THE SELF FROM THE VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 1. Philosophical Perspective on Self

Chapter 2. Sociological and Anthropological Self
Chapter 3. Psychological Self
Chapter 4. The Self in Western and Eastern Thought

LEARNING OUTCOME
1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from
various disciplinal perspectives;
2. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different
disciplines and perspectives;
3. Examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self;
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of
oneself and identity by developing a theory of the self.

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 Chapter 1
Philosophical Perspective on Self

Learning Objectives
1. Explain the role of philosophy in understanding the self.
2. Discuss the different concepts of the self from the philosophical perspective.
3. Differentiate the various concepts of the self and identify their similarities.
4. Develop your own philosophy of the self.

Philosophy
Philosophy is derived from the Greek words “Philos” and “Sophia” which literally
means “Love for Wisdom”. It is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking
and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and existence of
man and the world we live in. As such, it is imperative to look into the various explanations
from different philosophers their notion of what the “Self” its nature and how it is formed
in order to have a better picture on how people develop their behaviors, attitude and
actions and to be able to identify and understand who we are and how we came to be.

Socrates
Socrates’ work was never published, we were only able to know who Socrates is
and his works because of his illustrious students spoke generously and in detail about his
knowledge, wit, wisdom and intellect. His student Plato for example included Socrates in
some of his work as a pivotal character.
He could be considered as the first martyr of education, knowledge and
philosophy. For lighting up the minds of his students, he was literally charged with
corruption of minors. He was made to choose between exile and death via the intake of
hemlock. Socrates chose the latter, thus dying as a martyr that fights against ignorance
and narrow-mindedness.
The philosophy of Socrates underlies in the importance of the notion “knowing
oneself” for him, men’s goal in life is to obtain happiness and such goal motivates us to
act towards or avoid things that could have negative repercussions in our lives. As such,
by fully knowing oneself a person will be able to achieve happiness.
Socrates also posited that possession of knowledge is a virtue and that ignorance
is a depravity, that a person’s acceptance of ignorance is the beginning of acquisition of
knowledge. So, one must first have the humility to acknowledge one’s ignorance so as
to be able to know what he is lacking and what he needs to know.
Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in knowing ourselves lies in our own
abilities and wisdom, and that the only way for us to understand ourselves is through
internal questioning or introspection. This method of questioning oneself, where the

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person assumes the role of both the teacher and the student is known to the world as
the Socratic Method or Socratic Conversation.
By continuously asking and evaluating who we are we as a person will also be able
to understand our strengths and weaknesses, the things that we like and dislike, how we
want people to treat us and how we want ourselves to be treated, so by knowing these
things we can act in accordance to what we know we are and live our lives following our
knowledge of ourselves.

Plato
One of the most prominent thinkers of his time, Plato included in his work the
learnings and ideas shared to him by his teacher Socrates. He wrote several literatures
that tackles politics, human nature, and established the idea of virtue and intelligence.
Plato is historically known to be the father of the academy a place where learning and
sharing of knowledge happens, that later became one of the pillars and basis of what
schools and education is now in the present.
Plato generally followed his teacher and the idea of knowing thyself although from
his works such with the notable ones’ such as the allegory of the cave, the apology, and
his work on a perfect government and societal system, “the Republic” where he said that
the world can only be led by a Philosopher king, a person who is virtuous as well as
intelligent. According to Plato, a person who is a follower of truth and wisdom will not be
tempted by vices and will always be just.
Plato also believed in the division of a person’s body and soul which forms the
person as a whole aside from the material things and that could be observed and
associated with a person, Plato presented the idea the ones’ soul is divided into 3 different
parts that has different views leading to different behaviors, these parts of the soul are
known as the Appetitive, Spirited, and Rational Soul.

