History of the Person and Self in the "West"

 Charles Taylor (1989) The sources of the Self. A discussion of the relationship between notions of the self and the good.

  Carrithers, Collins & Lukes (1985) The Category of the Person
Mauss (1938/1985). The category of the human mind (requires consciousness)
-Roman & Christian roots to the enlightenment notions of self and person
Moi or Self pertains to the experiential aspects of being human (what you feel, think, do).

Personne or person pertains to the social, institutional aspects of being human, including rights, duties, and roles played in a larger whole of society.

  Paranjpe (1998) - Begins with Aristotle's notion of individuality as being moved from within, having a final cause or purpose, humans are moral agents, open to praise or blame.

Roman Law followed with persona as a recognition of the rights of all human beings without distinction (except that was only for free men, not including women and slaves). This is different groom group liability in Greek Law.

Christianity introduced individuality of responsibility and free will, as seen in St. Augustine's resolution of the problem of evil and an all good God.

Dumont (1985) suggests there has been an 'interiorization' of the self from Christian soul through to the Enlightenment period, following the renaissance, Locke, Kant, Hume, & others and the emergence of the modern self.

 

Locke's Notion of the Person involved a recognition of responsibility as:
1) Intelligence - knowing the rules of conduct as applied to situations
2) Feeling - of happiness or misery that may result from right or wrong action
3) Acting - as a free agent, able to attain goals and fulfill intentions.
          - also important is memory of being the same person, identity.
-Had an impact of legal institutions of European and American societies, slaves, women, children each have had challenges in being recognized as persons.

Trilogy of the Mind: The necessary conditions for having or being a person. These include: Cognition (thinking), Conation (acting), and Affect (feeling).


General Psychological Conceptions of the Self

William James & The Self in America

The Self "a man's Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank account"

 "I"              and              "Me" (Bodily, Social , Spiritual)

 Subjective   vs.               Objective
Knower                 vs.               Known        
Process                  vs.               Content

  "Me"  
Material self:
Feeling of "warmth" or intimacy for body and possessions Social self: Recognitions and reputations (fames and honours) and "club opinions"
Spiritual self: Thoughts, hypotheses and conceptions of the world and the self

The "I": The stream of consciousness

personal consciousness that is always changing, is sensibly continuous, deals with objects independent of itself (intentionality) and is selective - makes Choices.


Erikson's Normative Identity framework

 
 Erik Erikson (1968) patterns his perspective in considering identity to be at the nexus of environ-bio-psycho-socio-historico-political exchange.  Being multi-dimensional, identity forms vastly different patterns based upon the mosaic of influences upon it through important developmental turning points or sensitive periods.

Throughout the life cycle he states there are 8 major crises or turning points to face in becoming fully human. Each of these crises of identity pertain to a host of psycho-social experiences that are crucial to normative human development.  

 Like an accent in speech, cultural experience patterns our identities in myriad fashions. The particular blends and hybrids formed make the ever-developing bouquet of cultures more subtle and varied than snowflakes.  In adolescence and young adulthood, ideological identity takes centre stage where cultures tend to reveal themselves more fully.

 Erikson writes that identity involves the biological, psychological and social worlds leading one to a place of self understanding and discovery. Ultimately this is where a sense of "being at one with oneself" and "a sense of affinity with a community's sense of being at one with its future as well as its history" (1965).  

 Hence finding a history or mythology to follow is the task of human kind during these developmental years. Living within a multicultural setting will magnify the complexities of identity formed and the language used to express those histories and identities as presented by Tonks & Paranjpe (1999).

Also considering Mythology and the self is Carl Jung and his Analytical Psychology

Multicultural People
For people living within a multicultural society like Canada there are encouragements and opportunities to adopt cultural practices from around the globe.  As indicated above, identity issues become more complex as people negotiate living between and sometimes moving beyond traditions. 

 New cultural forms emerge in the confluence of cultures, new forms of communication emerge too. Tonks & Paranjpe (2000) provides some narrative themes on identity formation within a multicultural setting.

Other Identity Development Issues
    
Martin & Nakayama provide an account of the developmental issues at play for specific groups. E.g.

Minority identity development, according to Fergusson (1990) moves through the following stages:
       1) unexamined, 2) conformity, 3) resistance & separatism, 4) integration

Majority identity development has also been suggested to move through stages:

       1) unexamined 2) acceptance, 3) resistance, 4) redefinition, 5) integration.