The individual’s inner mental relations mirror social relations among persons

Evidence

At any rate, here is one of the cases where the individual, within his own consciousness, repeats the relationships which exist between him, as a total personality, and the group. It is an old observation that the conceptions of the single individual, with all their relations of association and dissociation, differentiation, and unification, behave in the same way in which individuals behave in regard to one another. It is merely a peculiar case of this correspondence that those intrapsychological relations are repeated, not only between individuals in general, but also between the individual and his group. All that society asks of its members—adaptation and loyalty, altruism and work, self-discipline and truthfulness—the individual also asks of himself. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 354

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mutual eye contact is inherently reciprocal and self-revealing; Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 778; Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 191 (+23 more)

Related

• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction (similarity 0.88)
• Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life (similarity 0.86)
• Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings (similarity 0.85)
• Intrapsychic processes mirror the structure of interpersonal relations (similarity 0.84)
• Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction (similarity 0.83)
• Individuality increases as the social circle expands (similarity 0.82)
• Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness (similarity 0.82)
• Human life must be understood under both individual and social attributes at once (similarity 0.81)
• Relational qualities can harden into intrinsic traits of an element (similarity 0.81)
• Any social group can act as individual or aggregate depending on its relational frame. (similarity 0.81)
• Social institutions are peace treaties between imitation and individual differentiation. (similarity 0.81)
• Larger social circles expand possibilities for developing unique inner lives. (similarity 0.81)
• Social generalization, though distorting, is what makes social relations possible (similarity 0.81)
• Each person holds a constant ratio of individual to social factors (similarity 0.81)
• Sociology’s proper object is the forms relating two or more individuals (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction #corroborates (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194
• Human life must be understood under both individual and social attributes at once #expands (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 213
• Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life #contradicts (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 778
• Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings #contradicts (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 191
• Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types #expands (0.50) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 284
• Individuality increases as the social circle expands #expands (0.40) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 591