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This capacity for extra perception is, however, a handicap in a society which cannot understand that alternative ways of thinking, of self-definition, are possible. Society’s resistance to such alternatives is not surprising when one realizes how perception can be distorted as a result of ideological inculcation, generally in the service of the dominants; in fact, what is surprising is how quickly subjects adapt to a dysfunctional society rather than risk losing their place. Identity and social relations are the effects of structures, institutions, and networks which limit and define social beings (Lee 88, 92). These structures are of course cultural creations, and if they can be controlled they can also be changed. From time to time change does occur, if only for the short term, as a result of resistance which puts what Lee calls “destabilizing pressures” which force change and offer the possibility of “transformational choice” (213–214). Lessing, as a writer who takes seriously the task of exposing contradictions inherent in our present notions of “who we are,” encourages us to refuse membership in a society where identity is a closed subject.