self and Other

Lois Shawver ( rathbone@crl.com )
Thu, 16 May 1996 21:50:20 -0700 (PDT)

On Wed, 15 May 1996, Robert Parks wrote:
>
> I wouldn't want to suggest that the self is brought into being on a second
> by second basis, willed by the thought of its own construct. What I have in
> mind is that in construing someone as an "other"....a mother or brother or
> stranger, a child creates a self over against that other...

I like that way of putting it, but doesn't the process continue? I
imagine a person leaving an argument with another and continuing the
argument in her mind. Both voices from the argument are contained in her
mind. Still, she has no trouble knowing which words in her mind belong to
the Other, the person she just left, as she constructs the Other in her
mind, making up arguments that are a little bit less intelligent than the
ones this Other would speak in real life. The sense of self is contructed
in opposition to this sense of Other. Doesn't it seem to you, too, that
this process is never completely finalized?

..Lois Shawver

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