True Self, False Self, I and Me (Winicott and Mead), Kohlberg's Moral Stage 

Disciplines > Psychoanalysis > Concepts > True Self, False SelfDescription | Discussion | See also

 

DescriptionTrue selfThere is true self that has a sense of integrity, of connected wholeness that harks to the early stage.False selfWhen the person has to comply with external rules, such as being polite or otherwise following social codes, then a false self is used. The false self constantly seeks to anticipate demands of others in order to maintain the relationship.In early development, the false self is split off as an adaptation to a mother or carer who reflects her own defenses onto the infant rather than reflecting the infant's actual moods.Healthy false selfWhen the false self is functional both for the person and for society then it is considered healthy. The healthy false self feels that that it is still being true to the true self. It can be compliant but without feeling that it has betrayed its true self.When the situation becomes difficult, the true self can still override the true self and so acts as an effective conscience or super-ego.Unhealthy false selfA self that fits in but through a feeling of forced compliance rather than loving adaptation is unhealthy.When the false self wins debates against the true self, the person finds that they are unable to be guided by their true self and so has to adapt to the social situation rather than assert its self.DiscussionThe true and false selves were identified by Winnicott. An unhealthy and pathological false self never gains independence from the mother, and so never gets to transition to independence.These principles help explain how people seem at ease or are constantly in tension and so act in dysfunctional ways. It also indicates how treatment is not about exposing the fragile true self, which most of us naturally fear, but helping the individual move on, both letting go of the unhealthy portions of the false self and building a healthy replacement.See alsoWinnicott, Values

'I' and the 'me'From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe 'I' and the 'me' are terms central to the social philosophy of George Herbert Mead, one of the key influences on the development of the branch of sociology called symbolic-interactionism. The terms refer to the psychology of the individual, where in Mead's understanding, the "me" is the socialized aspect of the person, the "I"is the active aspect of the person.One might usefully 'compare Mead's "I" and "me", respectively, with Sartre's "choice" and "the situation". But Mead himself matched up the "me" with Freud's "censor", and the "I" with his "ego"; and this is psychologically apt'.[1]

CharacteristicsThe "Me" is what is learned in interaction with others and (more generally) with the environment: other people's attitudes, once internalized in the self, constitute the Me.[2] This includes both knowledge about that environment (including society), but also about who the person is: their sense of self. "What the individual is for himself is not something that he invented. It is what his significant others have come to ...treat him as being."[3] This is because people learn to see who they are (man or woman, old or young, etc.) by observing the responses of others themselves or their actions. If others respond to a person as (for instance) a woman, the person develops a sense of herself indeed as a woman.At the same time, 'the "Me" disciplines the "I" by holding it back from breaking the law of the community'. [4] It is thus very close to the way in a man Freud's 'ego-censor, the conscience...arose from the critical influence of his parents (conveyed to him by the medium of the voice), to whom were added, as time went on, those who trained and taught him and the innumerable and indefinable host of all the other people in his environment - his fellow-men - and public opinion'.[5] It is 'the attitude of the other in one's own organism, as controlling the thing that he is going to do'.[6]

By contrast, 'the "I" is the response of the individual to the attitude of the community'.[7] The "I" acts creatively, though within the context of the me. Mead notes that "It is only after we have acted that we know what we have done...what we have said."[7] People, he argues, are not automations. They do not blindly follow rules. They construct a response on the basis of what they have learned, the "me". Mead highlighted accordingly those values that attach particularly to the "I" rather than to the me, "...which cannot be calculated and which involve a reconstruction of the society, and so of the 'me' which belongs to that society."[8] Taken together, the "I" and the "me" form the person or the self in Mead's social philosophy.

FusionMead explored what he called 'the fusion of the "I" and the "me" in the attitudes of religion, patriotism, and team work', noting what he called the "peculiar sense of exaltation" that belongs[9] to them. He also considered that 'the idea of the fusion of the "I" and the "me" gives a very adequate explanation of this exaltation...in the aesthetic experience'.[10]

In everyday life, however, 'a complete fusion of the "I" and the "me" may not be a good thing...it is a dynamic sort of balance between the "I" and the "me" that is required'.[11]

[edit]ConventionalityWhen there is a predominance of the "me" in the personality, 'we speak of a person as a conventional individual; his ideas are exactly the same as those of his neighbours; he is hardly more than a "me" under the circumstances'[12] - "...the shallow, brittle, conformist kind of personality..." that is "all persona, with its excessive concern for what people think."[13] The alternative—and in many ways Mead's ideal—was the person who has a definite personality, who replies to the organized attitude in a way that makes a significant difference. With such a person, the I is the most important phase of the experience.[14]

[edit]DissociationMead recognised that it is normal for an individual to have 'all sorts of selves answering to all sorts of different social reactions', but also that it was possible for 'a tendency to break up the personality' to appear: 'Two separate "me's" and "I's", two different selves, result...the phenomenon of dissociation of personality'.[15]

[edit]Literary examplesWalt Whitman 'marks off the impulsive "I", the natural, existential aspect of the self, from critical sanction. It is the cultured self, the "me", in Mead's terms, that needs re-mediation'.[16]

[edit]See also Conformist stage Generalized other Socialization True self and false self

[edit]References1. ̂  Victorino Tejera, Semiotics from Pierce to Barthes (2001) p. 592. ̂  Paolo Inghilleri, From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change (1999) p. 263. ̂  Erving Goffman, Relations in Public (Penguin 1972) p. 3274. ̂  Greg Marc Nielson, The Norms of Answerability (2002) p. 1355. ̂  Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 92 and p. 906. ̂  Charles W. Morris ed., George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society, (Chicago 1967) p. 1967. ^ a b Mead, p. 1968. ̂  Mead, p. 2149. ̂  Mead, p. 27310. ̂  Mead, p. 28011. ̂  Tejera, p. 6212. ̂  Mead, p. 20013. ̂  Anthony Stevens, On Jung (London 1990) p. 4314. ̂  Mead, p. 20015. ̂  Mead, p. 143-416. ̂  Stephen John Mark, The Pragmatic Whitman (2002) p.144

 The "I" and the "Me"

Mead tried to clarify his views of the social foundation of the self and hisconcomitant belief that "the self does not consist simply in the bare organiza-tion of social attitudes," by introducing the distinction between the "I" andthe "me." Both "I" and "me" necessarily relate to social experience. But the"I" is "the response of the organism to the attitudes of the others; the "me" isthe organized set of attitudes of others which one assumes. The attitudes ofthe others constitute the organized 'me,' and then one reacts toward that asan 'I'." As a "me" the person is aware of himself as an object. He reacts orresponds to himself in terms of the attitudes others have toward him. His self-appraisal is the result of what he assumes to be the appraisal by others. The"me" is the self as conceived and apprehended in terms of the point of viewof significant others and of the community at large. It reflects the laws andthe mores, the organized codes and expectations of the community. The "I,"in contradistinction, is "the answer which the individual makes to the attitudewhich others take toward him when he assumes an attitude toward them . . .it gives the sense of freedom, of initiative." What appears in consciousness isalways the self as an object, as a "me," but the "me" is not conceivable withoutan "I" as a unique subject for which the "me" can be an object. The "I" andthe "me" are not identical, for the "I" "is something that is never entirelycalculable . . . it is always something different from what the situation itselfcalls for.""We are," Mead writes, "individuals born into a certain nationality,located at a certain spot geographically, with such and such family relations,and such and such political relations. All of these represent a certain situationwhich constitutes the 'me'; but this necessarily involves a continued action ofthe organism toward the 'me.' Men are born into social structures

