Digital Self: A Third Type of Self-Representation

a post by Richard Kensinger for the World of Psychology blog

The sense of mind and self is created by multiple social interactions with many others; particularly from those in our early psychosocial environment. These intimate interactions result in the construction of our personality. Personality becomes, in time, the consistent features of who we are in regards to our thoughts, feelings, and actions (which I refer to as mind, mood, and motor). Around age 3, personality emerges. It is dynamically formed by multiple inputs from others, becomes consolidated in our late teens and early 20’s, and around the 3rd decade it becomes relatively fixed.

In Psychology, one field of thought involves the split-object representations of self/other. There are essentially four global sub-types and each involves a global emotional charge. They are: good-good (++), good-bad (+-), bad-good (-+), and bad-bad (–). These four subtypes, in my clinical opinion, are critical to attachment and bonding. Emotions essentially encode our experiences with others. This occurs in the Limbic region of the brain. I refer to this region as our “reacting brain” as it is the origin of our emotions, motivations and attraction to and connections to others. (See Daniel J. Siegel’s The Developing Mind.)

Continue reading [quite heavy going but I found it very interesting]

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