The Conceptual Self in Context Culture Experience Self Understanding

What is the self-concept and how does it develop? Do people in different cultures have sharply different concepts of self? Can we believe what our informants tell us on this point? What is known about the self-concepts of depressives? of schizophrenics? How does meditation affect the sense of self? Is there an inner 'self of selves' as James once suggested? These are, of course, hotly debated questions in the social sciences. In this book a prestigious group of psychologists, linguists, anthropologists and philosophers addresses these questions and presents some surprising answers. This is the third and last of the Emory Symposia organized around Ulric Neisser's cognitive theory of self-knowledge, it goes beyond The Perceived Self and The Remembering Self to deal with psychological and philosophical questions surrounding the self.

List of contributions; Part I. The Self in Culture: 1. Concepts and self-concepts Ulric Neisser; 2. Selfways: diversity in modes of cultural participation Hazel Rose Markus, Patricia R. Mullally, and Shinobu Kitayama; 3. Depression and the cultural context of the self-serving bias Linda J. Koenig; 4. How is the self conceptualized? Variations among cultures Fredrik Barth; 5. The internal structure of the self George Lakoff; 6. Why Lakoff needs psychoanalysis: on cultural ambivalence and concepts of the self Charles W. Nuckolls; 7. Children's self-awareness and self-understanding in cultural context Daniel Hart and Suzanne Fegley; 8. Situating the self in interpersonal space John F. Kihlstrom, Lori A. Marchese-Foster, and Stanley B. Klein; 9. The self as socially constructed: a commentary Robyn Fivush and Janine Buckner; Part II. Experiencing the Self: 10. Mindfulness mediation and the private (?) self Eleanor Rosch; 11. The consciousness machine: self and subjectivity in schizophrenia and modern culture Louis A. Sass; Part III. Philosophical Perspectives on the Self: 12. The self and contemporary theories of ethics Sheila Mason; 13. A 'self of selves'? David A. Jopling; Author index; Subject index.

We all believe certain things about ourselves; take together those beliefs make up our 'self concept'. In this 1997 book a prestigious group of psychologists, linguists, anthropologists and philosophers address the basic questions about selves and self-concepts.