Presentation Transcript
The unconscious origins of Self: responsibility and personality: The unconscious origins of Self: responsibility and personality Zena Andreou
The notion of self: The notion of self Dennett:
self as a centre of narrative gravity – an illusion
no conscious control over the narrative being told
no reference to a minimal self
Damasio:
proto-self (neural patterns representing the state of the organism moment by moment – Unconscious)
core self (sense of here and now – Conscious)
autobiographical self (past, future, memories, plans, aspirations – Conscious)
Slide3: Dennett – Consciousness Explained
‘Each normal individual of this species [Homo sapiens] makes a self. Out of its brain it spins a web of words and deeds, and like the other creatures, it doesn’t have to know what it’s doing; it just does it’ p. 416
‘Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control, and self-definition is not spinning webs or building dams, but telling stories, and more particularly concocting and controlling the story we tell others – and ourselves – about who we are.’ p. 418
But we ‘do not consciously and deliberately figure out what narratives to tell and how to tell them. Our tales are spun, for the most part we don’t spin them; they spin us. Our human consciousness, and our narrative selfhood, is their product, not their source’ p. 418
Slide4: Damasio – The feeling of what happens
Autobiographical self is somewhat similar to Dennett’s narrative self. Even though we are conscious of its existence we are not aware of the mechanisms that created it.
However, the autobiographical self cannot stand on its own without being based upon the core self which is in its turn based upon the proto-self.
‘The unconscious … is only a part of the vast amount of processes and contents that remain nonconscious, not known in core or extended consciousness’ p. 228
Control and responsibility: Control and responsibility Can we say that we have any form of control over who we are? The self that we attribute to others or ourselves?
Are we responsible for unconscious mental states. The mental states that form the basis of the self?
Are we responsible for conscious mental states? Taking into consideration that they might have originated from unconscious mental states?
Slide6: