The Atlas of Social Complexity. Chapter 10: The Self

As I stated in my previous post, the first major content theme in The Atlas of Social Complexity is Cognition, Emotion and Consciousness.

 

Chapter 6 addresses autopoiesis.

Chapter 7 turns to the role of bacteria in human consciousness.

Chapter 8 explores how the immune system, just like bacteria and cells, is cognitive – and the implications this has for our wider brain-based consciousness.

Chapter 9 explores a complexity framing of brain-based cognition, emotion and consciousness.

Chapter 10 – the current post – explores the complex multilevel dynamics of the Self. 

THE SELF, A quick summary

The Self is a milestone in the evolution of consciousness. One can think of The Self, be it at any level, as some form of executive function consciousness through which an organism recognises itself and its environment. For some social animals, The Self has evolved from a very primitive, primordial form into more complex dynamics, based on the evolutionary power of social life, and with the human self being the most complex.

 

As shown in Figure 1, Chapter 10 reviews the literature on the human self and its multiple forms and levels, including

• primordial-self, 
• reflexive-self
• autobiographical-self
• social-self
• public-self

 

 

Chapter 10 also explores how The Self exists as much for the body as it does for the agency of our self-reflecting mind, the emotional core out of which The Self emerges; and, finally, how The Self exists for others in our complex social worlds, including our outward facing public-self. Authors include Damasio, Temple Grandin and Jaak Panksepp on the primordial self and the role of emotions and feeling in mind self and consciousness; Merleau-Ponty and Evan Thompson on the self, cognition, and embodiment; Freud and symbolic interactionism on the reflexive self; and Satre and Mead on the social and public self.

 

 

KEY WORDS: The self, primordial-self, reflexive-self, autobiographical-self, social-self, public-self.