Experiencing whole type: living into the archetypal Self

Expanding on Jung’s use of the role of the superior and inferior functions, Angelo Spoto advances a new typological model based on ‘whole type’ that utilizes a typological perspective on the archetypal Self. In this new model four cognitive modes taking superior positions are developed in the first half of life and four cognitive modes taking inferior positions are encountered in the second half of life. This model indicates that type development and type dynamics take place through the holding of the tension of opposites between superior and inferior functions, helped by the transcendent function operating differently in the first and second halves of life. Specifically, in the first half of life, the transcendent function produces a tertium that moves typological development along to consolidate an ego-pattern. In the second half of life, the transcendent function takes the individual into encounters having to do with an appreciation of sacrifice, transformation, and symbol-making, as the personality advances towards a greater awareness of wholeness, by way of the inferiors.     

The Other Self: Psychopathology and Literature

The figure of the "double" or the other self is an important topic in the history of literature. Many centuries before Jean Paul Richter coined the term, "doppelg?nger," at the beginning of the Romantic Movement in the year 1796, it is possible to find the figure of the double in myths and legends. The issue of the double emphaszses the contradictory character of the human being and invokes a sinister dimension of the psychological world, what has been called in German as "umheimlich." However, does multiciplicity always involve pathology? Related to this figure in literary history, a new perspective from clinical psychology called "dialogical self" defines the self as a multi-voice reality. Along the same line, postmodernist psychology considers the self a discursive construction. From these perspectives, the "self" is situated a long way away from the classical essential conception of the self. In this paper, we review briefly some important landmarks of the figure of the double in the literature, and we compare the coincidences of the "double" experiencies described in literature with the experiences of our patients. Finally, we discuss how this literary tradition can help us to understand new psychological perspectives.     

The Self and the Other: Liberalism and Gandhi

This paper makes an attempt to philosophically re-construct what I have termed as a fundamental paradox at the heart of deontological liberalism. It is argued that liberalism attempts to create the possibilities of rational consensus and of bringing people together socially and politically by developing methodologies which overcome the divisive nature of essentially parochial substantive conceptions of the good. Such methodologies relying on the supposed universally valid dictates of reason and notions of procedural rationality proceed by disengaging men from the divisive particularities of their plural value contexts. That disengagement is sought to be achieved by conceptualizing the individual as self sufficient in her moral and epistemic being thereby conceptually isolating individual man from the other. The liberal effort to create rational consensus which can bring people together then gets off the ground by isolating the individual from the other. This I have termed as the paradox of the self and the other or alternatively the paradox of social atomism and universalism. As a possible philosophical alternative this paper makes an attempt to re-construct Gandhi’s conceptualization of the relationship between swaraj as self rule and Satyagraha as non-violent resistance. This Gandhian connection, it is argued, has the potential to transform the moral psychology of our response to the other, thereby posing a challenge to the modern, predominantly liberal, conceptualization of such a response.     

The Atomistic Self versus the Holistic Self in Structural Relation to the Other

I argue that meaning or significanceper se, along with the capacity to be conscious thereof, and the values, motives and aspirations, etc. central to the constitution of our intrinsic personal identities, arise, as indeed do our extrinsic social identities, and our very self-consciousness as such, from socio-cultural structures and relations to others. However, so far from our identities and behavior therefore being determined, I argue that the capacity for critical reflection and evaluation emerge from these same structural relations, the more complex and quintessentially human aspects of our behavior being explained not in terms of responses to stimuli but as choices reflecting our evaluation of meaningful or significant alternatives. Finally I provide theoretical grounds for accepting the existence of other subjects and give a holistic, as opposed to a dialectical, account of the way individuals may challenge and change the very socio-cultural ways of relating to and interacting with others so central to constituting their capacities and identities.     

