Breaking the Self: Ideology and the Limit Situation in Zhuangzi and Continental Philosophy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it reinterprets ideology not as an imaginary distortion but as a partial and limited grasp of reality. In this view, we perceive and act only on aspects of the world filtered through the lens of the self, which is constructed biologically, discursively, or both. Second, the article asks how one might break away from the self and live anew. Central to this question is the concept of the limit situation, which reveals the self’s inability to manipulate external conditions for its own benefit. The suffering elicited by such situations is key to recognizing the finitude of the preestablished self and initiating a transformed way of life. To illuminate these ideas, I draw on Zhuangzi in dialogue with Althusser and Jaspers in continental thought.