Plato’s 3 parts of the soul

Appetitive Soul –Plato’s idea of the appetitive soul is the part of the person that is
driven by desire and need to satisfy oneself. This satisfaction both involves physical needs
and pleasures and desires. As long as the person find an object or situation good or
satisfying, the Appetitive soul can drive the person to lean towards those objects and
situations.
Spirited Soul – this part of the soul can be attributed to the courageous part of a
person, one who wants to do something or to right the wrongs that they observe. Spirited
soul is very competitive and is very active, his competitiveness drives one to expect
positive results and winning.

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 Rational Soul – The last part of the soul could be said is the driver of our lives, this
is the part that thinks and plan for the future “the conscious mind” it decides what to do,
when to do it and the possible results one could have depending on their actions.

St. Augustine
A Saint and a Philosopher of the church, St. Augustine follows the idea that God
encompasses us all, that everything will be better if we are with God. His work’s focal
point is on how God and his teachings affects various aspects in life, he follows the belief
that everything is better if we devote ourselves in mending our relationship with God.
His idea of a man and how to understand who we are as a person is related to our
understanding of who we are and how we question ourselves, though St. Augustine also
relates our existence to God being modeled in his likeness though being alive means that
we are still far from God and has yet to be truly with him.
St. Augustine also rejected the doubtfulness of the academy in which one cannot
or should not accept ideas from others. He emphasized that we may not be able to give
our agreement to everything other people tell us but we can still agree to those who we,
from our own perception, think is right or wrong based from our perception.
He believes that our notion of ourselves and our idea of existence comes from a
higher form of sense in which bodily senses may not perceive or understand, and the
more one doubts and question his life means that, that person is actually living. St.
Augustine while integrating the teaching of the church in his philosophy and establishing
our sense of self with God which we cannot achieve with our bodies since the limitation
of our senses in truly understanding the essence of our existence and role in the world is
limited. So, people are in need to establish their relationship with god through being
virtuous, but at the same time, to be able to stand by on what we think is true, who we
think we are that are from our own understanding and solely defined by us alone although
people may say differently, by continuously questioning and finding the truth will we be
able to find the best answer to who we are and what our role is in the world.

Descartes
Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher known to be the father of modern
philosophy because of his radical use of systematic and early scientific method to aid his
ideas and assumptions. Though his works were often compared or said to be similar to
the concept of St. Augustine which could be traced back to the works of Plato, what his
ideas sets him apart is on his belief in modern dualism or the existence of body and mind
and it’s implication to one’s existence were presented with the evidences from
experiments as well as philosophical reasoning, he also known to be the proponent of
the “Methodical Doubt” which simply meant of a continuous process of questioning what
we perceive and accepting the fact that doubting, asking questions are a part of ones’
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existence. As such he has defined the roles of the mind and body to the notion of one’s
existence and sense of self.
Descartes is known for the statement “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means in English
as “I think therefore I am”. According to him a person is comprised of mind and body,
the body that perceives from the different senses and the mind that thinks and question
or doubt what the body has experienced. For him, the body and its perceptions cannot
fully be trusted or can easily be deceived, for instance there are times that we feel that
a dream is real before actually waking up or having different perception of size based on
an objects distance from the viewer.
Descartes explained that because we cannot always trust our senses and in turn
what we perceive as who we are or the essence of our existence, we as a rational being
should focus on the mind and explained that the more, we think and doubt what we
perceived from our senses and the answer that came from such thinking or doubting
leads to better understanding of ourselves. He also implies that being in a constant doubt
regarding one’s existence is proof than a person actually exists.

Locke
John Locke is an English Philosopher, Physician, He is considered to be the father
of Classical liberalism some of his works on this subject matter paved the way to several
revolutions to fight the absolute powers of monarchs and rulers of his time that led to
the development of governance, politics and economic system that we now know.
His work on the self is most represented by the concept “Tabula Rasa” which
means a Blank Slate. He believed that the experiences and perceptions of a person is
important in the establishment of who that person can become. Unlike what the other
Philosophers view on human experiences and senses, John Locke does not disregard the
experiences of the person in the identification and establishment of who we are as a
person. He stated that a person is born with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to
stimulation and accumulation of learning from the experiences, failures, references, and
observations of the person.
Considering this, the process of the mind to absorb information and accumulate
knowledge may imply that as a person to be able to be whom we want to be, with the
right stimulations, enough experiences, as well as awareness that by primarily knowing
nothing will enable one to be open to any kind of learning and does not limit any
possibilities for growth implies that the opportunity for one person to develop to anything
he wants to be is limited only to the environment, experiences, and the choices of the
person.

