The self is not a real self sealed off from social influence.
Evidence
The demands of the self usually conform so closely to societal norms that we feel no tension in acting upon our desires. The self emerges most clearly at times when our passions clash with social protocol. Their very inconvenience makes them feel “true.” Over the last 150 years, however, psychologists and neuroscientists have warned us against attributing too much authenticity to our thoughts. Our brains are always engaged in rationalization: framing raw demands from our subconscious as well-grounded, logical requests. Psychologist Bruce Hood elaborates, “Even if you deliberate over an idea, turning it over in your conscious mind, you are simply delaying the final decision that has, to all intents and purposes, already been made.” Later, “having been presented with a decision, we then make sense of it as if it were our own.” The overwhelming number of truth-cloaking mechanisms in our brains has convinced Hood that the self is an “illusion.” Whether or not this is the best framing, we should certainly abandon the idea that the self is a “real me” cordoned off from any social influence. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 293
Categorization
- QUESTION: Worth chasing the actual neuroscience — whether ‘deliberation is post-hoc rationalization’ (Hood) reflects Libet-style findings that have been contested and refined.
- XREF: Echoes We by Zamyatin and the deep-seated anxiety about whether even our most private thoughts belong to the collective — a genuine resonance worth noting. — connects to: Agency is best theorized as accomplished social action, not individual autonomy. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 114; Authenticity is judged by others against demographic norms, not by inner voice — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 272; Social prescriptions can constitute the self rather than constrain it. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1033 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Social prescriptions can constitute the self rather than constrain it.
#corroborates(0.95) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1033 - Socially prescribed behavior forms the conditions of self-emergence, not its obstacle.
#expands(0.90) - The self is bound to others and the world, not separate or controllable
#corroborates(0.88) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 477 - Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence
#corroborates(0.87) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517 - Individual identity forms dialogically through a constitutive outside, not autonomously.
#corroborates(0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 363 - The self’s richness grows through openness to society and object, not isolation.
#corroborates(0.85) - The demand to be a self is culturally constructed, not innate
#expands(0.82) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 106 - The desire for freedom from social conventions is not innate but culturally constructed.
#corroborates(0.78) - Social media does not transmit identity but requires its continuous self-production.
#qualifies(0.72) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 1463