they didnot create, they live in an institutional and social order they never made, andthey are constrained by the limitations of languages, codes, customs. and laws.All of these enter into the "me" as constituent elements, yet the "I" always re-acts to preformed situations in a unique manner, "just as every monad in theLeibnizian universe mirrors that universe from a different point of view, andthus mirrors a different aspect or perspective of that universe." To Mead,mind is "the individual importation of the social process," but, at the sametime, "the individual . . . is continually reacting back against . . . society.''The self as a whole, as it appears in social experience, is a compound of thestabilized reflections of the generalized other in the "me" and the incalculablespontaneity of the "I." This is why the self as a whole is an open self. "If itdid not have these two phases there could not be conscious responsibility, andthere would be nothing novel in experience." Mead valued personal auton-omy, but he saw it emerging from feedback rather than from attempts at in-sulation from others. Human actors are inevitably enmeshed in a socialworld, but the mature self transforms this world even as it responds to it.Mead was somewhat ambiguous in his definition of social acts. Sometimeshe makes it appear as if these acts necessarily involve cooperation between theactors. Elsewhere he talks about social acts when referring to competitive andconflictful interaction. At one point he says specifically: "I wish . . . to re-strict the social act to the class of acts which involve the cooperation of morethan one individual." But in other places he speaks, for example, of fightsamong animals as social acts. It would seem, on balance, that what he had inmind was not that social acts are restricted to cooperation but only that socialaction is always based on "an object of common interest to all the individualsinvolved." In this formulation, conflict and competition, as well as coopera-tive behavior, may equally be seen as social action as long as they all involvea mutual orientation of actors to one another. It is only in this way that Mead'sinterpretation of the nature of social acts can be articulated with his oftenrepeated insistence on the crucial functions of social conflicts. To Mead, justas to Simmel, conflict and cooperation are correlative to each other and nosociety can exist without both.A highly developed and organized human society is one in which theindividual members are interrelated in a multiplicity of different intricate andcomplicated ways whereby they all share a number of common interests . . .and yet, on the other hand, are more or less in conflict relative to numerousother interests which they possess only individually, or else share with oneanother only in small and limited groups.From Coser, 1977:338-339.George Herbert MeadFirst published Sun Apr 13, 2008; substantive revision Thu May 31, 2012George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), American philosopher and social theorist, is often classed with William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey as one of the most significant figures in classical American pragmatism. Dewey referred to Mead as “a seminal mind of the very first order” (Dewey, 1932, xl). Yet by the middle of the twentieth-century, Mead's prestige was greatest outside of professional philosophical circles. He is considered by many to be the father of the school of Symbolic Interactionism in sociology and social psychology, although he did not use this nomenclature. Perhaps Mead's principal influence in philosophical circles occurred as a result of his friendship with John Dewey. There is little question that Mead and Dewey had an enduring influence on each other, with Mead contributing an original theory of the development of the self through communication. This theory has in recent years played a central role in the work of Jürgen Habermas. While Mead is best known for his work on the nature of the self and intersubjectivity, he also developed a theory of action, and a metaphysics or philosophy of nature that emphasizes emergence and temporality, in which the past and future are viewed through the lens of the present. Although the extent of Mead's reach is considerable, he never published a monograph. His most famous work, Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, was published after his death and is a compilation of student notes and selections from unpublished manuscripts.

1. Life and Influences 2. Language and Mind 3. Roles, the Self, and the Generalized Other 4. The “I” and the “Me” 5. Sociality, Emergence, and   The Philosophy of the Present 6. Concluding Comments on Determinism and Freedom Bibliography o Primary Sources o Secondary Sources Academic Tools Other Internet Resources Related Entries

1. Life and InfluencesGeorge Herbert Mead was born on February 27, 1863, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. His father, Hiram Mead, a minister in the Congregational Church, moved his family from Massachusetts to Ohio in 1869 in order to join the faculty of The Oberlin Theological Seminary. At Oberlin he taught homiletics and held the chair in Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral

Theology. Mead would attend Oberlin College from 1879–1883, and matriculate at Harvard from 1887–1888. At Harvard he studied with Josiah Royce, a philosopher deeply indebted to G.W.F. Hegel, who also left a lasting impression on Mead. (Mead met William James at Harvard, although he did not study with him. Almost immediately after graduation, Mead resided in William James's summer home tutoring his son Harry.) Mead's mother, Elizabeth Storrs Billings, was a devoutly religious woman, who taught at Oberlin for two years after the death of her husband in 1881, and served as president of Mount Holyoke College from 1890–1900. After his college years, Mead became a committed naturalist and non-believer, but he had struggled for years with the religious convictions that he had inherited from his family and community. For a period of time after college he even considered Christian Social Work as a career, but 1884 he explained in a letter to his friend Henry Castle why this career path would be problematic.I shall have to let persons understand that I have some belief in Christianity and my praying be interpreted as a belief in God, whereas I have no doubt that now the most reasonable system of the universe can be formed to myself without a God. But notwithstanding all this I cannot go out with the world and not work for men. The spirit of a minister is strong with me and I come fairly by it (Shalin 1988, 920–921).Mead did indeed move away from his earlier religious roots, but the activist spirit remained with him. Mead marched in support of women's suffrage, served as a treasurer for the Settlement House movement, immersed himself in civic matters in Chicago, and generally supported progressive causes. Jane Addams was a close friend. In terms of his transformation into a naturalist, no doubt Darwin played a significant role. As a matter of fact, one can understand much of Mead's work as an attempt to synthesize Darwin, Hegel, Dewey's functionalist turn in psychology, and insights gleaned from James. Mead taught with Dewey at the University of Michigan from 1891–1894, and when Dewey was made chair at the University of Chicago in 1894, he requested that Mead receive an appointment. Mead spent the rest of his career at Chicago. But before he began teaching at Michigan, Mead was directly exposed to major currents of European thought when he studied in Germany from 1888–1891, taking a course from Wilhelm Dilthey and immersing himself in Wilhelm Wundt's research.2. Language and MindDewey and Mead were not only very close friends, they shared similar intellectual trajectories. Both went through a period in which Hegel was the most significant philosophical figure for them, and both democratized and de-essentialized Hegelian ideas about the self and community. Nevertheless, neo-hegelian organic metaphors and notions of negation and conflict, reinterpreted as the problematic situation, remain central to their positions. The teleological also remains important in their thought, but it is reduced in scale from the world historical and localized in terms of anticipatory experiences and goal oriented activities.For Mead, the development of the self is intimately tied to the development of language. To demonstrate this connection, Mead begins by articulating what he learned about the gesture from Wundt. Gestures are to be understood in terms of the behavioral responses of animals to stimuli from other organisms. For example, a dog barks, and a second dog either barks back or runs away. The “meaning” of the “barking gesture” is found in the response of the second organism to the first. But dogs do not understand the “meaning” of their gestures. They simply respond, that is, they use symbols without what Mead refers to as “significance.” For a gesture to have significance, it must call out in a second organism a response that is functionally identical to the response that the first organism anticipates. In other words, for a gesture to be significant it must “mean” the same thing to both organisms, and “meaning” involves the capacity to consciously anticipate how other organisms will respond to symbols or gestures. How does this capacity arise? It does so through the vocal gesture.A vocal gesture can be thought of as a word or phrase. When a vocal gesture is used the individual making the gesture responds (implicitly) in the same manner as the individual hearing it. If you are about to walk across a busy street during rush hour, I might shout out, “Don't walk!” As I shout, I hear my gesture the way in which you hear it, that is, I hear the same words, and I might feel myself pulling back, stopping in my tracks because I hear these words. But, of course, I don't hear them exactly as you do, because I am aware of directing them to you. According to Mead, “Gestures become significant symbols when they implicitly arouse in the individual making them the same responses which the explicitly arouse, or are supposed to arouse, in other individuals” (MSS, 47). He also tells us that, “the critical importance of language in the development of human experience lies in this fact that the stimulus is one that can react upon the speaking individual as it reacts upon the other” (MSS, 69).As noted, Mead was indebted to Hegel's work, and the notion of reflexivity plays a fundamental role in Mead's theory of mind. Vocal gestures—which depend on sufficiently sophisticated nervous systems to process them—allow individuals to hear their own gestures in the way that others hear them. If I shout “Boo” at you, I might not only scare you, I might scare myself. Or, to put this in other terms, vocal gestures allow one to speak to oneself when others are not present. I make certain vocal gestures and anticipate how they would be responded to by others, even when they are not present. The responses of others have been internalized and have become part of an accessible repertoire. (Mead would agree with Ludwig Wittgenstein that there are no private languages. Language is social all the way down.) According to Mead, through the use of vocal gestures one can turn “experience” back on itself through the loop of speaking and hearing at

