In The Marginal Self: An Existential Inquiry into Narcissism, drawing from existential philosophy, psychiatry and literature, René J. Muller characterizes what he sees as the phenomenon of marginality—the failure to become one’s most authentic and best self. This refusal often involves denying one’s freedom, the essence of being human, even as that freedom is ironically misused in negating it. Muller argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition and the reliance on reason as a transcendent absolute, both bedrocks of Western culture for over 2,000 years, no longer provide a satisfactory foundation for living. He shows how marginalizing choices made in an alienating culture inevitably lead to disillusion and pathological behavior.