The unified sense of self arose from internalized mastery of nature.

Evidence

The “self”—autos—is not spoken of until verse 24, once the repression of instinct by reason has succeeded. If the choice and sequence of words are to be taken as conclusive, the identical “I” of Homer could be seen as primarily the result of a mastery of nature carried out within the individual. This new self trembles within its thing-self—a body—once the heart has been rebuked. In any case, the opposition of aspects of the soul (analyzed in detail by Wilamowitz), which often address one another, seems to confirm the unsure, ephemeral reconciliation of the subject, whose substantiality is no more than the coordination of those aspects. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 298

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that the ‘I’ is not a given but a product of internalized domination — condensed, paradigm-shifting within the Adorno argument, and it resists one-sentence summary.
• XREF: Connects directly to the culture industry chapter’s thesis: like the Homeric self, the mass-culture subject is the product of coordinated, imposed structure rather than organic unity. — connects to: The drive to dominate external nature extends inward to the human self; Individual subjectivity emerges through the soul’s progressive self-differentiation from universal nature — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 318; Spirit develops by externalizing and returning to unite with itself — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 281 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The drive to dominate external nature extends inward to the human self #expands (0.90)
• Individual subjectivity emerges through the soul’s progressive self-differentiation from universal nature #qualifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 318
• Spirit develops by externalizing and returning to unite with itself #expands (0.70) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 281