relatively the same instant. And when one is part of a complex network of language users, Mead argues that this reflexivity, the “turning back” of experience on itself, allows mind to develop.Mentality on our approach simply comes in when the organism is able to point out meanings to others and to himself. This is the point at which mind appears, or if you like, emerges…. It is absurd to look at the mind simply from the standpoint of the individual human organism; for, although it has its focus there, it is essentially a social phenomenon; even its biological functions are primarily social (MSS, 132–133).It is by means of reflexiveness—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; it is by such means, which enable the individual to take the attitude of the other toward himself, that the individual is able consciously to adjust himself to that process, and to modify the resultant of that process in any given social act in terms of his adjustment to it. Reflexiveness, then, is the essential condition, within the social process, for the development of mind (MSS, 134).Mind is developed not only through the use of vocal gestures, but through the taking of roles, which will be addressed below. Here it is worth noting that although we often employ our capacity for reflexivity to engage in reflection or deliberation, both Dewey and Mead argue that habitual, non-deliberative, experience constitutes the most common way that we engage the world. The habitual involves a host of background beliefs and assumptions that are not raised to the level of (self) conscious reflection unless problems occur that warrant addressing. For Dewey, this background is described as “funded experience.” For Mead, it is the world that this there and the “biologic individual.”The immediate experience which is reality, and which is the final test of the reality of scientific hypotheses as well as the test of the truth of all our ideas and suppositions, is the experience of what I have called the “biologic individual.”…[This] term lays emphasis on the living reality which may be distinguished from reflection…. Actual experience did not take place in this form but in the form of unsophisticated reality (MSS, 352–353).3. Roles, the Self, and the Generalized OtherOne of the most noteworthy features of Mead's account of the significant symbol is that it assumes that anticipatory experiences are fundamental to the development of language. We have the ability place ourselves in the positions of others—that is, to anticipate their responses—with regard to our linguistic gestures. This ability is also crucial for the development of the self and self-consciousness. For Mead, as for Hegel, the self is fundamentally social and cognitive. It is to be distinguished from the personality, which has non-cognitive dimensions. The self, then, is not identical to the individual and is linked to self-consciousness. It begins to develop when individuals interact with others and play roles. What are roles? They are constellations of behaviors that are responses to sets of behaviors of other human beings. The notions of role-taking and role playing are familiar from sociological and social-psychological literature. For example, the child plays at being a doctor by having another child play at being a patient. To play at being a doctor, however, requires being able to anticipate what a patient might say, and vice versa. Role playing involves taking the attitudes or perspectives of others. It is worth noting in this context that while Mead studied physiological psychology, his work on role-taking can be viewed as combining features of the work of the Scottish sympathy theorists (which James appealed to in The Principles of Psychology), with Hegel's dialectic of self and other. As we will discover shortly, perspective-taking is associated not only with roles, but with far more complex behaviors.For Mead, if we were simply to take the roles of others, we would never develop selves or self-consciousness. We would have a nascent form of self-consciousness that parallels the sort of reflexive awareness that is required for the use of significant symbols. A role-taking (self) consciousness of this sort makes possible what might be called a proto-self, but not a self, because it doesn't have the complexity necessary to give rise to a self. How then does a self arise? Here Mead introduces his well-known neologism, the generalized other. When children or adults take roles, they can be said to be playing these roles in dyads. However, this sort of exchange is quite different from the more complex sets of behaviors that are required to participate in games. In the latter, we are required to learn not only the responses of specific others, but behaviors associated with every position on the field. These can be internalized, and when we succeed in doing so we come to “view” our own behaviors from the perspective of the game as a whole, which is a system of organized actions.The organized community or social group which gives to the individual his unity of self may be called “the generalized other.” The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude of the whole community. Thus, for example, in the case of such a social group as a ball team, the team is the generalized other in so far as it enters—as an organized process or social activity—into the experience of any one of the individual members of it (MSS, 154).For Mead, although these communities can take different forms, they should be thought of as systems; for example, a family can be thought of systemically and can therefore give rise to a generalized other and a self that corresponds to it. Generalized others can also be found inconcrete social classes or subgroups, such as political parties, clubs, corporations, which are all actually functional social units, in terms of which their individual members are directly related to one another. The others are abstract social classes or subgroups, such as the class of debtors and the class of creditors, in terms of which their individual members are related to one another only more or less indirectly (MSS, 157).

