Socially prescribed behavior forms the conditions of self-emergence, not its obstacle.

Evidence

The account I have presented of the mosque movement shows that the distinction between the subject’s real desires and obligatory social conventions-a distinction at the center of liberal, and at times progressive, thought-cannot be assumed, precisely because socially prescribed forms of behavior constitute the conditions for the emergence of the self as such and are integral to its realization. One of the issues such a conception of self raises is: How does one rethink the question of individual freedom in a context where the distinction between the subject’s own desires and socially pre.. scribed performances cannot be so easily presumed, and where submission to certain forms of (extern ) authority is a condition for the self to achieve its potentiality? What kind of politics would be deemed desirable and viable in a discursive tradition that regards conventions ( socially prescribed perfor.. mances) as necessary to the self’s realization? — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1033 (#expands, via linked claim)

As I have described, the mosque participants did not regard authorized models ofbehavior as an extern social imposition that constrained the individual. Rather, they viewed socially prescribed forms of conduct as the potentialities, the “scaffolding,” if you will, through which the self is realized. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1027 (#expands, via linked claim)

Placing the importance of biological considerations and of early childhood experiences alongside the importance of social considerations and post-childhood experiences meant giving women the chance to wrest their self-images from the shackles of patriarchal definitions. … Fromm’s assumption that instinctual structures were produced by the conditions of existence led him to demonstrate that the prevailing conditions of existence would continue indefinitely because they were embedded in instinctual structures. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 292 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The self’s richness grows through openness to society and object, not isolation.; Selfhood is formed socially through others from earliest infancy — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 737; Current social circumstances, not the technology itself, drive self-branding behavior. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 494 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Social prescriptions can constitute the self rather than constrain it. #expands (0.97) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1033
• Socially prescribed conduct can serve as scaffolding for self-realization rather than constraint #expands (0.95) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1027
• Theorizing instinct as socially produced can accidentally naturalize existing social conditions. #complicates (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 292