Hume

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 The Scottish Philosopher David Hume, focused his work in the field of Empiricism,
Skepticism, and naturalism. Being an Empiricist, which believes in concrete evidences and
observable experiences that meld a person, his notion on the self contradicts to the ideas
of the philosophers before him which said that at the notion of self, one’s identity and
behavior does not exceed the physical realm and that the “Self” is only the accumulation
of different impressions.
According to him, there is no permanent “self”, that since our impressions of things
based from our experiences and from such impressions, we can create our ideas and
knowledge which leads to the argument that since our impression and ideas change, it
may improve or totally be replaced means that one change occurred the same
phenomenon of will happen to one’s idea of who he is and what he can do.
That is the idea that Hume reiterated when saying that there should be no
permanent concept of the self. He said when a person is asked the question “who you
are? “That person tends to answer different impressions such as good, happy, optimistic,
contented, sad, etc. generally, they apply to who you are now but at the same time
these characteristics might change from time to time. If the neighbor you knew your
entire life to be happy and have a positive outlook suddenly looked sad and discontented
can we say that the person you seeing is not your neighbor anymore?

Kant
Immanuel Kant, a German Philosopher that is known for his works on Empiricism
and Rationalism. Kant responded to Hume’s work by trying to establish that the collection
of impressions and different contents is what it only takes to define a person.
Kant argued that the awareness of different emotions that we have, impressions
and behavior is only a part of our self. He said that to fully understand who we are, a
certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our intuition which synthesizes all the
experiences, impressions and perceptions of ourselves will pave the way to define and
know who we really are.
Kant argued that the sense called “Transcendental Apperception” is an essence of
our consciousness that provides basis for understanding and establishing the notion of
“self” by synthesizing one’s accumulation of experiences, intuition and imagination goes.
Which means that this idea goes beyond what we experience but still able to become
aware of. For example, the idea of time and space, we may not be able to observe the
movement of time and the vastness of space but we are still capable of understanding
their concept based from what we can observe as their representation.
With that in mind and following the idea of Kant about Self, we can say that we
are not only an object that perceives and reacts to whatever it is that we are experiencing,
we also have the capabilities to understand beyond those experiences and be able to

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think and have a clear identification who we are and establish a sense of self that is
unique and distinct from others.

Freud
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian Psychologist and Physician, he is also known as the
father of psychoanalysis and is known for his work on human nature and the unconscious.
Freud believed that man has different constructs of personality that interacts with each
other and along with his concept of the different levels of consciousness provides an idea how
a person develops a sense of self.

Aspects of Personality
ID - also known as the child aspect of a person, The ID’s attention is on satisfaction
of one’s needs and self-gratification. It is driven by the pleasure principle.
SUPEREGO- is the conscience of the one’s personality, Superego has the inclination
to uphold justice and do what is morally right and socially acceptable actions. The
superego is involved in the notion of right or wrong that is imparted to us by our parents
or people that tool care for us during childhood.
EGO - Sometimes known as the Police or the mediator between id and superego.
It operates within the boundaries of reality; primary function is to maintain the impulses
of the ID to an acceptable degree.
Freud also introduced the idea that the accumulation of the experiences of a
person helps build his personality although such information is not stored in a single area
where we can access them at any time. He introduced the levels of consciousness, The
Conscious where minority of our memories are being stored and the memories that are
in the conscious is easier to be tapped or accessed. The other one is the Pre-conscious,
the middle part of the entirety of our consciousness, the memories stored in this area can
still be accessed but with a little difficulty. And the last one is the Unconscious; this area
is where majority of our memories since childhood are deeply stored. It is very difficult
to tap the memories in the unconscious, it would need a trained professional and several
special techniques in order to make some memories resurface. Freud believed that we
are a by-product of our experiences in the past. And that are actions are driven by the
idea of resisting or avoiding pain, and are molded from our need for pleasure or being
happy.

Ryle
Gilbert Ryle with his Behavioristic approach to self, said that self is the behaviour
presented by the person, his notion of dualism is that the behaviour that we show,
emotions and actions are the reflection of our mind and as such is the manifestation of
who we are. Ryle does not believe that the mind and body, though some say can coexist,

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are two separate entities which is said to be evident in the unexplainable phenomenon
or abilities of the mind where the soul is considered. To him, once we encounter others,
their perceptions of what we do, how we act, and the way we behave will then result to
the understanding of other people and establishing of who we are.
His explanation of self is further exemplified in his “ghost in the machine” view.
This view said the man is a complex machine with different functioning parts, and the
intelligence, and other characteristics or behavior of man is represented by the ghost in
the said machine.
He gave further explanation using an example imagining that if you are touring a
visiting friend to the university that you are studying and you brought him to the athletic
centre, library, buildings and classrooms, but then your friends ask “but where is the
university? As such is the point of Ryle, all those places, buildings and offices are the
university which supports his idea that the mind and body is not necessarily separate
entities. So, considering that analogy, the idea of Ryle is saying that the things that we
do, how we behave and react and all other components like the way we talk, walk, and
look is generally who we are as a person.

Churchland
Paul Churchland a Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the idea that people
should improve our association and use of words in identifying the self. He has this idea
that the “self” is defined by the movements of our brain. Churchland’s work revolves
around challenging of the notion and terms being used to explain behavior or to explain
how a person feels, thinks, and act with regards to physiological phenomenon that is
happening in the body as well as definitions brought about by emotions, this is one of
the notions of the concept of Folk Psychology also known as common sense psychology.
The main philosophy of Churhland built the idea of “eliminative materialism”.
Basically, eliminative materialism opposes that people’s common sense understanding of
the mind is false and that most of the mental states that people subscribe to, in turn, do
not actually exist, this idea also applies on the understanding of behaviour and emotions.
This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed that to fully understand
one’s behaviour, one should understand the different neurological movement of the brain
that pertains to different emotions, feelings, actions and reactions and how such brain
movements affect the body. With this in mind we can eliminate the ambiguity of
subjective and baseless identification of the mind,behaviour and self in general because
by understanding the different neural pathways, how they work, and what implications
are those movements are to people, will we not only have proof that there is a
measurable classification on one’s behaviour it can also be said that the constant
movement of the brain can be the basis of who the person is this is emphasized by
Churchland and his wife in the statement “The Brain as the Self”.
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Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty is a French philosopher that is known for his
works on existentialism and phenomenology. His idea of the self, regarded that the body
and mind are not separate entities, but rather those two components is one and the
same. His idea that follows the gestalt ideation where the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts in which pushed his idea on the unity of the function of the mind and body,
this idea is called the Phenomenology of Perception.
The idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty is divided
into three (3) division, The Body, The Perceived World, and the People and the world.
The body that both receives the experience as well as integrates such experiences in the
different perception. The Perceived world, which are the accumulation of the perception
as integrated by the experiences of the body. And the People and the world that enable
one to not only be able to integrate the other objects in the world but also to be able to
experience the cultural aspect and relate to others.
His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt psychology which gives important
on the whole than the sum of its part. For him, perception guides our action based from
what our experiences are, the body perceives while our consciousness provides the
meaning or interprets the various perception we have in the world and the self could be
established by the perceptions we have in the world, whereas one’s action, behaviour
and language used could be said to be the reflection of our united perception of the
world.

Required Readings
1. Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In Pervin and John
(eds). Handbook of Personality Theory and Research (pp 134 – 194) . 2nd ed.
Guilford Press.
2. Chafee, J. (2013). Who are you? Consciousness, identity and the self. In the
Philosopher’s Way. Thinking Critical about Profound Ideas (pp 106 – 169).
Pearson.

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 Chapter 2
Sociological and Anthropological Perspective of the Self

Learning Objectives
1. Recognize what sociology and anthropology talks about understanding the self and
others.
2. Understand how individuals view the self as a product of socialization.
3. Explain the theories of the social self.
4. Define what is culture, its components and how culture influences the self.
5. Discuss the self as a product of modern and postmodern societies.
6. Identify different cultural perspectives.
7. Appreciate own social and cultural experiences that have been particularly helpful
in understanding the self.

Sociology
Sociology, or the study of how human society is established, its structure and how
it works, the people’s interaction with each other and the effects they have to one another
is an aspect in which we have to consider with regards to the development of a person.
It is also important to understand that the establishment of the “Self” based on social
structures could give us a better understanding of who we are and provide reasons how
our interactions can affect us as a person.

George Herbert Mead and the Social Self

George Herbert Mead is an American Sociologist, he is considered as the Father of
American pragmatism, and one of the pioneers in the field of social psychology because
of his contributions on the development of the person relating to various social factors.
Mead rejected the idea of biological determination of the self which proposes that an
individual already has an established self from the moment he is born. For him, the notion
of a person with regards to who they are develops from one’s social interaction with other
people. He reiterated that the process of establishing the self is through the construction
and reconstruction of the idea of who we are as a person during the process of social
experience.

The I and the Me

Mead proposes that there are two components of the self which the person has,
these components are the “I” and the “Me”. The “Me” are the characteristics, behavior,
and or actions done by a person that follows the “generalized others” that person interacts
with, while the “I” is the reaction of the individual to the attitude of others, as well as the
manifestation of the individuality of the person. Simply speaking, According to Mead the

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concept the “I” is one’s response to the established attitude, and behavior that a person
assumes in reference to their social interactions while the “Me” are the attitudes, and
behavior of the person with reference to their social environment.

Mead’s Three Role-playing Stages of Self Development

Mead proposed that there three stages in which a person has to go through for
one to develop one’s self. These stages are the Preparation/Language Stage, Play stage,
and Game stage.
The Preparatory Stage (Birth – 2 years Old) – According to Mead, during this stage
the infant simply imitates the actions and behaviors of the people that the infant interacts
with. Because the child is only mimicking what he or she observes from his or her
environment their actions are only the reflection of what they can remember without any
intention or meaning behind their actions or behavior.
The Play Stage (2 – 6 years old) – for the Play stage, it is the time where children
begin to interact with other with which certain rules apply, these rules often time does
not adhere to any set or standards but rather are rules that are set by the children
themselves. Also, this is the stage where the child practices real life situations through
pretend play and is the onset of self- consciousness. The development of the self in this
stage occurs through the preliminary experiences that serves as practice for the child.
The Game Stage (6-9 years old) – The final stage of self-development according
to Mead where are characterized by the ability of the children to recognize the rules of
the game and be able to identify their roles and the roles of the others that is playing
with them. With this, the children at this stage learns the implications of their actions as
well as the understanding or taking into account how one can take into account the view
point of the society on the attitudes and actions.
With the idea of Mead with regards to the establishment of the sense of self,
socialization is a lifetime endeavor, and the people one interacts with will change
throughout a person’s life, as such, considering the social environment one belongs to
along with the changes on the person’s development, may it be at school, home, or work,
the interactions and experiences the person acquires from those people and situations
helps define a more concrete identity and sense of self. That idea of “Self” may be based
on the general attitudes and behaviors of other people or the individuality of the person
that manifests as a response to those attitudes and behaviors of others.

Required Readings
1. Lanuza, G. (2004). The constitution of the self. In David, R. (Ed.), Nation, self and
citizenship. An invitation to Philippine Sociology. Anvil Publishing.
2. Mead, G. (1972). Mind, self and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist .
The University of Chicago Press.

