Constructing the Self
Author
Constructing the Self analyzes the narrative conception of self, filling a serious gap in philosophy and grounding discussion in other disciplines. It answers the questions:
- What are the connections between our interpretations, selfhood, and conscious phenomenal experience?
- Why do we believe that our interpretations of our life-defining events are narrative in nature?
- From the myriad of thoughts, actions, and emotions which constitute our experiences, how do we choose what is interpretively important, the tiny subset that composes the self?
By synthesizing the different approaches to understanding the self from philosophy of mind, developmental psychology, psychopathology, and cognitive science, this monograph gives us deeper insight into what being minded, being a person, and having a self are, as well as clarifies the difference and relation between conscious and unconscious mental states and normal and abnormal minds. The explication also affords new perspectives on human development and human emotion. (Series A)
[Advances in Consciousness Research, 73] 2008. xi, 186 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Preface | pp. ix–x
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Chapter 1. On being a person | pp. 1–20
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Chapter 2. Self stories | pp. 21–33
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Chapter 3. Self stories | pp. 35–50
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Chapter 4. The development of Self | pp. 51–65
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Chapter 6. Unconscious mental life | pp. 67–109
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Chapter 7. Multiplex and multiple selves | pp. 111–126
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Chapter 8. Life at the borders | pp. 127–143
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Chapter 9. Death, violence and the myth of autonomy | pp. 145–158
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Endnote | pp. 159–160
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Figures | pp. 187–189
“
Constructing the Self is an absorbing and thoughtful reflection on the narrative self. [...] The writing troughout is levely and engaging, and the book is delightfully easy to read. This is no small accomplishment given the depth and intricacy of the material. [...] Constructing the Self is an instructive and provocative book, and a welcome resource for anyone interested in problems of the self.”
Marya Schechtman, in Biography, Vol. 32.4 (Fall 2009)
“Constructing the self covers a very interesting topic in the philosophy of mind, and it is written in an approachable and engaging style.”
Phil Jenkins, Marywood University, in Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2011, pag. 873-876
Cited by
Cited by 13 other publications
Bakker, J. I.
2011. The ‘Semiotic Self’: From Peirce and Mead to Wiley and Singer. The American Sociologist 42:2-3 ► pp. 187 ff. 
Gibson, Janet
2020. Staging the ‘Reality’ of Dementia. In Dementia, Narrative and Performance, ► pp. 93 ff.
Gibson, Janet
2020. Narrative Regimes. In Dementia, Narrative and Performance, ► pp. 59 ff.
Hardcastle, Valerie Gray
2017. Moral Responsibility, Alienation, and Multiplex Selves. AJOB Neuroscience 8:3 ► pp. 171 ff.
Hardcastle, Valerie Gray
2019. Predicting the Self: Lessons from Schizophrenia. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 10:2 ► pp. 381 ff.
Kumar, Namitha A. & Sangeetha Menon
2014. Adapted Self in the Context of Disability: An Ecological, Embodied Perspective. In Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Consciousness and the Self, ► pp. 193 ff.
Lane, Timothy
2012. Toward an explanatory framework for mental ownership. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 11:2 ► pp. 251 ff.
Levisen, Carsten & Melissa Reshma Jogie
2015. The Trinidadian ‘Theory of Mind’. International Journal of Language and Culture 2:2 ► pp. 169 ff.
Lubashevsky, Ihor & Natalie Plavinska
2021. Interaction of Human Temporality and External World. In Physics of the Human Temporality [Understanding Complex Systems, ], ► pp. 229 ff.
Lubashevsky, Ihor & Natalie Plavinska
2021. The Phenomenological Self in Physics of the Human Mind. In Physics of the Human Temporality [Understanding Complex Systems, ], ► pp. 611 ff.
Newen, Albert
2018. The Embodied Self, the Pattern Theory of Self, and the Predictive Mind. Frontiers in Psychology 9
Pihlainen, Kalle
2019. Experience, Materiality and the Rules of Past Writing: Interrogating Reference. Life Writing 16:4 ► pp. 617 ff.
Visapää, Laura
2021. Self-description in everyday interaction: Generalizations about oneself as accounts of behavior. Discourse Studies 23:3 ► pp. 339 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Consciousness Research
Psychology
Main BIC Subject
JMS: The self, ego, identity, personality
Main BISAC Subject
PSY023000: PSYCHOLOGY / Personality