In his Principles of Psychology, a book Mead knew well, William James discusses various types of empirical selves, namely, the material, the social, and the spiritual. In addressing the social self, James notes how it is possible to have multiple selves.Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind. To wound any one of these his images is to wound him. But as the individuals who carry the images fall naturally into classes, we may practically say that he has as many different social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups (James 1890, 294).From Mead's vantage point, James was on the right track. However, the notion of audience is left undeveloped in James, as is the manner in which language is utilized in the genesis of the self and self-consciousness. For Mead, James's audiences should be thought of in terms of systemically organized groups, such as we find in certain games, which give rise to generalized others. Further, we need an account of how we come to view ourselves from the perspective of these groups that goes beyond the concept of “sympathetic attachments.” Such an account involves reflexivity, which originates with the vocal gesture and is essential to taking roles and the perspective of the generalized other. In addition, reflexivity helps make possible the capacity to “see” ourselves from ever wider or more “universal” communities. Mead relates the latter capacity to cosmopolitan political and cultural orientations. It's worth noting that for Mead a full account of the self should address the phylogenetic as well as the ontogenetic.4. The “I” and the “Me”One of Mead's most significant contributions to social psychology is his distinction between the “I” and the “Me.” It's worth emphasizing that while this distinction is utilized in sociological circles, it is grounded philosophically for Mead. His target, in part, is no less than the idea of the transcendental ego, especially in its Kantian incarnation. It is also important to note that the “I” and “Me” are functional distinctions for Mead, not metaphysical ones.The self that arises in relationship to a specific generalized other is referred to as the “Me.” The “Me” is a cognitive object, which is only known retrospectively, that is, on reflection. When we act in habitual ways we are not typically self-conscious. We are engaged in actions at a non-reflective level. However, when we take the perspective of the generalized other, we are both “watching” and forming a self in relationship to the system of behaviors that constitute this generalized other. So, for example, if I am playing second base, I may reflect on my position as a second baseman, but to do so I have to be able to think of “myself” in relationship to the whole game, namely, the other actors and the “rules” of the game. We might refer to this cognitive object as my (second baseman) baseball self or “Me.” Perhaps a better example might be to think of the self in relationship to one's family of origin. In this situation, one views oneself from the perspective of the various sets of behaviors that constitute the family system.To return to the baseball example, one may have a self, a “Me,” that corresponds to a particular position that one plays, which is nested within the game as an organized totality. This self, however, doesn't tell us how any particular play may be made. When a ball is grounded to a second baseman, how he or she reacts is not predetermined. He reacts, and how he reacts is always somewhat different from how he has reacted in the past. These reactions or actions of the individual, whether in response to others or self-initiated, fall within the “sphere” of the “I.” Every response that the “I” makes is somewhat novel. Its responses may differ only in small ways from previous responses, but they will never be absolutely the same. No catch in a ball game is ever identical to a previous catch. Mead declares that, “The ‘I’ gives the sense of freedom, of initiative. The situation is there for us to act in a self-conscious fashion. We are aware of ourselves, and of what the situation is, but exactly how we will act never gets into experience until after the action takes place” (MSS, 177–178). The “I” is a “source” of both spontaneity and creativity. For Mead, however, the “I” is not a noumenal ego. Nor is it a substance. It is a way of designating a locus of activity.The responses of the “I” are non-reflective. How the “I” reacts is known only on reflection, that is, after we retrospect.If you ask, then, where directly in your own experience the “I” comes in, the answer is that it comes in as a historical figure. It is what you were a second ago that is the “I” of the “me.” It is another “me” that has to take that rôle. You cannot get the immediate response of the “I” in the process (MSS, 174).In other words, once the actions of the “I” have become objectified and known, by definition they have become a “Me.” The status of the “I” is interesting in Mead. In trying to differentiate it from the empirical, knowable, “Me,” he states, “The ‘I’ is the transcendental self of Kant, the soul that James conceived behind the scene holding on to the skirts of an idea to give it an added increment of emphasis” (MSC in SW, 141). However, this statement should not to be interpreted as endorsing the notion of a transcendental ego. Mead is seeking to emphasize that the “I” is not available to us in our acts, that is, it is only knowable in its objectified form as a “Me.” This point is clarified by a remark that directly follows the statement just cited. “The self-conscious, actual self in social intercourse is the objective ‘me’ or ‘me's’ with the process of response continually going on and implying a fictitious ‘I’ always out of sight of himself” (MSC in SW, 141). A transcendental ego is not fictitious. But for Mead, since we are dealing with a functional distinction here, it is quite acceptable to refer to the “I” as fictitious in metaphysical sense.

Why, then, do we seem to experience what Mead refers to as a “running current of awareness,” that is, an ego that appears to be aware of itself as it acts and thinks, if the “I” is not immediately aware of itself (SS in SW, 144)? William James sought to explain this phenomenon in terms of proprioception and the relationship between “parts” of the stream of consciousness. (James 1890, 296–307; James 1904, 169–183; James 1905, 184–194). Mead developed a unique explanation based on the relationship of the “I” to the “Me.” As we have seen, the “I” reacts and initiates action, but the actions taken are comprehended, objectified, as a “Me.” However, the “Me” is not simply confined to the objectifications of the immediate actions of the “I.” The “Me” carries with it internalized responses that serve as a commentary on the “I's” actions. Mead states, “The action with reference to the others calls out responses in the individual himself—there is then another ‘me’ criticizing, approving, and suggesting, and consciously planning, i.e., the reflective self” (SS in SW, 145). The running current of awareness, then, is not due to the “I” being immediately aware of itself. It is due to the running commentary of the “Me” on the actions of the “I.” The “Me” follows the “I” so closely in time that it appears as if the “I” is the source of the “running current of awareness.”Freud's super-ego could be conscious or unconscious. One might think of the “Me” as similar to the conscious super-ego in the commentary that it provides, but one would have to be careful not to carry this analogy too far. For Mead, the “Me” arises in relationship to systems of behaviors, generalized others, and, therefore, is by definition multiple, although the behaviors of various “Me's” can overlap. Further, Freud's model assumes a determinism that is not inherent in the relationship of the “I” to the “Me.” Not only does the “I” initiate novel responses, its new behaviors can become part of a “Me.” In other words, “Me's” are not static. They are systems that often undergo transformation. This will become more apparent in the next section when we discuss Mead's ideas regarding emergence. In this context it is enough to suggest the following: when a ballplayer makes a catch in a manner that has never been made before—that is, makes a play that is significantly different from prior catches—the new play may become part of the repertoire of the team's behaviors. In other words, the play may alter the existing generalized other by modifying existing behavioral patterns. In so doing, it gives rise to a modified or new self because the game as a whole has been changed. Once again, this may be easier to see in terms of the transformations that take place in families when new reactions occur as children and adults interact over time. New selves are generated as family systems are transformed.5. Sociality, Emergence, and The Philosophy of the PresentWe have seen that the “I” introduces novelty in actions and in the interactions between human beings. For Mead, novelty is not a phenomenon that can be accounted for in terms of human ignorance, as it can for a determinist such as Spinoza. In the Spinozistic framework, even though everything in nature is determined, as finite modes we must remain ignorant of the totality of causes. In principle, however, an infinite Mind could predict every event. Mead, following in the footsteps of Darwin, argues that novelty is in fact an aspect of the natural world, and that there are events that are not only unpredictable due to ignorance, but are in principle impossible to predict. In the latter category, for example, we find mutations that help to give rise to new species, as well as the creative responses of baseball players, musicians, composers, dancers, scientists, etc.In The Philosophy of the Present—a compilation based on the Carus Lectures delivered in late 1930 in Berkeley—Mead outlines his thoughts on nature and time. Mead did not have the opportunity to develop his ideas into a book. (He passed away early in 1931.) In spite of the fact that these lectures were hurriedly written due to obligations that he had as chair of the University of Chicago's philosophy department, they contain ideas that illuminate his earlier work and indicate the direction of his thought. On the first page of the lectures we are told that “reality exists in a present” and that we do not live in a Parmenidean cosmos (PP, 1). “For a Parmenidean reality does not exist. Existence involves non-existence: it does take place. The world is a world of events” (PP, 1). Our world is one in which change is real and not merely a subjective, perceptual, phenomenon.It seems to me that the extreme mathematization of recent science in which the reality of motion is reduced to equations in which change disappears in an identity, and in which space and time disappear in a four dimensional continuum of indistinguishable events which is neither space nor time is a reflection of the treatment of time as passage without becoming (PP, 19).The universe doesn't just spin its wheels and offer motion without real novelty. Part of the impetus behind The Philosophy of the Present was to argue against an interpretation of space-time, such as Hermann Minkowski's, which eliminates the truly novel or the emergent. Emergence involves not only biological organisms, but matter and energy, for example, there is a sense in which water can be spoken of as emerging from the combination of hydrogen and oxygen.[1] Nevertheless, biological examples appear best suited to Mead's approach. It's worth noting at this juncture that Mead had always been keenly interested in science and the scientific method. However, as a pragmatist, the test of a scientific hypothesis for him is whether it can illuminate the world that is there. He certainly was never a positivist.As mentioned, Mead is a systemic thinker who speaks of taking the perspectives of others and of generalized others. These perspectives are not “subjective” for Mead. They are “objective” in the sense that they provide frames of reference and shared patterns of behavior for members of communities. (This is not to say that every human community has an equally viable account of the natural world. This is in part why we have science for Mead.) However, it is not only human

