The story of ourselves ...

... as seen in The Sociological Two-Way Mirror.

... Bourdieu's most famous analytical tool is that of the habitus. Reappropriating a concept that began with Aristotle and continued with Aquinas, Bourdieu wrote at length about a philosophy of human action that is grounded in social dispositions. These durable, lasting dispositions shape our view of the world. By the age of 14, the mental models are largely fixed in our minds, and they are extremely powerful—the more so because we take them for granted. Our attitudes, responses, and even our preferences are shaped by our habitus. What we think we freely choose, Bourdieu argues, is instead largely selected by social forces. We do not set our own horizons of the possible and the impossible; these come from our habitus.

I quite clearly remember becoming the person I fundamentally remain at age 15. I also remember a good deal of conscious choice going into that. Though, of course, the choices were made within a given context and, I am sure, with certain predispositions already in place.