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In this paper, self is conceived as a particular form of mental activity, or process, the dynamic and moving form of which is manifest in the stream of consciousness (James, 1890) and in certain kinds of conversation. A developmental pathway is constructed for self seen in this way.
The development schema depends on the postulate of two fundamentally different forms of human language and conversation. One of the conversations, which has a nonlinear form, becomes a linguistic marker of “self.” The emergence of “self” is seen to depend on a form of memory, the autobiographical, which emerges at about four years of age. This memory system also allows the formation of narrative and of the storying that is the basis of culture.
Disruptions of self are conceived according to Jacksonian theory and the notion of trauma. They result in forms of consciousness that are underpinned by memory systems, which, relative to the “autobiographical,” are more primitive. The disruptions are manifest in clinical conversations of a less complex, more automatic kind than the narrative of self. They are referred to, in this article, as chronicles and scripts. Successful therapy involves their transformation into a more spontaneous and complex narrative form.