Revision summary
Mead: the self arises in self-consciousness, when one takes oneself as an object. Significant symbols make the speaker respond as the hearer does. Play, then game, then the generalised other organise that capacity. The Me is others’ attitudes; the I is the novel act. Power decides whose other is generalised; Mead left that thin.
Model answer
Introduction
George Herbert Mead argued that the self is not given at birth as a soul. It arises when the individual can take herself as an object, that is, when she becomes self-conscious in social interaction. Mind, self, and society are one process, not three boxes.
Body
Self-consciousness as taking the role of the other
- In Mind, Self and Society, the self appears when the organism can indicate to itself what it indicates to others.
- A gesture becomes a significant symbol when it arouses in the speaker the same response it arouses in the hearer. Language is the medium of this sharing.
- Self-consciousness is this doubled view: I see myself as others see me.
Play, game, and the generalised other
- In play, the child takes one role at a time: mother, teacher, police. The self is still a series of parts.
- In the game, the child must take the roles of all others in an organised activity, as in cricket or a classroom.
- The generalised other is the organised community’s attitude. When the child answers that attitude, a stable self is possible.
- Charles Horton Cooley’s looking-glass self is a cousin: we imagine appearance, judgment, and a self-feeling. Mead is more about organised process than about a mirror of vanity.
The I and the Me
- The Me is the organised set of others’ attitudes that one assumes. It is the self as object, the conventional side.
- The I is the novel response to that Me, the moment of impulse and creativity.
- Self-consciousness is the conversation of I and Me. Without the Me there is no object to be conscious of. Without the I there is no living act.
Implications
- The self is social before it is private. Durkheim’s claim that society exceeds the individual meets Mead on this path, though Mead starts from interaction, not from social facts as things.
- Erving Goffman later staged the self; Mead supplies the developmental condition for any stage.
- Indian childhood in joint households and schools multiplies generalised others: caste, kin, and nation may conflict, which is role strain, not a disproof of Mead.
Limit
- Mead underplayed class and gender power in whose “other” becomes generalised. Harding and Oakley would ask which community’s attitude is internalised as the Me.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SY[Significant symbols] --> SC[Self-consciousness] PL[Play one role] --> GM[Game organised roles] GM --> GO[Generalised other] GO --> ME[Me as object] ME --> I[I as response] I --> SELF[Self]
Conclusion
For Mead, the self develops when the person can take the role of the other and become an object to herself. Play, game, and the generalised other build that self-consciousness. The I and the Me are its inner conversation. Society is the condition of mind, not a later add-on.
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Can there be a self without language?
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