Over the years, I have spent a lot of time pondering the self; both my personal self and the general abstract notion of a self. I realized that identity was more of an activity than a thing. Your “identity” has a lot to do with what you “identify” with. When people are asked to write down some things that identify them, the responses tend to fall into categories such as attributes, activities, associates, possessions, places, abstract principles, etc. The following is a survey of some of the different types of selves we seem to have.

TYPES OF SELVES

Here are a few different types of self concept:

The Conscious Self:

This is the self that you think that you are.

The Unconscious Self:

This is the self of habit and unconscious processes.

The Feared Self:

This is the self that you are afraid that you might become under unfortunate circumstances and/or wrong choices.

The Desired Self:

This is the self that you would like to be and may be striving to become.

The Ought Self:

This is the self that you think you ought to be.

The Presented Self:

This is the self that you consciously construct and present to the world.

The Actual Self:

This is the self that you actually are.

The Remembered Self:

This is the self that you recall being.

The Anticipated Self:

This is the self that you expect to become.

THE REAL SELF?

Thomas Metzinger doesn’t think that you actually have a real self. His idea is that we all have a self model in our heads. We also have a model of the world in our heads. We use these models to navigate through life but get confused when we think that the model self is real in a fundamental sense.

THE INTELLIGENT SELVES:

Howard Gardner has a model of intelligence that is based on the following criteria for each identified type of intelligence:

There must be an identifiable brain area involved.

There must be a standard developmental process.

There must be cross cultural recognition

There must be examples of over and under development.

With these standards, he identified the following types:

Linguistic – this has to do with verbal expression and understanding.

Visual – this has to do with visual perception of color, shape, space, etc.

Musical – this has to do with creating and understanding music.

Bodily – this has to do with the operation of the physical body.

Social – this has to do with social interaction.

Personal – this has to do with understanding and handling one’s own self.

Logical/Mathematical – this has to do with understanding and manipulating abstract patterns.

Systemic – this has to do with understanding the way that things interact in a systemic fashion – global perspective

Naturalistic – this has to do with the appreciating and understanding the natural environment.

I have had a lot of fun over the years thinking about this model. In the context of this post, it occurs to me that we could consider a self for each type of intelligence.

Linguistic Self: This would be a collection of words that you use to define yourself. Primarily abstract and descriptive.

Visual Self: This is your actual visual appearance

Musical Self: This is not so easy to pin down. Would this be the style of music that you identify with?

Body Self: This would be things like your physical capabilities such as skills, range of motion, strength, endurance, etc.

Social Self: This would overlap with the Presented Self mentioned above and the.

Personal Self: This would be who you are to yourself – maybe the Conscious Self mentioned above.

Logical/Mathematical Self: Maybe this has to do with the coherence and consistency of your self concept.

Systemic Self: The degree to which you perceive yourself as a functional system in a world of systems.

Naturalistic Self: Who you are as a member of the ecosystem, interacting with plants and animals.

THE HIERARCHICAL SELF:

J.L. Jolly proposed a model of the world he called the Holotheme – based on a series of hierarchical levels of reality.

His levels are:

Informational – this level deals with information as the basic “stuff” of reality – more primordial than matter-energy-space-time. There are some theories of physics which propose such a level – they call it “pre-geometrical”

Space/Time – this is the curved space-time of Einstein – which he said was more basic than energy.

Energy – this is the realm of the different types of energies and forces.

Matter – this is the periodic table of elements and all of their combinations.

Simple Biology – this level consists of all single cellular creatures.

Complex Biology – this is the level of all multicelled creatures

Social – this is the level of societies of creatures.

Once again, we could consider the self at each level.

The Informational Self would be your portion of the fundamental information. Maybe this is the avenue for some of the paranormal phenomena.

The Space/Time Self would be the space/time that you encompass.

The Energetic Self would be the patterns of energy that are you. The idea of auras and subtle short range interactions fits here.

The Material Self would be all the atoms and molecules in you. They say that every atom in you gets replaced within seven years.

