Identity crisis literature

>>8799472
I hate people coming to /lit/ like it's some fucking self help guru, as if literature was better suited than drugs or /v/ to lift some loser out of his depressive cycle. Protip, lit isn't a prophylactic. It has no use value. You don't read to "deal with" your feels. You read for enjoyment. There is nothing in literature beyond that.

>>8799493
Oh come on, this post just reeks of ignorance. If you have rationalized a problem already, it might be healthy to read some theory. Videogames and drugs are painkillers, they won't magically resolve the problem. And if you can "only read for enjoyment", I don't even know what to say

>>8799472
Here's some real advice. Get off the internet, get out of your shell, go meet some of these cool people, hang out with them. Don't go into this with any set expectations. If they're genuinely cool people you'll start to like them and adopt their style. Most of the improvement in your life will be subconscious.

>>8799493
This.

>>8799508
This doesn't work if you're an adult over a certain age though. You can't just 'meet cool people' like you can in college anymore.

Not sure if it will help you any, but Ellison's Invisible Man is the greatest examination of identity in all of literature, so you might wanna check that out.

neon genesis evangelion
sartre
nietzsche
look into marxism/structuralism (and post-structuralism) and psychoanalysis and their main points of determination (unconcious, structure, ideology)
then neon genesis evangelion again

Read and understand Emerson's essays. They might convince you to take control of your life and help you survey your identity. I recommend "Self-Reliance", "History", "Nature", "Experience", and "Compensation", kind of in that order. Second, hunt down a collection of short stories titled Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder. Yeah, the Batman writer, but he wrote this before he got into the comic book industry.

Voodoo Heart is about characters stuck at crossroads. Each story takes place in an utterly rich and fascinating setting, typically a place between places ie a fat camp, a dilapidated mansion, a pawn shop. Characters struggle to understand why they make the decisions they do because they do not feel in control, almost as if they are being compelled by some voodoo heart. I promise it isn't as depressing as I make it sound.