Oneself (psychology)

Oneself means in current acceptance the Nobody, or the Individu which even indicates him.

Carl Gustav Jung uses the word oneself to distinguish a person beyond what it perceives (this perception being the Me). This concept of the oneself is used in Psychologie and Psychanalyse with nuances of meanings according to the currents of thought. It is in particular one of the pillars of the analytical Psychologie and the social Psychologie. In psychoanalysis post-freudienne, it is in particular Heinz Kohut which theorized and developed the concept of it.

Self in analytical psychology

The prototype of self according to Jung

self is the data existing a priori of which is born it me. It preforms to some extent it to me. It is not me which creates me myself: I occur rather with myself. Self is a limiting concept which gathers in the same unit the conscious one and the Inconscient: unconscious personnel and Unconscious collective. It represents the experiment of totality, the capacity of representation of totality, as much as the psychic process which goes in the direction of a conscience including unconscious elements more and more. Self intervenes in the process of Individuation: it is the engine, the organizer and, to a certain extent, the goal.

Self is thus the Archétype of the conscience and the Me. The report/ratio of Ego with Self is described by Jung either like that of the ground turning around the sun, or like that of a circle included in another circle of largeer diameter, or still like the son compared to the father. In this last case, the image is complete only when it is considered that it Oneself occurs with the conscience only by one work of confrontation of Ego with its other prototypes (Animus and Anima, Persona, etc), a work of “decantation” of Ego: self is thus also, at the end of the process of Individuation, in a certain manner, the son of Ego (“ Filius Philosophorum ”).

As a totality, Oneself is necessarily paradoxical for it: any quality which is allotted to him sees there accompanied by its opposite: only the capacity of direction of the conscience of Ego allows differentiation between the opposites, and thus reveals this paradoxical aspect of Self, more precisely of the conscience than one can have some.

Characteristics structural and dynamic of Self

Appeared as of the text of 1902 ( Psychology and pathology of the phenomena known as occult ) the term of Oneself takes conceptual value for Jung only in the Métamorphoses of 1912. If its characteristics will be refined and been complementary thereafter, the essence of this concept appears there already.

From a point of view topic , Oneself is to it a unit gathering all the components of psychism. It would be thus thus synonymous with the heart.
From a dynamic point of view , it expresses a double aspect:

the tendency of the unconscious contents to arrive at the conscience, either in the form of awakening, or, when this one is made impossible by the attitude of Ego, in the form of symptoms or of Inflation of Ego which is identified with the totality of psychism. Jung insists particularly on the dangers of such an inflation which can carry out until the bursting of the limits of Ego, i.e. to the Psychose.
capacity of Compensation of the unconscious one, which proposes with Ego during its directed attitude. The compensation can play only insofar as the report/ratio of Ego and Self is sufficiently differentiated. If Me is it in a state of inflation, being identified with Self, the compensation is reversed, and there is racing in the direction of the direction of Ego, or in the opposite direction.

From a genetic point of view , Oneself is it at the origin of the constitution of Ego, first stage of the process of individuation. It is initially undifferentiated maternal imago, but it is nevertheless driving differentiation. Lastly, Jung also says that “ the thought is founded on the autorevelation of Self ” ( psychological Essai of interpretation of the dogma of the trinities 1940/1948).
From a structural point of view , Oneself is to it “ the sum and the quintessence of all the prototypes ”. He is thus at the same time the prototype who structure all others, and that which is structured by all: insofar as his report/ratio with Ego determines, by its compensation dynamism, its organisational influence in psychism, it can thus be just as easily factor of regrouping (connection) that of bursting (racking). Factor of connection it allows the union of the opposites, and factor of racking, it allows differentiation: it is this double dynamism which animates the process of individuation.
From an epistemological point of view , Jung insists on the fact that Oneself is to it a limiting concept: ” ( Dialectical of ego and unconscious the 1916/1934): and later: “ insofar as something of unconscious exists, it is not assignable: its existence is not that a pure postulate totality is empirical only in its parts, and only insofar as those are contained conscience. Consequently “oneself” is to it only one concept limits ” ( Psychologie and alchemy 1935/1951).
Compared to the religion , and with the multiple charges of mysticism which were carried against him, Jung is one cannot more clearly: “ As Christ meant forever for me more that I could understand of him and that this comprehension coincides with the empirical knowledge which I have of Self, I must recognize that it is it Oneself that I have at the head when I deal with the idea of Christ. Moreover, I do not have an other access to Christ that it Oneself, and as I do not know anything which is beyond Self, I stick to this concept ” ( Jung and the religious belief 1956/1957).
Compared to the concepts Freudiens , it Oneself of Jung is completely original:

