Self-Talks: Different Theories and Frameworks about the Self
Self in a common understanding is just basically a pronoun, the words myself, himself, and herself are simply related to it. Is “self” only used to make a sentence become more precise and grammatically correct?
“Lalabas din ang totoo mong kulay! (Your true colors will soon show itself!)”, is a line we sometimes hear when we watch dramas in the Philippines, indeed, it intensifies the emotion expressed in that certain drama, even some of us hear it in a real setting, right?
But what does “totoo mong kulay” in that line means? As we interpret it, it talks about the “self” of a person having its true personality and character. Such personality and character of self are used for us to identify and separate a person from another. Of course, as we identify the self of a person, we judge that person based on how we view him. The problem is, we have different judgments to that person. I could say that the person is kind but you could say that the person is ugly. With that, it is important to know the different theories and frameworks about the self.
Viewing and understanding the self requires a background wherein observations, experiences, beliefs and influences are accounted. Two common approaches to view the self are essentialism and social constructionism.
Essentialism
“Today, essentialism implies a belief that certain phenomena are natural, inevitable, universal, and biologically determined.” – Irvine, 1990
Essentialism considers that things act and stay as it is. Plato, a known Greek philosopher, gave an example through a triangle. According to him, a triangle, no matter what are the length and angles in it, it is always a triangle and is different from a circle or a rectangle. For Plato, the phenomena of the natural world were only a reflection of finite number of eide (fixed and unchanging forms). Later on, Thomists of the Middle Ages renamed eide as essences which has a crucial property of constancy and discontinuity. An essence is unchanging and is categorically different from another essence.
Let’s go back to the line, “Lalabas din ang totoo mong kulay!”, can you consider this line as an essentialist?
Well, if we are to align it to the example of the triangle by Plato, then, yes, it is an essentialist way of viewing the self. The line tells that no matter how much a person tries to hide and control his self, his “true self” will eventually show. A person hiding and controlling his self just not to show his true personality and character is like the length and angles in a triangle. It will not matter as the “true self” will always show which is the triangle in Plato’s example.
Social Constructionism
Social constructionism is another approach of viewing the self. It refers to the influence of the society to any individual experience. This approach started with its fundamental paradigm that “reality is socially constructed” (Berger & Luckmann, 1966).
The reality we experience is objective as we encounter events with the persons existing independently depending on how we perceive them. The language we use helps us to interpret experiences. We share our reality with others. Our habits create our own culture resulting to social expectation. Our knowledge is shared within the society. With such factors, we construct our reality.
How do we use this concept to view our “self”?
Take this line said by a kid for example, “Paglaki ko, gusto ko maging katulad ni Papa! (When I grow up, I want to be like Dad!)”, a line like this is common for the Filipino children, though it is not always the case, Filipino children tend to look up on the people they know especially their parents. Dreaming to be like someone indicates that you are likely to be influenced by someone. For a kid, who dreams to be like his father, will grow up idolizing his father. His true self will be constructed mainly with the factor of how he perceives his father. His habits would be likely similar on his dad. The image of the kid’s father will be the greatest factor of the development of the kid’s true self.
In social constructionism, we perceive that the self continues to develop as we continuously get influenced by the society.
Aside from essentialism and social constructionism, the self is also attached with the concept of power and reflexive process.
Power and the Self
“If you have the power to change one thing in this world, what would it be?”, I can still remember this question being asked in a beauty pageant and even in an essay writing contest I once joined before.
We tend to answer such question in the most ideal way, but why is it even asked?
“The individual is not the vis-à-vis of power; it is, I believe, one of its prime effects.” – Foucault, 1994
For Michael Foucault, the self is a direct consequence of power and can only be apprehended through specific systems of historical discourse. Power exposes and create the self as it imposes disciplinary practices in the body.
For example, in a school setting, teachers are considered as the “vehicle” of power as they are the ones who create the intervention in such setting, they impose disciplinary measures to control and assess the learning process of the students. Measures being imposed causes mechanisms of domination in the school setting. With this, as according to Foucault, the self, being coerced into existence, becomes a mechanism of control wherein systems of discourse work from the inside out through the creation of self-regulating subject.
Going back to the question, “If you have the power to change one thing in this world, what would it be?”, how should you answer it? I believe, that we will be choosing to change different things, it could be the government, a mindset into something, an emotion, the past, and etc., but one thing will be always the same in our choices, that is, such things that we chose gave us a perception that it must be change as it dominates different aspects in our lives impacting our true self, our country and/or even the world, proving that identity and the true self are products of power.
The Self as Reflexive Process
“Hindi sa’yo umiikot ang mundo. (The world does not revolve to you.)”
A statement used by Filipinos, usually for their friends, to “wake someone up” in assuming that what he does affect the whole world.
How is this connected to the reflective process?
Reflexiveness emerges from social experiences, it is the turning-back of the experience of the individual upon himself – that the whole social process is thus brought into the experience of the individuals involved in it (Mead, 1934). Reflexive process allows the self to develop further as it experiences new things with other social beings. It is the universal human experience for self-objectification.
In this process, you could be the subject of an experience or simply an object in it. Indeed, the world does not revolve around you. Reflexive process tells that the self has the ability to react in every experience whether he is a subject or an object. The agent or the acting organism is being regulated by the self at its most basic level which is a reflexive process.
For example, if a person tells you an insulting word, your reflex reacts, it is either you accept it, denies it or fight back. The self develops new mechanisms how to react on that certain situation and then carving it to its memory thus creating development in it. Take note, that even you accept it, there could be a long-term effect wherein a reflex seemed not to exist, it may still cause a change in the self.
Summary
The concept of self is indeed very important. Viewing and interpreting the self comes with different ways. Essentialism which assumes that everything is natural and in unchanging form, the self with essentialism tells that such actions by the self means are all out because that is their true self. Social Constructionism assumes that the self is impacted with so much influence. It tells the self that what surrounds him are all factors on the growth of the self. Power dominates the individual by disciplinary measures imposed in different institution, it is then followed by the start of one of its primary effects, the self. Reflexive process which is the turning-back of the experience, it allows a person to self-objectify and react to an experience, with that, the self continues to flourish.
It is important to understand those concepts as it could help us understand the reasons of our existence. It gives us the chance to develop ourselves by having new knowledge. Moreover, different concepts and theories about the self are all theoretical, it must not be taken for granted. Understanding the self helps us embody what we know and what we have. It blurs the gap between the self and the society, the existence of such theories enabled the humanity to create interconnected relations giving us a society wherein individuals rally to embody their true self.
References
Essentialism vs. Social Constructionism in the Study of Human Sexuality
Authors: John D. DeLameter and Janet Shibley Hyde
The Self-Concept
Author: Viktor Gecas
The Sociology of the Self
Author: Peter L. Callero