perspectives that are objective for Mead. While it is true that only human beings share perspectives in a manner that allows them to be (self) conscious about the perspectives of others, there is an objective reality to non-human perspectives. How can a non-human perspective be objective? In order to answer this question, a few general remarks about Mead's notion of “perspective” are in order. First, it is important to note that perspectives are not primarily visual for Mead. They are ways of speaking about how organisms act and interact in environments. In the words of David Miller,According to Mead, every perspective is a consequence of an active, selecting organism, and no perspective can be built up out of visual experiences alone or out of experiences of the so-called secondary qualities. A perspective arises out of a relation of an active, selective, percipient event and its environment. It determines the order of things in the environment that are selected, and it is in nature….We make distinctions among objects in our environment, finally, through, contact (Miller 1973, 213).Mead has been referred to as a tactile philosopher, as opposed to a visual one, because of the importance of contact experience in his thought. Perspectives involve contact and interaction between organisms and their environments. For example, a fish living in a certain pond can be thought of as inhabiting an ecosystem. The way in which it navigates the pond, finds food to eat, captures its food, etc., can be spoken of as the fish's perspective on the pond, and it is objective, that is, its interactions are not a matter of the subjective perceptions of the fish. Its interactions in its environment shape and give form to its perspective, which is different from the snail's perspective, although it lives in the same waters. In other words, organisms stratify environments in different ways as they seek to meet their needs (Miller 1973, 207–217). The pond, in fact, is not one system but many systems in the sense that its inhabitants engage in different, interlaced interactions, and therefore have different objective perspectives. The fish, of course, does not comprehend its perspective or localized environment as a system, but this doesn't make its perspective subjective. Human beings, given our capacity to discuss systems in language, can describe the ecology of a pond (or better, the ecologies of a pond depending on what organisms we are studying). We can describe, with varying degrees of accuracy, what it is like to be a fish living in a particular pond, as opposed to a snail. Through study we learn about the perspectives of other creatures, although we cannot share them as we can the perspectives of the language bearing members of our own species.For Mead, as noted, systems are not static. This is especially evident in the biological world. New forms of life arise, and some of them are due to the efforts of human beings, for example, the botanists who create hybrids. Mead argues that if a new form of life emerges from another form, then there is a time when the new organism has not fully developed, and therefore has not yet modified its environmental niche. In this situation the older order, the old environment, has not disappeared but neither has the new one been born. Mead refers to this state of betwixt and between as sociality.When the new form has established its citizenship the botanist can exhibit the mutual adjustments that have taken place. The world has become a different world because of the advent, but to identify sociality with this result is to identify it with system merely. It is rather the stage betwixt and between the old system and the new one that I am referring to. If emergence is a feature of reality this phase of adjustment, which comes between the ordered universe before the emergent has arisen and that after it has come to terms with the newcomer, must be a feature also of reality (PP, 47).Sociality is a key idea for Mead and it has implications for his sociology and social psychology. If we think of the “Me” as a system, then there are times when the “I” initiates new responses that may or may not be integrated into an existing “Me.” But if they come to be integrated, then there is a time betwixt and between the old and new “Me” system. What makes this all the more interesting is that at the level of human interactions we have a capacity for reflection. We can become aware of changes that are taking place and even anticipate new “Me's” that may come into being. We can even set up conditions to promote changes that we believe may transform us in certain ways. Or to put this in another light, new problems are bound to arise in the world, and because of our capacity for sociality, we can get some purchase on the courses of action available to us as we reflect on the novel problems confronting us. Of course, because the problems are novel means that we do not have ready solutions. However, the capacity to at times “stand” betwixt and between old and (possible) new orders, as we do between old and new social roles, provides us with some opportunity for anticipating alternatives and integrating new responses. As a matter of fact, Mead links moral development with our capacity for moving beyond old values, old selves, in order to integrate new values into our personalities when new situations call for them.To leave the field to the values represented by the old self is exactly what we term selfishness. The justification for the term is found in the habitual character of conduct with reference to these values.…Where, however, the problem is objectively considered, although the conflict is a social one, it should not resolve itself into a struggle between selves, but into such reconstruction of the situation that different and enlarged and more adequate personalities may emerge (SS in SW, 148) (emphasis added).It's worth noting here that Mead did not develop an ethics, at least not one that was systematically presented. But his position bears a kinship to theorists of moral sentiment, if we understand “the taking the perspectives of others” as a more sophisticated statement of sympathetic attachments. It is important to emphasize that for pragmatic reasons Mead does not think that the idea of compassion is sufficient for grounding an ethics. He argues for a notion of obligation that is tied to transforming social conditions that generate pain and suffering.[2]

Returning to Mead's notion of sociality, we can see that he is seeking to emphasize transitions and change between systems. This emphasis on change has repercussions for his view of the present, which is not to be understood as a knife-edge present. In human experience, the present arises from a past and spreads into the future. In a manner reminiscent of James's account of the stream of thought, Mead argues that the present entails duration (James 1890, 237–283). It retains the receding past and anticipates the imminent future. Yet because reality ultimately exists in the present, Mead argues that the historical past, insofar as it is capable of being experienced, is transformed by novel events. History is not written on an unchanging scroll. Novelty gives lie to this way of seeing the past. By virtue of its originality, the novel event can not be explained or understood in terms of prior interpretations of the past. The past, which by definition can only exist in the present, changes to “conform” to novel events.It is idle, at least for the purposes of experience, to have recourse to a “real” past within which we are making constant discoveries; for that past must be set over against a present within which the emergent appears, and the past, which must then be looked at from the standpoint of the emergent, becomes a different past. The emergent when it appears is always found to follow from the past, but before it appears it does not, by definition, follow from the past (PP, 2).6. Concluding Comments on Determinism and FreedomMead's account of the “Me” and the generalized other has often led commentators to assume that he is a determinist. It is certainly the case that if one were to emphasize Mead's concern with social systems and the social development of the self, one might be led to conclude that Mead is a theorist of the processes of socialization. And the latter, nested as they are within social systems, are beyond the control of individuals. However, when one considers the role of the “I” and novelty in his thinking, it becomes more difficult to view him as a determinist. But his emphasis on novelty only seems to counter determinism with spontaneity. This counter to determinism in itself doesn't supply a notion of autonomy—self-governance and self-determination—that is often viewed as the “essence” of the modern Western notion of the subject. However, Mead was a firm booster of the scientific method, which he viewed as an activity that was at its heart democratic. For him, science is tied to the manner in which human beings have managed from pre-recorded times to solve problems and transform their worlds. We have just learned to be more methodical about the ways in which we solve problems in modern science. If one considers his discussions of science and problem solving behavior, which entail anticipatory experience, the reflexivity of consciousness, the sharing of perspectives and their objective reality, and the creativity of the “I,” then one begins to see how Mead thought that our biological endowments coupled with our social skills could assist us in shaping our own futures, as well aid us in making moral decisions. He did not work out the details of this process, especially with regard to moral autonomy and the “I's” role in it.[3] There is, however, little doubt that he thought autonomy possible, but the condition for its possibility depends on the nature of the self's genesis and the type of society in which it develops.BibliographyPrimary Sources(Abbreviations are noted before the entry.)

