Devi:
Somehow I bombed your message, so that I can't do an exact extract
of your message, but I will give you a piece of it to which I want to
respond. You said something like -- in response to my claim that a
construction of self should be analyzed in the same ways which we
analyze any construction:
"I'm not sure. Isn't there a distinction between the construciton
that includes a self-construction because a self is doing the
construing."
Yes, well!! But, are we not construing the self which is doing the
construing. In other words -- when we try to put linguistic signifiers
on to that which we regard as the construer, are we not building a
construction of that self. Further, if I have left the impression that
I am speaking of "talking to one's self" when I use the term construing,
I hasten to undo that impression. Construction processes do not
necessarily involve turning the construction into a
verbal-auditory-visual stream. Most of our most intricate constructions
are built "off central processor." So, when we speak of a self
construing a self, we are using the term self to signify two different
constructions of self. I, in no way, intend to allow the implication
that the construction of my construing self is anything other than a
personal construction. No one has photographed, weighed, measured, or
extracted a grid from a construing self. When I speak of a construing
self, I am speaking of a construction which I use to talk about the
functional system of constructs which a person uses to construct his/her
immediate, on-the-spot selves.
Further, I believe that most people use two different kinds of
constructions when they refer to my self. The paradigm sentence would
be, "I told my self." The self referenced by the term I, can be called
the narrator self. The self referenced in the above sentence -- my self
-- can be discussed as the actor self. People construe a narrator self
which authors the narratives for the actor self. As a constructivist, I
would not claim that people HAVE a narrative self, nor that people HAVE
an actor self. For convenience in anticipating the flow of events, we
learn to use those constructions. They are quite handy!!!
I would claim that people HAVE personal construct systems, and I
would try to lay out the characteristics of each person's construct
systems -- which I would discuss within a framework of more general
propositions about the functioning of personal consruct systems -- from
which persons build the moment-by-moment selves which they construct in
order to anticipate the flow of inputs -- particularly those which we
take to emanate from the social world.
In effect, I don't worry much about the logic or illogic a person
might encounter when he/she (a self???) construes his/her self. I would
want to talk about how a person constues his narrative self functioning
to create an actor self.
Where I would worry about logic would be if a person attempts to
construe his/her narrator self as logical along a construct
illogical-logical. Poor person!!! How will he ever know, unless he
creates a particular actor self, presents that self to Bertrand Russell,
and has the great philosopher pronounce on the logicality of that
presentation. No wonder we have those people we call schizophrenics!!!
That is, we could pursue a hypotheses which says that people get
intoserious psychological difficulty when they fail to maintain a
stable, useful construction of their narrative self. In that way, Freud
had it right (which I hate to admit). Many people end up needing help in
getting their construction of their narrative self whipped into line.
The problem with his kind of theory, as I see it, is that he believed
that he could tell them good stories about a narrator self that could
really tell true stories, which goes out of whack when their libido
begins to flow in the wrong channels. With the help of a skilled
therapist, it is assumed, the real story about why the narrator self
went off track could be told -- and the person could then get back to a
state in which his narrator self could author good stories for the actor
self.
Did my narrator self author a logical narrative for my actor self??
Ooops -- did I enact a self which gains warrant from my peers???
Jim
Mancuso
.--
James C. Mancuso Dept. of Psychology
15 Oakwood Place University at Albany
Delmar, NY 12054 1400 Washington Ave.
Tel: (518)439-4416 Albany, NY 12222
Mailto:mancusoj@capital.net
http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/soi
A website related to Italian-American Affairs
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Devi:
Somehow I bombed your message, so that I can't do
an exact extract of your message, but I will give you a piece of it to
which I want to respond. You said something like -- in response to
my claim that a construction of self should be analyzed in the same ways
which we analyze any construction:
"I'm not sure. Isn't there a distinction between
the construciton that includes a self-construction because a self is doing
the construing."
Yes, well!! But, are we not construing the self which
is doing the construing. In other words -- when we try to put linguistic
signifiers on to that which we regard as the construer, are we not building
a construction of that self. Further, if I have left the impression
that I am speaking of "talking to one's self" when I use the term construing,
I hasten to undo that impression. Construction processes do not necessarily
involve turning the construction into a verbal-auditory-visual stream.
Most of our most intricate constructions are built "off central processor."
So, when we speak of a self construing a self, we are using the term self
to signify two different constructions of self. I, in no way, intend
to allow the implication that the construction of my construing self is
anything other than a personal construction. No one has photographed,
weighed, measured, or extracted a grid from a construing self. When
I speak of a construing self, I am speaking of a construction which I use
to talk about the functional system of constructs which a person uses to
construct his/her immediate, on-the-spot selves.
Further, I believe that most people use two different
kinds of constructions when they refer to my self. The paradigm
sentence would be, "I told my self." The self referenced by the term
I, can be called the narrator self. The self referenced
in the above sentence -- my self -- can be discussed as the actor
self. People construe a narrator self which authors the
narratives for the actor self. As a constructivist, I would not
claim that people HAVE a narrative self, nor that people HAVE
an actor self. For convenience in anticipating the flow of events,
we learn to use those constructions. They are quite handy!!!
I would claim that people HAVE personal construct
systems, and I would try to lay out the characteristics of each person's
construct systems -- which I would discuss within a framework of more general
propositions about the functioning of personal consruct systems -- from
which persons build the moment-by-moment selves which they construct in
order to anticipate the flow of inputs -- particularly those which we take
to emanate from the social world.
In effect, I don't worry much about the logic or
illogic a person might encounter when he/she (a self???) construes his/her
self. I would want to talk about how a person constues his narrative
self functioning to create an actor self.
Where I would worry about logic would be
if a person attempts to construe his/her narrator self as logical
along a construct illogical-logical. Poor person!!! How will he
ever know, unless he creates a particular actor self, presents that self
to Bertrand Russell, and has the great philosopher pronounce on the logicality
of that presentation. No wonder we have those people we call schizophrenics!!!
That is, we could pursue a hypotheses which says
that people get intoserious psychological difficulty when they fail to
maintain a stable, useful construction of their narrative self. In
that way, Freud had it right (which I hate to admit). Many people end up
needing help in getting their construction of their narrative self
whipped into line. The problem with his kind of theory, as I see
it, is that he believed that he could tell them good stories about a narrator
self that could really tell true stories, which goes out
of whack when their libido begins to flow in the wrong channels. With the
help of a skilled therapist, it is assumed, the real story about
why the narrator self went off track could be told -- and the person could
then get back to a state in which his narrator self could author good stories
for the actor self.
Did my narrator self author a logical narrative
for my actor self?? Ooops -- did I enact a self which gains warrant
from my peers???
Jim Mancuso
.--
James C. Mancuso Dept. of
Psychology
15 Oakwood Place University
at Albany
Delmar, NY 12054 1400 Washington
Ave.
Tel: (518)439-4416 Albany, NY 12222
Mailto:mancusoj@capital.net
http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/soi
A website related to Italian-American Affairs
--------------B7AB9CA883C2DF070F5A80B5--
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