Karol Wojtyla and Emmanuel Levinas on the Embodied Self: the Forming of the Other as Moral Self-disclosure

The 'other' has taken on an increased theological significance for the Church in the advent of post-modern reflection, resulting in a myriad of possibilities for those who would reflect on the significance of the other in relation to the 'self', largely in connection with various theories of embodiment. Following Karol Wojtyla's (John Paul II) emphasis on the given-ness of the body I wish to illustrate a way in which the other might be understood theologically, informed by the insights of the continental philosophical tradition, specifically Emmanuel Levinas' phenomenological outline of the other as a key locus of ethical reflection. Bringing Levinas' continental philosophy into dialogue with Wojtyla's philosophical theology, it will be argued that the other must be re-approached in terms of their subjective self-disclosure, centring upon the en-fleshed and bodily form of the human person, who confronts us as a reflection of both that which is most other to ourselves (the divine) and paradoxically that which most resembles ourselves (the human). The other is always an en-fleshed subject and in their action, their subjective identity is disclosed on the relational level.     

Self and Other Ratings of Dyadic Empathy as Predictors of Relationship Satisfaction

In this study, self and other ratings of dyadic empathy are proposed to predict relationship satisfaction. One-hundred and fifty-one individuals over the age of eighteen who were in a relationship of at least six months in length at the time of the survey completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Couples (Péloquin & Lafontaine, 2010) and the Couples Satisfaction Index (Funk & Rogge, 2007). Total scores for self and other rated dyadic empathy as well as scores of the congruity between self and other were assessed for each respondent. The results indicated that total perceived dyadic empathy and perceived dyadic empathic congruity were significant predictors of relationship satisfaction.     

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity:

Within the past decade, feminist therapists have successfully taken a leadership role in challenging the traditional and inherent prejudice and discrimination concerning women in psychotherapeutic counseling theory and practice. As progress is made in research, theory, and practice affecting the mental health of women in therapy, more complex issues emerge. This paper will focus on the issues of ethnic and cultural diversity, as it applies to women of color seeking therapy.     

Deontological Restrictions and the Self/Other Asymmetry

This paper offers a partial justification of so‐called “deontological restrictions.” Specifically it defends the “self/other asymmetry,” that we are morally obligated to treat our own agency, and thus its results, as specially important. The argument rests on a picture of moral obligation of a broadly Kantian sort. In particular, it rests on the basic normative assumption that our fundamental obligations are determined by the principles which a rational being as such would follow. These include principles which it is not essential for rational beings to accept, but acceptance of which we could non‐arbitrarily attribute to them simply in their capacity as rational. Among these principles is the asymmetry mentioned above.     

Self as Cultural Product: An Examination of East Asian and North American Selves

In the past decade a wealth of research has been conducted on the cultural foundation of the self-concept, particularly with respect to East Asian and North American selves. The present paper discusses how the self differs across these two cultural contexts, particularly with respect to an emphasis on consistency versus flexibility, an intraindividual versus an extraindividual focus, the malleability of the self versus world, the relation of self to others, and self-enhancing versus self-critical motivations. These differences reveal the manifold ways that culture shapes the self.     

Representations of Self and Other: A Semantic Space Model

ABSTRACT This article describes a semantic space model of personality. According to the model, representations of facets of the self (e.g., actual self, self) and of others are arrayed in a semantic space, with proximities among representations predicted to be associated with mood, self-evaluation, broad personality dimensions. The relation of proximities among pairs of representations to personality and mood measures was found to be mediated by spatial proximity of other representations, indicating that the representations constitute dynamic systems. Proximities among representations were shown predict self-esteem and self-evaluative moods even after controlling for the contribution of the personality dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. Generally, the semantic space model led to better predictions did several related models concerning representations of self and other.     

Conscience as the Reappearance of the Other in Self-Experience: On Using the Concepts Superego and Conscience in Self Psychology

Many self-psychologically oriented psychoanalysts regard the traditional psychoanalytic construct of a psychic authority situated above the ego as a reification of a relational process and as such no longer relevant. The isolated view of the superego fails to recognize the dynamic, nonlinear nature of the therapeutic relationship in an inter-subjective context. Conscience as an aspect of the superego can, along with the introspective judgment of one's own actions, be embedded in the self so as to become an internal guideline for the necessary personal decisions of social life. Conscience is, among other things, what gives us the courage of our convictions.     