[MSC] “The Mechanism of Social Consciousness,” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, IX, 1912, 401–406. Page references are to the reprinted edition, [SW] Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead, ed. Andrew J. Reck, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.

[SS] “The Social Self,” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, X, 1913, 374–380. Page references are to the reprinted edition, [SW] Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead, ed. Andrew J. Reck, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.

[PP] The Philosophy of the Present, edited, with an Introduction, by Arthur E. Murphy, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1932.

[MSS] Mind, Self, and Society: From the Perspective of a Social Behaviorist, edited, with an Introduction, by Charles W. Morris, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.

[MT] Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, edited, with an Introduction, by Merritt H. Moore, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936.

[PA] The Philosophy of the Act, edited, with an Introduction, by Charles W. Morris, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.

[SW] Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead, ed. Andrew J. Reck, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.

[ISS] The Individual and the Social Self: Unpublished Works of George Herbert Mead, edited, with an Introduction, by David L. Miller, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

[ESP] Essays in Social Psychology, edited, with an Introduction, by Mary Jo Deegan, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2001.

[PE] The Philosophy of Education, eds. Gert J.J. Biesta and Daniel Troehler, Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2011.Secondary Sources Aboulafia, Mitchell, 1986, The Mediating Self: Mead, Sartre, and Self-Determination, New Haven: Yale University Press. –––. ed., 1991, Philosophy, Social Theory, and the Thought of George Herbert Mead, Albany: SUNY Press. –––. 2001, The Cosmopolitan Self: George Herbert Mead and Continental Philosophy, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. –––. 2010, Transcendence: On Self-Determination and Cosmopolitanism, Stanford: Stanford University Press. Baldwin, John D., 2002, George Herbert Mead: A Unifying Theory for Sociology, Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. Blumer, Herbert, 2004, George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct, edited, with an Introduction, by Thomas J. Morrione, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Campbell, James, 1981, “George Herbert Mead on Intelligent Social Reconstruction,” Symbolic Interaction, 4(2): 191–205.

Cook, Gary A., 1993, George Herbert Mead, The Making of a Social Pragmatist, Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Deegan, Mary Jo, 2008, Self, War, and Society: George Herbert Mead's Macrosociology, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Dewey, John, 1932, “Prefatory Remarks,” in George Herbert Mead, The Philosophy of the Present, ed. Arthur E. Murphy, La Salle, IL: Open Court. Fischer, Marilyn, 2008, “Mead and the International Mind,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 44(3): 508–531. Gillespie, A., 2005, “G. H. Mead: Theorist of the social act,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35: 19–39. Habermas, Jürgen, 1987, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. II, tr. Thomas McCarthy, Boston: Beacon Press. –––. 1992, “Individuation through Socialization: On George Herbert Mead's Theory of Subjectivity,” in Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical Essays, tr. William Mark Hohengarten, Cambridge: MIT Press, 149–204. Hanson, Karen, 1986, The Self Imagined: Philosophical reflections on the social character of the psyche, New York and London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. James, William, 1890, The Principles of Psychology, Volume One, New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1890. Reprinted, New York: Dover Publications, 1950. (Reprint and the original have the same pagination.) –––. 1904, “Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist?”, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, 1(18): 477–491. Page reference is to the reprinted edition in The Writings of William James, ed. John J. McDermott, New York: Random House, 1968. –––. 1905, “The Notion of Consciousness,” Archives de Psychologie, 5(17). Page reference is to the reprinted edition in The Writings of William James, ed. John J. McDermott, New York: Random House, 1968. [This paper was first presented in French at the Fifth International Congress of Psychology, Rome, April, 1905] Joas, Hans, 1985, G.H. Mead: A Contemporary Re-examination of his Thought, trs. Raymond Meyer, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Martin, Jack, and Gillespie, A., 2010, “A neo-Meadian approach to human agency: Relating the social and the psychological in the ontogenesis of perspective coordinating persons,”Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 44: 252–272. Martin, Jack, and Sokol, Bryan, 2011, “Generalized others and imaginary audiences: A neo-Meadian approach to adolescent egocentrism,” New Ideas in Psychology, 29(3): 364–375. Martin, J., 2005, “Perspectival selves in interaction with others: Re-reading G. H. Mead's social psychology,” The Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35: 231–253. –––, 2006, “Re-interpreting internalization and agency through G. H. Mead's perspectival realism,” Human Development, 49: 65–86. –––., 2007, “Interpreting and extending G. H. Mead's 'metaphysics' of selfhood and agency,” Philosophical Psychology, 20: 441–456. Miller, David, 1973, George Herbert Mead: Self, Language, and the World, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1973. Page references are to the reprinted edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Natanson, Maurice, 1956, The Social Dynamics of George H. Mead, Introduction by Horace M. Kallen, Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press. Pfuetze, Paul E., 1961, Self, Society, Existence: Human Nature and Dialogue in the Thought of George Herbert Mead and Martin Buber, New York: Harper and Row, Torchbooks. Silva, Filipe Carreira da, 2008, Mead and Modernity: Science, Selfhood, and Democratic Politics, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Stone, J. E., Carpendale, J. I. M., Sugarman, J., and Martin, J., 2012, “A Meadian account of false belief understanding: Taking a non-mentalistic approach to infant and verbal false belief understanding,” New Ideas in Psychology, 30: 166–178. Rosenthal, Sandra B. and Patrick L. Bourgeois, 1991, Mead and Merleau-Ponty: Toward a Common Vision, Albany: SUNY Press. Shalin, Dmitri, 1988, “G.H. Mead and the Progressive Agenda,” American Journal of Sociology, 93(4): 913–951. Waal, Cornelis de, 2001, On Mead, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Kohlberg's Moral Stage Theory 

Explanations > Learning Theory > Kohlberg's Moral Stage Theory Lawrence Kohlberg found that Piaget's stage theory was rather simplistic and discovered that individuals mix their modes of thinking, particularly in moral development. He developed a six stage model, broken down into three levels and with two stages at each level. 

Level Name Characteristics

Level 1 Pre-conventional

Stage 1 Heteronomous morality Sticks to the rules.Moral judgement as avoiding punishment.

Stage 2Individualism / instrumentalism

Concrete individual interests. Is aware of others' interests.Moral judgement as what serves me.

Level 2 Conventional

Stage 3 Mutual interpersonal

Lives up to others' expectations in order to be seen to be good and then has self-regard as being good.Moral judgement as avoiding rejection by others.

