Identity and the Self

The author uses his unconventional narrative structure in order to enact his explorations regarding identity and the self. Case Study embodies a meta-narrative form. This means that the novel is a presentation of a fictional novel. The sections “Preface,” “Braithwaite I,” “Braithwaite II,” “Braithwaite III,” “Braithwaite IV,” “Braithwaite V,” and “Postscript to the Second Edition” are all penned by the auto-fictional author GMB. This fictional entity shares the same initials with the author of Case Study. GMB is writing about “the forgotten 1960s psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite,” in the same way that Graeme Macrae Burnet is writing the fictional narrative of Braithwaite and his narrative counterpart, the unnamed notebook narrator (1). Therefore, Case Study formally enacts Braithwaite’s notions about the multitudinous self. In his book Kill Your Self, Braithwaite argues that “The self . . . consists of a dialogue between two competing versions of the self...