Body care has never before been so much a focus of public interest, nor have the ways we classify people by reference to their kind of body excited such political passions. This study is an attempt to build a comprehensive account of the roles our bodies play in our lives. Through a series of discussions Rome harre concludes that the roles the body plays in our lives are determined less by organic functioning than by cultural conventions and social meanings.

Rom Harre's numerous publications include The Explanation of Social Behaviour (with Paul Secord), Social Being, Personal Being, Varieties of Realism and, most recently, Pronouns and People with Peter Muhlhausler, also available from Blackwell Publishers.