Stage 4 Social system and conscience Fulfils social duties in order to keep the social system going.Moral judgement as avoiding criticism by

respected authority.

Level 3 Post-conventional

Stage 5 Social contractUpholds relative rules in the interest of impartiality and welfare for all.Moral judgement as social respect.

Stage 6 Universal ethical principlesFollows self-chosen ethical principles, even when they conflict with the laws.Moral judgement as personal conscience.

So what?When working with people's values and ethics, be aware of the stage that they are at. Work with their values, not yours.You may also consider displaying values that are similar to theirs, but beware of the traps of appearing false and immoral that this can bring.

Self (psychanalyse)Le terme self est la traduction anglaise du soi. Il est utilisé en psychologie selon plusieurs acceptions, pas toutes compatibles. En psychanalyse, il se réfère à la notion de Donald Woods Winnicott qui a notamment distingué le "vrai self" du "faux":

Le vrai self désigne l'image que le sujet se fait de lui même et qui correspond effectivement à ce qu'il est et perçoit à travers une réaction adaptée.

Le faux self désigne une instance qui s'est constituée pour s'adapter à une situation plus ou moins anormale et contraignante. L'image qui est alors en cause est défensive et fonction de réactions inadaptées de l'environnement et est surtout représentative d'un rôle qu'on lui aurait imposé.

Sommaire [masquer]

1 Origine du vrai self et du faux self 2 Le vrai self 3 Le faux self 3.1 Développement du faux self 3.2 Les cinq degrés d'organisation du faux self 3.3 Rôle du potentiel intellectuel 3.4 Rôle de l'environnement 3.5 Différents types de faux self 4 Les avis sur la distinction du vrai et du faux self 5 Notes

Origine du vrai self et du faux self[modifier]

Dans le développement le plus courant (non pathologique), à mesure que les capacités du très jeune enfant progressent, la mère initialement parfaite cesse de l'être (pour celui-ci).Des inadaptations adviennent, inévitablement, mais qui sont en partie rattrapées, et progressivement compensées par les capacités intellectuelles grandissantes de l'enfant.L'enfant fait tout d'abord l'expérience illusoire de l'omnipotence. En effet, sa mère s'adapte parfaitement à lui. Lorsque survient une tension ou un besoin, la mère fournit au nourrisson de quoi le soulager.Ce dernier a alors l'illusion d'avoir créé, précisément au moment où il en avait besoin, ce qui allait le satisfaire. Il prend ainsi confiance en une réalité extérieure dans laquelle se trouvent les moyens de répondre à ses besoins. Le monde vaut ainsi la peine d'être connu et la vie vaut la peine d'être vécue puisque (à ce stade), ils répondent à ses besoins ordinaires. Ils participent «magiquement» à son bien-être. C'est l'origine de la pensée magique qui correspond à un stade archaïque du développement du nourrisson. Grossièrement, il lui suffit de demander ce qu'il désire pour l'obtenir.On peut dire qu'après s'être activement adaptée afin d'assurer un environnement le plus parfait possible, la mère «good enough» (suffisamment bonne) s'adapte activement à assurer un environnement imparfait, mais pas trop, l'imperfection progressant en fonction des capacités croissantes de l'enfant qui apprend inconsciemment que, dans le monde qui l'environne, il existe quelque chose qui fait que la vie vaut le coup d'être vécue. Et le bébé fait l'expérience de la réalité : la vie vaut bien la peine d'être vécue, mais tout ne survient pas magiquement dès qu'on le désire.L'origine du faux self se situe pendant la période où le bébé ne différencie pas encore le « moi » et le « non-moi », c'est-à-dire que cette différence est la plupart du temps non intégrée, et lorsqu'elle l'est, elle ne l'est jamais complètement. Il arrive alors parfois que le bébé esquisse un geste spontané (qui « ...exprime une pulsion spontanée1... », celui-ci manifeste qu'existe un vrai self, potentiel. Selon la manière qu'a la mère de jouer son rôle, elle favorisera l'établissement du vrai self ou au contraire du faux self.

Le vrai self[modifier]

Si la mère répond à ce qui se manifeste comme l'expression de l'omnipotence du nourrisson, à chaque occasion, elle lui donne une signification et participe à l'établissement du vrai self. On peut dire aussi, qu'ainsi elle permet à son bébé de faire

l'expérience de l'illusion de l'omnipotence. Cette expérience de l'illusion, qui n'est possible qu'à la condition d'une adaptation active de la mère, est le préalable à l'expérience des phénomènes transitionnels, au sein desquels s'établit la créativité.Le vrai self est défini comme : « ...position théorique d'où proviennent le geste spontané et l'idée personnelle. Le geste spontané est le vrai «self» en action. Seul le vrai «self» peut être créateur et seul le vrai «self» peut être ressenti comme réel2. ».C'est celui-ci dont D.W. Winnicott se préoccupe en séance, qu'il vise. Seul le vrai self est à même de faire l'expérience de l'espace potentiel. C'est dans celui-ci qu'il est possible de jouer (playing), ce qui pour D.W. Winnicott correspond à la santé et qui se développe jusqu'à englober toute l'aire culturelle, toute activité créatrice.

Le faux self[modifier]

Développement du faux self[modifier]

Si, au contraire, la mère est incapable de répondre à cette manifestation, elle substitue au geste spontané du bébé le sien, auquel ce dernier est alors contraint de se soumettre. Cette situation maintes fois répétée participe à ce qu'un faux self se développe d'une manière prépondérante.« Il y a séduction du nourrisson qui en vient à se soumettre et un faux « self » soumis réagit aux exigences de l'environnement que le nourrisson semble accepter3. »L'enfant, au lieu de pouvoir faire l'expérience de l'action libre et spontanée qui trouve un écho dans la réalité extérieure est contraint à la réaction. L'environnement le détermine. En grandissant, il s'adapte et peut ressembler à la personne qui occupe alors le premier plan.On comprend que l'expérience des phénomènes transitionnels, puis de toute expérience créative, soient compromises. En effet, ceux-ci ‘’s'originent’’ d'un complexe d'activités [geste spontané - fragment de la réalité extérieure]. En s'adaptant, le nourrisson ne peut alors pas faire l'expérience des phénomènes transitionnels, puisqu'il s'est constitué en s'adaptant à son environnement. Ne faisant pas, ou trop peu l'expérience illusoire de l'omnipotence, le bébé ne pourra pas connaître l'aire intermédiaire, lieu de la plus grande créativité.Il convient de garder à l'esprit que « Le faux self a une fonction positive très importante : dissimuler le vrai « self », ce qu'il fait en se soumettant aux exigences de l'environnement4 ». En le dissimulant il est clair qu’il le protège d’une certaine manière ce vrai-self apparemment trop fragile. Le faux self a donc une fonction d'adaptation et de protection du vrai self. Ce qui compte c'est le rapport entre les deux. Il ne s'agit pas de l'opposition normal / pathologique. Ce sont plutôt le déséquilibre des rapports entre les deux self qui peuvent induire et indiquer un état pathologique. Donc, lorsqu'une scission trop importante pour être rattrapée s'est instaurée entre les deux self.