The Simple Biological Self would be all the cells that make you up. It turns out that there are many more independent bacteria in your body than human cells.

The Complex Biological Self is your primate self. An animal among animals.

The Social Self is the person you are to those around you, your roles and responsibilities to others.

THE COMPOSITE SELF:

Everyone models the people they interact with. This helps them anticipate the probable actions and reactions of those they associate with. So you have a different self for everyone who knows you. And each of those selves is a simplified model of you from their perspective. Not only do they use those models to anticipate your probable behavior, they also use those models to influence your probable behavior. Such phrases as “you are better than that”, “that isn’t like you”, “you want to do the right thing, don’t you?”, “you want people to think well of you, don’t you”, etc. illustrate this influence. We cannot help but be affected by all this.

THE INSTITUTIONAL SELF:

Each of us is involved in a variety of institutions. In some, we are only customers and audience member. In others we are workers and in some, we may be leaders. Each of these social roles suggests self structure that is consistent with the institution, its goals, history, traditions, activities, etc. Hopefully, these roles do not conflict in an individual, but often they do.

THE CONCENTRIC SELF:

Each of us has a strong identification with our body. We have a strong identification with family and friends. We have a looser identification with neighbors, co-workers, club members. We have a still lesser identification with people who live in our city, state, nation, etc. Sort of like layers of an onion. We differ from each other in the groups that we identify with and how strong that identification is. In a few, the personal body centered self is most important and all the rest are insignificant. In a few others, all humanity is revered. And in others we call mystics; all of reality becomes part of their sense of self.

THE FRAGMENTED SELF:

I have read a number of books on multiple personalities and it is a really fascinating subject. Often linked to severe childhood abuse, apparently the personality spawns a surrogate self and walls it off like a callous to absorb the abuse. Some people have a few personalities, others have many. Some of the personalities can monitor the experience of the one controlling the body and other personalities just blank out when they are not in control. I have read about cases where allergies, glasses prescriptions, even some aspects of personal appearance change when the personality in control shifts. I have wondered if we don’t all have some degree of differentiation of self and that those with pathological multiples are at one end of a spectrum while those with no differentiation at all are viewed as flat and boring personalities.

THE LAYERED SELF:

Dan McAdams has been working on a theory for 15 years which focuses on the power of narrative in the construction of the self. He postulates 3 la

The Basic Self:

This layer contains the genetics, the basic traits, the unconscious habits that are usually studied in relationship to the self.

The Constructed Self:

This layer is composed of the personal adaptations like the personal goals, the defenses, coping mechanisms, beliefs, values that people use to function in the world.

The Narrative Self;

This is a very interesting idea. He says that each of us constructs a story that makes sense of our life by rearranging memories, perceptions and anticipations into a coherent narrative or “life myth”.

THE INSTITUTIONAL SELF

There are different types of institutions that cover various human activities. Each contains multiple roles for the self.

Family

These are the most common and familiar roles. Each of us can be child, parent, mate, sibling, etc.

Educational

Whether formal or informal, each of us are students who learn and teachers who instruct at some times in our lives.

Economic

We all wind up in the market place sooner or later as buyers and/or seller. And to earn the money needed to do the buying we are workers and/or the boss.

Political

Every community has some sort of political structure and we are followers and leaders.

Religion

Whether devout or casual, most of us participate in some religious activity as either the minister or the parishioner.

Health

As some time in our lives, through illness or injury we are the patient under the care of a healer.

Recreational

All work and no play, etc. We are the audiences and the artists, the teams and the coachs in our “spare” time.

Science

Some of us are drawn to explore nature and/or design and build. We are the experimenters, the engineers, the theoreticians, the technicians,etc.

WRAPPING IT UP:

The self is sort of a “suitcase” concept that contains many different things. There is a concept called self-conguence. It refers to the way in which these different selves relate to each other. The more harmonious and integrated the different selves, the healthier and happier the individual. The more conflicted and confused the different selves, the more stressed and unhappy the individual.

Most people don’t think too much about their “self” unless they have a problem with . After years of considering these different selves, I think that maybe they have a point.