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Anthropology

The Self and the Person in Contemporary Anthropology

The academic discipline of anthropology, or “four-field” anthropology, studies
human species and its immediate ancestors includes four main sub disciplines or subfields
- sociocultural, archeological, biological and linguistic anthropology. Each sub discipline
studies adaptation, the process which organisms cope with the environmental.
Anthropology is a systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity.

The Subdisciplines of Anthropology

1. Cultural Anthropology – Cultural anthropology is the study of human society and
culture which describes, analyzes, interprets and explains social and cultural
similarities and differences. It explores the diversity of the present and the past.
Ethnography and ethnology are two different activities which can study and
interpret cultural diversity. Ethnography requires fieldwork to collect data, often
descriptive and specific to group. On the other hand, ethnology uses data collected
by a series of researches, usually synthetic and comparative.
2. Archeological Anthropology – Archeological anthropology reconstructs, describes
and interprets human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains.
These materials remain such as plant, animal and ancient garbage provides stories
about utilization and actions.
3. Biological, or Physical Anthropology – Biological, or Physical Anthropology focuses
on these special interest, human evolution as revealed by the fossil, human
genetics, human growth and development, human biological plasticity and the
biology, evolution, behavior and social life of monkeys, apes and other nonhuman
primates.
4. Linguistic Anthropology – Linguistic anthropology studies language in its social and
cultural context across space and over time. Universal features of language are
analyzed and association between language and culture are evaluated. It also
studies how speech changes in social situations and over time.

The Self Embedded in the Culture

Culture refers to customary behavior and beliefs that are passed on through
enculturation (Kottak, 2008), wherein enculturation is the social process which culture is
learned and transmitted.
Culture is a social process that is learned and passes from generation to the next.
Culture depends on images, which have a specific significance and incentive for
individuals who share a culture. Cultural traditions take regular marvels, including organic
desires, and transforming them specifically headings. Everybody is cultured. Social orders

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are coordinated and designed through predominant monetary powers, social examples,
key images and core values. Cultural mean of adjustment has been urgent in human
evolution. Cultures oblige people, yet the activities of people can change cultures.
Culture defined: Culture is shared, symbolic, natural, learned, integrated,
encompassing and maladaptive and adaptive. Csordas (1999) elaborated that the human
body is not essential for anthropological study but the paradigm of embodiment can be
explored in the understanding culture and the self. The body is not an object to be studied
in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the subject of culture, or in other words
as the existential ground of culture. On the other hand, Geertz (1973) described culture
as "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which
men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward
life".
The interpretation of the symbols in each culture is essential which gives meaning
to one’s action. Each culture has its own symbols and has its own meaning; one must
need to comprehend those meanings keeping in mind the end goal to understand the
culture. One must disconnect the components of culture, discover the relationship among
those components, and portray the entire framework in some broad way.

Required Readings
1. Csordas, T. (1999). Self and person. In bode (Ed.), Psychological Anthropology
(pp. 331 – 350). Praeger. 331 – 350.
2. Geertz, C. (1973). The Impact of the Concept of Culture and Concept of Man.
In the interpretation of culture (pp. 33 – 54). Basic Book.
3. Geertz, C. (1973). Person, time and conduct in Bali. In the interpretation of
culture (pp. 360 – 411). Basic Book.

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 Chapter 3
Psychological Perspective of the Self

Learning Objectives
1. Define and describe the different concepts of self.
2. Differentiate the various concepts of the self and identify their interrelationships.
3. Explain how the concepts of self-influence behavior.
4. Apply concepts of self in one’s life to develop self-awareness and self-
understanding.

Psychology
Psychology has various ways of understanding a person and the therapist way of
helping people understand themselves. Self by definition is a reference by an individual
to the same individual person. Having its own or single character as a person, referring
to the person as same individual. The psychology of studying self is about either the
cognitive and affective representation of one’s identity or the subject of experience. The
earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology forms the distinction between the
self as I, the person knower, and the self as Me, the person that is known.