Intentionality Analysis and the Problem of Self and Other

Dennett recounts an alarm clock dream which he experienced as taking a long time even though the alarm presumably sounded for only a short time. His explanation of this paradoxical behavior of time in dreams is that there actually is no dream experience but that unexperienced dreams are composed directly into memory banks and are subsequently played back on awakening. I critique Dennett's theory of dreams in Heideggerian terms on the grounds that he takes temporality in a common-sense superficial way. I review Heidegger's theory of time and using Dennett's own dream show that “temporality temporalizes itself' in dreams too as a free production of dreaming Dasein. Dream time is what dreaming temporality produces whatever the clocks of waking show, and is entirely consistent with authentic dream experience. An appreciation of the process of dreaming temporality temporalizing itself supports Heidegger's concept of temporality as an a priori of Dasein's Being.     

Developing Praxis: Mobilising Critical Race Theory in Community Cultural Development

Race remains a significant issue in the lives of many people in Australia. For example, Indigenous Australians lives continue to be marked by social and economic disadvantage and everyday experiences of exclusion. Within this context, the Community Arts Network Western Australia promote social change and the empowerment of Indigenous groups through community cultural development. With an emphasis on community strengths and resources, community arts practice is employed to create, promote, and improve opportunities for participation, network development and empowerment. In this article, we explore these projects from a community psychology orientation, which is committed to developing opportunities for inclusion and also exposing the workings of power in everyday settings. Although there have been many positive outcomes that have resulted from the different activities with communities, there have also been significant barriers to transformative practice, in particular, issues of racialisation and continuing colonisation. We discuss our efforts aimed at understanding racism, which have included engaging with critical race theory and whiteness studies within the context of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous partnerships for change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychometric Evaluation and Standardization of the Self and Other Scale

This article evaluates and extends the psychometric properties of the Self and Other Scale (SOS). The scale is designed to measure two types of threat to self construction, namely, an insecurity threat (fear of exclusion) and an engulfment threat (fear of intrusion). Previous analysis of the SOS has been based on nonclinical student populations with a narrow age range. The present study addresses this limitation by examining the psychometric properties of the scale with an adult nonclinical population (N = 150) covering the life span and with varied socioeconomic status. Results are compared with those of the previous study. Statistical analysis supports the construct validity and the reliability of the scale. Clinical implications of the scale are explored.     

Cultural Differences in the Self: From Philosophy to Psychology and Neuroscience

Different thinking styles in Westerners and Chinese (analytic vs. holistic) lead to disparities between the two cultures not only in perception and attention but also in high‐level social cognition such as self‐representation. Most Western philosophers discussed the self by focusing on personal self‐identity, whereas Chinese philosophers emphasized the relation between the self and others. Dissimilar philosophical thinking of the self is associated with distinct cognitive styles of self‐representation (i.e., the independent self in Westerners and the interdependent self in Chinese). Recent brain imaging studies found that Westerners employed the medial prefrontal cortex to represent only the individual self, whereas Chinese utilized the same brain area to represent both the self and close others, providing neural basis of cultural differences in self‐representation. We suggest that the cultural differences in thinking styles between Westerners and Chinese influence both psychological and neural structure of self‐representation.     

Cultural Stereotypes and the Self: A Closer Examination of Implicit Self-Stereotyping

Recent research and theory on implicit self-stereotyping suggests that individuals nonconsciously incorporate stereotypes about their social groups into the self-concept; however, evidence as to whether this holds true for negative stereotypes remains limited. Using a subliminal priming measure, the current research found that women (Experiment 1) and White Americans (Experiment 2) implicitly associated the self with in-group stereotypic traits but not out-group stereotypic traits. Of importance, both groups implicitly self-stereotyped on negative in-group traits to a similar extent as they did on positive in-group traits. Moreover, exploratory analysis showed that the degree to which White Americans associated positive, but not negative, in-group stereotypes with the self was related to higher self-esteem. Implications of implicit self-stereotyping on self-esteem and stereotype-consistent behavior are discussed.