Many diverse stimulations, not few, make the ego self-aware

Evidence

As long as psychic stimulations, especially the stimulations of sensation, occur only in small number, the ego is fused with them and stays latently embedded in them; it rises above them only to the degree that, precisely via a fullness of dissimilarity, it becomes clear to our awareness that the ego itself is common to all this variation. This is just the same as when a general concept cannot be abstracted out of single phenomena if we are familiar with only one or a few of their elaborations, but only if we know very many of them; and its abstractness and purity are all the greater as dissimilarity contrasts more distinctly with the generality. Now this alternation of the contents of the ego, which is what actually first poses the ego to consciousness as the stable pole in the play of psychic phenomena, is extraordinarily more lively within a large circle than it is for life in a narrower group. Stimulations of sensation, which are especially important for subjective ego consciousness, occur most where a highly differentiated individual stands amid other highly differentiated individuals, and where comparisons, frictions, and specialized relations release a profusion of reactions that remain latent in a narrower undifferentiated circle, but which in the larger circle, by virtue of their abundance and diversity, elicit the sensation of the ego as that which is absolutely “one’s own.” — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 705

Categorization

• XREF: The abstract-concept analogy and the claim that ego appears amid high differentiation directly bears on the essay’s causal chain; this is the ‘varied stimulation breeds selfhood’ premise that undercuts a purely blasé, deadened reading of the urban observer. — connects to: The Romantic self is constituted through successive contrasting experiences — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 540; Ego emerges as the constant amid rapid psychic alternation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 703; Self-awareness lifts the I above itself while it remains itself — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 814 (+2 more)

Related

• Ego emerges as the constant amid rapid psychic alternation (similarity 0.89)
• Self-awareness lifts the I above itself while it remains itself (similarity 0.81)
• The Romantic self is constituted through successive contrasting experiences (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Ego emerges as the constant amid rapid psychic alternation #expands (0.55) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 703
• Self-awareness lifts the I above itself while it remains itself #qualifies (0.45) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 814
• Repeated exercises yield new understanding rather than identical experiences #corroborates (0.40) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 100