Research Paper on "Concept of Self"

Research Paper 12 pages (3256 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Self

The concept of self is one of the major themes of personality studies. Personality can be defined as the totality of the behavior and emotional characteristics of an individual. It covers an individual's moods, opinions, attitudes, motivations, opinions, and style of thinking, speaking, perceiving, and acting. It is these features that make people distinct and has been used to categorize individuals in different groups of personalities. Most cultures have varied theories in relation to personality most of which have been recorded through history. A number of theorists have emerged in this field of study examples being Ernst Kretschmer, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Sigmund Freud, all of whom presented significant observations in the early years in the 20th century. Later own other theorists such as Gordon, Allport, and Carl Rogers also became influential (Wright, 1998). However, this paper will examine the theories of concept of self as put forward by Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Rodgers.

Rodgers' concept of self

Rogers formulated his concept of self by challenging the Christian traditional concept of person. Rogers states that:

the Protestant Christian tradition has permeated our culture with the concept that man is basically sinful, and only by something approaching a miracle can his sinful nature be negated (Rogers, 1961).

This critical attitude has created a very pietistic approach toward the self and its actualization. He argues that the self can be identified only by those dispositions which are deeply natural to human beings, the one whose target is "self-actualization," such as the tendencies toward autonomy, integration, and positive self-regard (Roberts, 1985). According to Rogers, a person is viewed as a separate individual who has the potential to grow and to actualize his/her potential. Rogers elaborates this point by stating that:

It is an "organismic process" by which the client moves toward true satisfaction in the shifting and sorting of all the necessary data. In choosing what course of action to take in a situation, many people rely on guiding principles, upon a code of action laid down by some group or institution, upon the judgment of others, or upon the way they have behaved in some similar past situation. Yet as I observe the clients whose experiences in living have taught me so much. I find that increasingly such individuals are able to trust their total organismic reaction to a new situation, because they discover to an ever-increasing degree that if they are open to their experience, doing what "feels right" proves to be a competent and trustworthy guide to behavior which is truly satisfying (Rogers, 1961).

In his response to Paul Tillich's criticism on Rogers' characteristics of self, Rogers clarified his positive approach toward the self saying, "I think that simply because man is an organism he tends to be directional. He is moving in the direction of actualizing himself." (Tillich & Rogers, 1968). Rogers demonstrates a naive trust in a person's ability to actualize himself/herself. Also he asserts that, "If I can create a climate with the utmost freedom for he other individual, I can really trust the directions that he will move" (Tillich & Rogers, 1968). Rogers concludes that, "the innermost core of man's nature is positive" (Rogers, 1961). It aims to fulfill and gratify inner personal longings for identity and meaning. Rogers' theory assumes that organisms have the tendency to actualize, maintain, and enhance their ability for self-control. This is a kind of a Neo-Pietism in psychology.

Rogers' approach to the self, Geller identified it as a reflection of the Cartesian view of the self which has the following features: the self exists prior to and independent of the social process; the content of self is private; and the individual knows itself and the contents of its own mind before it knows other selves and minds. He further criticizes that, "this Cartesian view of the self naturally leads to radical skepticism in which the only thing the self can know with certainty is the contents of its own mind" (Geller, 1984). It leads to a dilemma of the social existence of the self. This Cartesian view of the self cannot explain how social existence arises. It encourages people to become more independent and leads to an illusion that they can control themselves if they actualize themselves. People believed that they could live on an island. The self is complete once it attains the ability to actualize itself.

Rogers shares the assumption that there is a value which constitutes the highest end or purpose of human life. The human self lacks an intrinsic urge or tendency and must acquire this desire through 'insight'. This end is understood as the purpose or telos of human life, which constitutes the deepest and fullest expression of one's humanness and offers the self its most lasting fulfillment (Geller, 1984). When people have this goal or at least attempt to attain this goal, they are automatically happy. Overall, Rogers displays a sense of overconfidence in one's ability to achieve self-fulfillment.

Jung's concept of self

A common quote by Jung is:

As an empirical concept, the self designates the whole range of psychic phenomena in man. It expresses the unity of the personality as a whole. ... It is a transcendental concept, for it presupposes the existence of unconscious factors on empirical grounds and thus characterizes an entity that can be described only in part, but for the other part, remains at present unknowable and illimitable (Jung, 1971a).

The above quote suggests that people have developed a wider sense of self that is transcendental for it is currently incomprehensible and unlimited. Is this sensible? As people build up and individuate the psychic functions they pull more of the unconscious forces of life into the sphere of realization. This expands the individual's sense of self. Does that expansion have limits? The existence of every individual is an essential part of the development of consciousness on this planet and in the universe. Most of the chemical elements in the human body were created in stars that exploded eons ago. Human beings could not exist devoid of the history of those stars. Any boundaries drawn around the self are capricious and people need a restricted sense of self for practical reasons. Consciousness exists exclusively in the particular except it also only exists in the wider context of a developing universe. From the constricted ego of "me now" to the all inclusive spiritual development of consciousness is a cosmic array of possible selves. They are all applicable but limited views of reality.

Jung viewed the mandalas fashioned by every culture as a figurative representation of the self. Their basic design is the presentiment of a hub of personality, a type of central point inside the psyche to which everything is associated, by which everything is organized, and which itself is a supply of energy. The energy of the central point is evident in the almost overpowering pressure and urge to become what one is, similar to the manner in which every organism is driven to assume the form that is typical of its nature, regardless of the circumstances. This center is not considered or thought of as the ego but, if one may so convey it, as the self. Though the center is symbolized by an inmost point, it is surrounded by a border containing everything that fits in to the self, the corresponding opposites that make up the entire personality. This entirety consists of consciousness first of all, then the individual unconscious, and lastly an ad infinitum large section of the collective unconscious whose archetypes are familiar to all mankind. A particular number of these, nonetheless, are permanently or temporarily included in the range of the personality and, through this contact, obtain an individual stamp as the shadow, anima and animus, to mention only the preeminently familiar figures. The self however on the one hand uncomplicated, is on the other hand, a very complex thing, a "conglomerate soul," if I may borrow from the Indian expression (Jung, 1971b).

The human psyche in bodies and brains of human beings is the most multifaceted structure in the known universe. People are at the original stages of obtaining the tools that will make it achievable to gain a thorough scientific understanding of the psyche. In the nonexistence of the necessary tools the natural intuition is to try to fit the enormous complexity of the psyche into an excessively narrow intellectual model. Two of Jung's generation, Freud and Adler, constructed such models. Jung was goaded to write Psychological Types (Jung, 1971a) by the restricted truth he saw in both of their points-of-view and the wider terrain he had observed in working with patients and via introspection. The cost incurred for such a wide view is lack of exactitude and rigor. Jung's work is largely spontaneous; it is at best loosely correct and sure enough often precisely off beam.

In developing a strangely flexible psyche it was necessary to evolve an equally supple system of motivation or emotions.… READ MORE

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