“The Self and It Selves”

William James, a psychologist, has introduced in his document The Principles of
Psychology (1890) a numerous concepts and distinction of self. For James, his main
concepts of self are the “me-self” and the “I-self”. The “me-self” is the phenomenal self,
the experienced self or the self as known. It is the self that has experience the phenomena
and who had known the situation. The “I-self” is the self-thought or the self-knower.
James had claimed that the understanding of Self can be separated into three categories:
“1. Its constituents; 2. The feeling and emotions they arouse – Self-feelings; 3. The
actions to which they prompt – Self-seeking and self-preservation (James, 1890, p162)
Also, James wrote sub-categories of self, 1. the material self; 2. the social self; and 3.
the spiritual self.
The Material Self is constituted by our bodies, clothes, immediate family and
home. It is in this that we attached more deeply into and therefore we are most affected
by because of the investment we give to these things. The Social Self is based on our
interactions with society and the reaction of people towards us. It is our social self that
thought to have multiple divergence or different version of ourselves. It varies as to how
we present ourselves to a particular social group. The most intimate self, the spiritual
self. It is the most intimate because it is more satisfying for the person that they have
the ability to argue and discriminate one’s moral sensibility, conscience and indomitable
will.

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Conception of Self
Carl Rogers, had come up with his conception of self through the intervention he used
for his client, the Person-centered therapy. It is a non-directive intervention because it
believes that all people have the potential to solve their own problems. Rogers believe
that people must be fully honest with themselves in order to have personal discovery on
oneself. In this concept of self, he had come up with three sides of a triangle.
a. The Perceived Self (Self-worth - how the person sees self & others sees them)
b. The Real Self (Self Image - How the person really is)
c. The Ideal Self (How the person would like to be)

Concept of Unified and Multiple Self

As DanielCW (2016) wrote in his article “Psychoanalysis vs Postmodern
Psychology” he has emphasized how Freud percieved person as a unified being and
Gergens concept of multiple “selves” In Freud’s concept, he argued that mind is divided
into three connected but distict parts. The Id, Ego and Super Ego. Id as the center of
primitive, animalistic impluses (sex, food & comfort) following the pleasure principle.
Superego as the center for ethical imperative. The one that reminds the self of what is
right of wrong following morality principle. And the Ego as the moderator between these
two which was driven by rationality principle. And then also, Freud has stated two
important division of mind, the conscious and unconscious. Conscious are the thoughts
that we are aware of. And Unconscious as thoughts that we are not aware of. (DanielCW,
2016).
Although, Freud has argued that self has a multiple part, he still believed that
ultimately, we are a Unified being (Atleast, when we are healthy). Ego remains at the
helm of mind, guiding the Id and Superego and staying at the center. Thus, Gergen
argued that having a flexible sense of self allows for multiple “selves”. That it is up to the
the self to define himself as warm or cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain.
According to Kenneth Gergen, proponent of Postmodern Psychology, the individual has
many potential selves. He carries within him the capacity to identify himself, whether
warm or cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain. How we bring ourselves in every
situation will help him get through for a day. Therefore, maybe it is healthy to have many
masks. Multiple selfhoods are part of what it means to be human, and forcing oneself to
stick to one self-concept maybe unhealthy.

True Self and Fake Self

True Self, as rooted from early infancy is called the simple being. The sense of self
based on spontaneous authentic experience and feeling of being alive, having “real self”.
Example, as a baby we react base on our sense of reality. The baby reacted
spontaneously based on our instinctual sense.

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 Fake Self, is our defense facade. Overlaying or contradicting the original sense of
self. Problem would be we might build false set of relationship through concealing a
barren emptiness behind an independent-seeming façade.

Required Reading
1. Hater, S. (1996). Historical roots of contemporary issues involving the self-concept.
In Bracken (Ed.), Handbook of self-concept: Developmental, social and clinical
considerations (pp. 1 – 37). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

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 Chapter 4
The Self in Western and Oriental/Eastern Thought

Learning Objectives
1. Know the difference between the self in Eastern versus Western thought.
2. Have exposure to individualistic culture.
3. Know the collective culture.
4. Identify the difference between individualistic versus collective self.

