Description
Book SynopsisThis book uses philosophy, psychology, and autobiography in an innovative exploration of self and self-knowledge. It argues that our sense of who we are is an ever-changing response to the world of interpersonal experience, an essential project that is always subject to revision and change. It explores self-knowledge through linked topics. What characteristics make an individual identifiable and unique, and how are they experienced introspectively? What insight can be gained through the metaphors of acting and roles? How does fantasy plays a crucial part in self-definition and self-exploration? How do trust and fear define our perception of others and what is their contribution to our sense of self? The second half of the book uses the friendship of the authors, a philosopher and a psychologist, to investigate how one's ability to navigate the world, along with one's self-knowledge, changes through mutual care, respect, and complementarityand through an explicit dialogic focus on self
Trade ReviewIn Knowing Self, Changing Self, Morawetz (Univ. of Connecticut School of Law) and Enyart, a practicing psychologist, explore self at the intersection of philosophy and psychology. The result is a fascinating read that blends both historical viewpoints and practical applications. One of the main themes that runs throughout is how much of ”knowing self” is a matter of fact and how much a matter of interpretation. Rather than judge interpretation as somehow less valuable than fact, the authors suggest that self as interpretation is equally vital to understand. In the tradition of such works as Mayeroff’s On Caring (1971), this book demonstrates the power of understanding self through shared friendship and the ability to care for others as much as for self. It is refreshing to have a work that balances conversation on the role of trust and fear (many works discuss one or the other but rarely both) in navigating through the self-exploration process and coming to understand self. . . this thin but powerful volume is well suited to counseling and philosophy and of much value to helping professionals.
Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsPart 1: Knowing Self (by Thomas Morawetz)
Introduction: On the Examined Life
Chapter 1: On the Social Bases of Self-Knowledge
“Who Am I?”
Identity and Recognition
Attitudes
Trust and Fear
Self-knowledge as Knowledge
Fantasy Selves
Chapter 2: On Truth and Falsity, Fantasy and Self-Knowledge
What You See…
Aspects and Ingredients of the Self
Parameters of Self-image
Discontent and Quiet Desperation
Culture and Fantasy
Deeper into Fantasy
Chapter 3: On Acting, Roles, and Essences
Acting: Two Meanings
“Real” Actors
The Audience
Deeper into Identification
Roles and Selves
Cosplay
Chapter 4: On Recognition
The Importance of Recognizability
Recognizing Oneself
Anonymity
Recognition, Power, and Fear
Impersonation and Deception
The Technology of Self-creation
Part 2: Changing Self (by Thomas Morawetz and Scotty Enyart)
Chapter 5: On Friendship
Others and Alter Egos (TM)
Beginning Again (SE)
Contrast and Complement (TM)
Learning and Giving (SE)
Voices in the Wilderness (TM)
Chapter 6: On Professional Identity
Revising the Self (TM)
Therapy: Inroads, Strengths, Deficits (SE)
Change: Transparency and Opacity (TM)
The Therapist’s Role (SE)
The Self as Indirect Object (TM)
Chapter 7: On Culture
What is Culture? (TM)
Origins (SE)
Frames, Contexts, and Cultures (TM)
The Deliberate Cultural Pursuit of Self-knowledge (SE)
Culture and Personal Trajectories (TM)
Chapter 8: On Feeling
Judging and Feeling (TM)
Ways of Knowing and Feeling (SE)
The Self and Humanism (TM)
