The social self

We been looking inwards, when perhaps all the time we should have been looking outwards. Is the key to identity to be found not in our minds, but in the social world? The idea that the self is ‘socially constructed’ has been rather in vogue in some intellectual circles for some decades now. However, the idea of the ‘social self’ goes back to at least 1890, when William James talked about ‘the images other men have framed of me’ in The Principles of Psychology.1 We internalise these images and they become part of our self-image. To put it simply, how we are seen by others affects how we see ourselves.

Saved 23 April 2015

#self #society #identity #psychology