There is a clash of civilization that is plaguing the country right now and though
this is not officially and consciously acknowledged, this war for dominance is victimizing
all Filipinos in one form or another. There is really no middle ground, and it is either one
is rooting for the other side or opposing all contentions and wisdom from another side.
This is the battle for the dominance, and prisoners are not taken and captured. This is
literally, the war between the eastern self-versus the western self.
Western culture basically is about the focus on oneself and personal needs;
Eastern culture is about focus on others and the feeling of others. Western culture is
predicated on putting egoism first while Eastern culture is about collectivism.
Conceptually, there is a vast of difference between egoism and collectivism. While egoism
is focused on oneself, collectivism is all about focus on others. While the Western culture
is inclined in more acquisition of material things, the Eastern culture is tilted towards less
assets (thus the mantra less is more). Western culture is obsessed with being successful,
the eastern culture is more inclined towards long life; for the Eastern culture, long life is
equated with wealth.
In the Eastern culture, wealth and poverty is the result of fortune and luck, for the
Western culture, wealth and poverty is the result of enterprise and hard work. The
Eastern culture values the wisdom of years and seniority, while the Western culture
celebrates the youth and being young. Philosophically, the Eastern culture subscribe to
concept of reincarnation while Western culture subscribe to the idea of evolution. Taken
as a whole, these basic and subtle differences between the Eastern culture and the
Western culture are taking its toll on Filipinos on which culture to adopt. The dilemma is
whether to follow and subscribe to the Western influences or subscribe to Eastern ideas.

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Concept of Self Western and Eastern Thought

Western Eastern
∙ Self is a social construction which is ∙ A gentleman by following the moral
symbolically and signally created way consisting of the virtues of love,
between and among social beings righteousness, wisdom, propriety and
∙ Phenomenological object which can loyalty in order to promote harmony
be productively studied through a in society (Confucianism)
series of evanescent actions, self is (Theravada) detachment and
multidimensional entity desirelessness to reach nirvana;
∙ Self is an interpersonal unit reciprocal relationship; (Mahayana)
∙ Self takes form in communication compassion to other humans for
∙ Self is intimately connected to belief that we are part of the same
bodily experience both ever-changing universe (Buddhism)
ontogenetically and here and now ∙ Attainment of liberation in the
awareness identification of Atman (the spiritual
∙ Self is both phenomenal and non- essence of all individual human
phenomenal beings) and Brahman (the spiritual
∙ Self acquires substance according essence of the universe) through the
to semantic, syntactic and Four Yogas (Hinduism)
pragmatic ∙ Attainment of liberation in the
identification of Atman (the spiritual
essence of all individual human
beings) and Brahman (the spiritual
essence of the universe) through the
Four Yogas (Taoism)
∙ Concept of Kapwa, recognition of
shared identity, an inner self shared
with others; Two levels or modes of
social interaction – ibang-tao or
“outsider” and hindi ibang-tao or
“one-of-us” (Filipino Psychology)

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Individualism and Collectivism

Individualism Collectivism
∙ People are autonomous and ∙ Interdependent within their in-groups
independent from their in-groups ∙ Give priority to the goals of their in-
∙ Give priority to their personal goals groups
of their in-groups ∙ In-groups primarily shape their behavior
∙ Behave on their basis of attitudes ∙ Behave in a communal way
rather than norms ∙ Concerned in maintaining relationship
with others

Required Reading
1. Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In Pervin and John
(Eds.), Handbook of Personality Theory and Research 2nd ed (pp. 134 – 194).
Guilford Press.
2. Johnson, T. (1985). The western concept of self. In Marsella (Ed.), Culture and
self: Asian and western perspectives (pp. 91 – 138). Tavistock Publications.
3. Triandis, H. (1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural
contexts.Psychol. Rev. 96.3.506 -520.
4. Wei-Ming, T. (1985). Selfhood and Others in Confucian Thought. In Marsella (ed).
Culture and Self: Asian and western perspectives . Tavistock Publication. 231 – 251.

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