Compared to the Super-ego: “ the Super-ego is a substitute necessary and inevitable of the experiment of Self. As long as Oneself is unconscious for it, it corresponds to the Super-ego of Freud ” ( the symbol of the transubstantation in the mass 1941/1953).
Compared to the Ideal ego and the Ego ideal - both misadventures of the Super-ego - Jung insists on the fact that it Oneself, as a totality, low includes the aspects of the personality. It can thus be confused with Ideal ego only insofar as one inflation of Ego cancels its compensation activity, and with the ego ideal that in that where the dissociation of the personality maintains in unconscious its dark aspects (the Ombre).

From the point of view of its representations the images of self appear in the dreams and the spontaneous productions (phantasms, drawings, dance etc) in doubly symmetrical and centered forms (square, circle): the mandalas . Jung noted that these forms of representations are found in all the cultures as well as in the individual productions. It estimates that the appearance of the images of self in the dreams is often related to deep tensions or psychic ruptures of balance.

Self primary (Michael Fordham)

Michael Fordham is an English pupil of Jung which was interested in the development of the child. It calls Oneself primary the state of psycho-body Homéostasie of the newborn, state of integration where differentiation between an interior world and an outside world does not exist, not more than do not exist, in this state, of differentiations within the interior world. It is an integrated state. This state is intended to lose itself at the time of the phases of die-integration, phases where balance homeostasic characteristic of self primary is lost, and where the dynamic prototypes mobilize themselves, making it possible to the baby to enter in relation to the outside world then partially perceived as tel. the process of differentiation of the interior world also proceeds during this phase. The alternation of phases of die-integration and rehabilitation allows the progressive constitution of a psychism differentiated from the baby.

The self-service (Donald Winnicott)

Winnicott distinguishes the true self-service and the false self-service : See the article Coil (psychoanalysis).

Self (Heinz Kohut)

It was the probable mood of each moment, true self.

Self in social psychology

In social Psychology, it Oneself east defines as a whole of information on an individual, to which this individual can have access as well as the mechanisms intrapersonnels and interpersonal which manage this information from a cognitive point of view, emotional, behavioral and social. The self-knowledge as such includes/understands two dimensions is the concept of oneself and estimates it self.

Concept of oneself

The concept of oneself is the whole of knowledge which an individual has in connection with itself or itself. This whole of knowledge depends on the way in which the individual perceives information. This information can come from various sources:

reflexive conscience. At the 18 months age, a baby can be recognized in a mirror: it is what is called the Mirror stage. Starting from this stage, the individual develops the reflexive conscience what is called i.e. the capacity to be distinguished in the environment like distinct object.
the Inferences S based on the behavior. an individual can develop a design of itself by inférant individual characteristics with its behaviors.
inférences based on the emotions. It is also possible of inférer characteristics of oneself with the emotions and the clean thoughts, and these inférences have generally much more impacts on the design of oneself than the behaviors since the latter are, generally, much more subjected to the social pressures than the emotions.
It oneself relational or impact of the reaction of the others. the others can obviously influence the design which one has of oneself by their reactions and their criticisms, which can call a behavior which seeks has to correspond to the image required. (What corresponds to the principle of the false self-service of Winnicott).

There exist other methods of acquisition of information on oneself such as for example the comparison with the others.

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