Chapter 6. The Sense of a Subjective Self: I. Overview

THE NEXT QUANTUM LEAP in the sense of self occurs when the infant discovers that he or she has a mind and that other people have minds as well. Between the seventh and ninth month of life, infants gradually come upon the momentous realization that inner subjective experiences, the “subject matter” of the mind, are potentially shareable with someone else. The subject matter at this point in development can be as simple and important as an intention to act (“I want that cookie”), a feeling state (“This is exciting”), or a focus of attention (“Look at that toy”). This discovery amounts to the acquisition of a “theory” of separate minds. Only when infants can sense that others distinct from themselves can hold or entertain a mental state that is similar to one they sense themselves to be holding is the sharing of subjective experience or intersubjectivity possible (Trevarthan and Hubley 1978). The infant must arrive at a theory not only of separate minds but of “interfaceable separate minds” (Bretherton and Bates 1979; Bretherton et al. 1981). It is not, of course, a full-blown theory. It is rather a working notion that says something like, what is going on in my mind may be similar enough to what is going on in your mind that we can somehow communicate this (without words) and thereby experience