Building the self
What is the social self that we will explore with you? What is the social self like? This is what we are going to do. So, as a theoretical prop, there is a school of thought called Symbolic Interaction. They have proposed a social ego theory of the self.
In this social ego theory, the self, mainly in the left-hand domain, is a term for what is known in English as the ‘principal self’. This term is used by the self to recognise itself. In other words, it is the ‘I’. However, as soon as the self recognises itself, the concept of this subject, the ‘subject-self’, disappears. What remains is the ‘guest-self’, which means that only the side of the observer will remain. Therefore, this concept of ‘subject-self’ and ‘object-self’ is at an uncertain stage, as to what actions the self intends to take, whether its intentions are right or wrong, or whether the intentions themselves exist. This area is treated as a difficult area to understand and is assumed to exist. However, it is this ‘object-self’ stage that we actually consider to be the self, as revealed by social ego theory. Therefore, although the term ego is usually used in psychology as well, the sociological ego consists of a synthesis of the ‘subject-self’ and the ‘object-self’. It is the ‘object-self’ that is represented when describing the actions performed in the self. There is also another element in terms of time. This is the aspect of the self being formed by the influence of others.
It is actually the right half of the project that I would like to focus on in particular in this project. In the left half there are many case studies and psychoanalytic studies, which are mainly concerned with the formation of the self. On the other hand, there is the relationship that the self is formed by the relationship with others. It can be said that the self exists because of the relationship with others. This is the core point of the present study. Regarding the self, the focus has so far been on the left side, where the self is formed by thinking about oneself, while the relationship with others has been less well researched in some areas.
However, in psychoanalysis, the left side is called self-understanding and the right side is called other-understanding. In other words, there is a self that identifies with others and needs to incorporate parts of the self that are in opposition to the problems of the self. Thus, the self in external relations is divided into two elements, which can be either accepting or in conflict with the other. If this division is successfully revealed from the results of the interviews, the first intention has been achieved.
The first phase of the project will proceed with the chronological part on the left-hand side, and after the chronology has been completed, the right-hand side of the interviews will be conducted. This project should allow you to consider the relationship between both of these, which form a holistic picture of the self.
