autobiographical, but even characters not immediately associated with the writer him/herself are, if Zadie Smith is to be believed, mostly an opportunity for the author to indulge in "the attempted revelation of [an] elusive, multifaceted self" -- that is, his or her own "selfhood," the "development" of which is central to the act of writing."
• "Like one giant assembly line of "selfhood," our media and culture churn out icons at a steady pace, each one mirroring a common need to be recognized, respected, understood, successful and loved."