Les cinq degrés d'organisation du faux self[modifier]

D.W. Winnicott distingue cinq degrés d'organisation du faux self :1. À l'extrême, c'est le faux self que l'on prend pour la personne, le vrai self inapparent restant dissimulé. Cependant, il manque au

faux self « ...quelque chose d'essentiel. » (Ibid., p. 121.). Socialement la personne est ressentie comme fausse.2. Le faux self protège le vrai self qui reste virtuel. C'est « ...l'exemple le plus clair d'une maladie clinique organisée dans un but

positif : la préservation de l'individu en dépit des conditions anormales de l'environnement. » (Ibid.).3. Plus proche de la santé, le faux self prend en charge la recherche des conditions qui permettront au vrai self de « recouvrer son

bien » (Ibid.). Son bien: c.à.d. son identité propre.4. Encore plus proche de la santé, le faux self « ...s'établit sur la base d'identifications... »(Ibid.).5. Chez une personne en bonne santé, le faux self est constitué de ce qui organise « ...une attitude sociale polie, de bonnes

manières et une certaine réserve. » (Ibid.). C'est cette politesse qui permet la vie en Société.

Rôle du potentiel intellectuel[modifier]

Dans le cas d'un faux self établi chez une personne avec un potentiel intellectuel important, l'esprit tend à devenir le siège du faux self. On peut ainsi observer des réussites scolaires brillantes qui sont l'œuvre de faux selfs. La souffrance de l'individu, pour être difficile à percevoir, n'en est pas moins réelle. Il est possible même qu'elle s'accroisse à la mesure de la réussite académique et sociale, avec un sentiment de « fausseté » apparente. Il arrive un moment, inévitable, où les tensions (entre le vrai et le faux) devenant trop fortes ces personnes rentrent alors, tôt ou tard, dans unprocessus d'autodestruction qui s'exprimera, de manière diverse, sur un mode mixte: somatique par des affections psychosomatiques, auto-mutilations, etc... ou purement sur un mode psychiatrique.Ce point, (la réussite scolaire et/ ou sociale) que D.W. Winnicott rappelle à plusieurs reprises est difficile à comprendre puisque, par ailleurs, il affirme qu'une caractéristique du faux self est une capacité plus faible à employer les symboles. Pourrait-il y avoir des personnes avec un intellect brillant, réussissant un parcours académique brillant, tout en ne pouvant que faiblement employer des symboles et en ayant une vie culturelle pauvre ? Ou bien, peut-être s'agit-il de plusieurs modalités d'organisations possibles d'un faux self. Par ailleurs, une grande intelligence permettrait de compenser de beaucoup la faillite de l'environnement et ainsi, même dans un environnement assez peu convenable, d'assurer un développement psychoaffectif relativement satisfaisant. Une piste de réponse se trouve peut-être dans La nature humaine où il écrit :«  Le clinicien a affaire à l'enfant dont l'intellect est mû par l'angoisse et sursollicité, ce qui, là encore, est le résultat d'un trouble émotionnel (menace de confusion), et dont le Q.I. élevé chute lorsque - résultat de la psychothérapie ou modification contrôlée et réussie de l'environnement - la peur du chaos qui était imminente, recule5. »

Rôle de l'environnement[modifier]

Dans une conférence, il indique de plus que lorsque l'environnement n'est pas suffisamment adapté,« Le bébé survit au moyen de l'esprit. La mère exploite le pouvoir du bébé de penser à des choses, de les corriger, et de les comprendre. Si le bébé possède un bon dispositif mental, cette pensée devient un substitut pour les soins et l'adaptation de la mère. Le bébé « se materne » lui-même au moyen de la compréhension, c'est-à-dire en comprenant trop. Il s'agit d'un cas typique de ‘’« Cogito, ergo dans mea potestate sum »’’ (je pense, donc je suis en possession de mon pouvoir). A l'extrême,

l'esprit et la pensée ont permis au bébé, qui maintenant grandit et suit le modèle développemental, de se passer de l'aspect le plus important de soins maternels dont tous les bébés ont besoin, à savoir la fiabilité et l'adaptation [de la mère] aux besoins fondamentaux6. »

Différents types de faux self[modifier]

Ainsi D. Winnicott envisage qu'une grande intelligence puisse résulter de l'environnement. Il y aurait au moins deux types de faux self, certains ne pouvant que faiblement employer des symboles et d'autres avec une grande intelligence, résultat d'une sursollicitation du cerveau afin de compenser les trop importants défauts de l'environnement. Par suite, il y aurait au moins deux types d'intelligence : saine ou bien pathologique.Si une organisation de faux self se met en place très tôt dans la vie, il convient de garder à l'esprit que sa relation d'avec le vrai self est susceptible d'évoluer, notamment en fonction de l'environnement de la personne considérée et des soins adaptés qu'elle reçoit ou non. Ainsi, le travail thérapeutique de D. Winnicott qui visait, en premier lieu, à établir un contact avec le vrai self de son patient. Dans un autre cadre, celui d'un établissement sanitaire, le psychiatre P. Charazac, s'appuyant sur les travaux de D. Winnicott, montre que la vie en établissement (dans son cas pour personnes âgées) peut conduire au renforcement du faux self des personnes accueillies. Ainsi, alors que leur état de santé s'aggrave, ces personnes, du fait même de leur bonne adaptation (une des principales caractéristiques d'un faux self), sont au contraire considérées comme se portant bien (P. Charazac, « Sur le renforcement tardif du faux self chez certains vieillards », dans Psychanalyse à l'université, Paris, n° 67, 1992). Quant à D. Winnicott : « La créativité chez l'individu est détruite par des facteurs de l'environnement intervenant tardivement dans la croissance personnelle7. »

Les avis sur la distinction du vrai et du faux self[modifier]

Les propositions de vrai self et de faux self de Winnicott ne sont pas acceptées sans réserves. Le premier obstacle, pour les français tout au moins, tiendrait à la référence au « self », au « soi », qui est moins courant dans la théorie française. J.-B. Pontalis explique que la difficulté peut être située au niveau culturel lui-même8.Pour Winnicott lui-même, la différence entre « moi » et « soi » (self) n'était pas assurée, cependant il tenait à cette distinction, déclarant que l'utilisation du terme « self » concernait directement le fait de vivre.Jean-Bertrand Pontalis et Maud Mannoni 9  sont très réservés quant à la validité théorique de la distinction du vrai self et du faux self établie par D.W. Winnicott, mais ils reconnaissent la justesse et la nécessité d'un point de vue clinique.

Notes[modifier]1. ↑  D. Winnicott, « Distorsion du moi en fonction du vrai et du faux » self « », dans Processus de maturation chez l'enfant, op. cit., p. 121.)2. ↑  Ibid., pp. 125-126.3. ↑  Ibid., p. 123.4. ↑  Ibid., p. 124.5. ↑  D. Winnicott, La nature humaine, op. cit., p. 26.6. ↑  Introductory Lecture for « New Light on Children's Thinking »conférence au Devon Center for Further Education), cité dans Winnicott,

Introduction à son œuvre, M. Davis & D. Wallbridge, op. cit., p. 96.7. ↑  dans Jeu et réalité, op. cit., p. 96.8. ↑  J.-B. Pontalis, « Naissance et reconnaissance du soi », dans Entre le rêve et la douleur, op. cit.9. ↑  M. Mannoni, La théorie comme fiction, op. cit., p. 63