self
- Key People:
- Charles Taylor
- Gordon Allport
self, the “I” as experienced by an individual. In modern psychology the notion of the self has replaced earlier conceptions of the soul.
The concept of the self has been a central feature of many personality theories, including those of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Gordon W. Allport, Karen Horney, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and Abraham H. Maslow.
According to Carl Jung the self is a totality consisting of conscious and unconscious contents that dwarfs the ego (q.v.) in scope and intensity. The maturation of the self is the individuation process, which is the goal of the healthy personality.
Rogers theorized that a person’s self-concept determines his behaviour and his relation to the world, and that true therapeutic improvement occurs only when the individual changes his own self-concept. May’s approach was similarly existential; he conceived the self as a dynamic entity, alive with potentiality. Maslow’s theory of self-actualization was based on a hierarchy of needs and emphasized the highest capacities or gratifications of a person. See also humanistic psychology.