Becoming Oneself in the Age of Polycrisis and Digital Alienation: A Reinterpretation of Jacques Attali’s Devenir Soi through a Buddhist Perspective

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the relevance of Jacques Attali’s concept of devenir soi (becoming oneself) in responding to global social transformations during the 2015–2025 period. This inquiry is important because the last decade has been marked by interconnected crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, climate change, and the rise of digital alienation that has influenced individual processes of self-formation. The study employs a qualitative approach using a critical philosophical inquiry design and a critical literature review method. The data consist of Jacques Attali’s works, literature on Buddhist philosophy, and contemporary studies on polycrisis and social media. The findings indicate that the challenge of becoming oneself in 2025 is significantly more complex than it was in 2015. These challenges emerge in two primary dimensions: external obstacles in the form of pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, and climate change that generate various forms of structural alienation, and internal obstacles in the form of digital identity performativity, technological addiction, attention fragmentation, and dependence on external validation. The study further finds that key Buddhist principles, particularly pratītyasamutpāda (interdependence), karuṇā (compassion), and anātman (non-self), provide relevant ethical and psychological frameworks for responding to these forms of alienation. The implications of this study suggest that self-realization in the age of polycrisis requires relational awareness, ethical responsibility, and reflective capacity rather than individual freedom alone. The originality of this study lies in its critical reinterpretation of devenir soi through a synthesis of Jacques Attali’s thought and Buddhist philosophy to explain self-realization in the context of contemporary polycrisis and digital alienation