The Self as Social

The view of the self, as defined in relation to social influences and culminating in the symbolic interactionist formulations as developed in G. H. Mead's concept of the social self, have found their reverberations in analytic thinking about the nature and functioning of the self. The sociological origins of the social self are traced and its derivatives in analytic thinking, especially in self and relational–intersubjective psychologies, indicated. With the purpose of integrating social perspectives of the self with previous formulations of the self-as-person and as individuated and relatively autonomous agent and subject, the contrast is drawn between the notion of the self-as-social and the social self. While the self-as-social is consistent with the characteristics of the self-as-person and is seen as extending the role of the self in forms of social interaction, the social self is seen as incompatible. Mediation of social influences on the self-as-social are attributed to modifications of the self-as-object as reflected in self-representations. Implications of this perspective of self-functioning in the analytic setting are discussed.