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The Self
By Joel Latner, Ph.D.
The self is the agent of change. It is the organism as a whole making contact in the present moment, being aware in the process of creative adjustment throughout the stages of figure formation and destruction over time, and growing. The term
"self" refers to the system of contacts in any present situation
and the way our experience is organized by us. These
different systems of organization are called structures or
aspects of the self.
The Wholeness of Contact
Much of the practice of Gestalt therapy consists of a careful examination of contact, the creation and destruction of figures (creative adjustment), and the experiential dimensions of these. The part of Gestalt theory which concerns itself with these as attributes of the individual is called the theory of the self.
The self exists wherever contact occurs, not as an additional object of the psyche (as it might in conventional psychology)
but as the process of figure formation in the individual. When
we are not referring to any particular boundary contact but only
to a generalized present or present, as in this discussion, the
self is felt only as an experiential potentiality or a memory. The authors of Gestalt Therapy put it this way, "The self is not to be thought of as a fixed institution; it exists wherever and
whenever there is in fact a boundary interaction. The self is the figure/ground process in contact-situations".
This seems to be a "six blind men and the elephant" situation,
with no sighted person in view, where the aspects of the self correspond to the different experiences of the blind men as
they grasped the tail, the legs, the trunk, the hide. The self is
the integrative force, though, the sighted person who can see
the whole.
The self is often discussed in terms of the forms it takes in the different phases of figure formation and in different situations. These forms are called structures. They are partial constructs
of the self, similar to the ways that we are each different in different kinds of situations. We are thoughtful and receptive
when listening to something which interests us, animated and active when we are responding. These structures of the self
are the id functions, the ego functions, and the personality functions--and one additional construct of a different nature,
the middle mode.
Though the first three may have familiar names, they have
been recast in the phenomenological spirit, as aware structures which the self creates according to the particular purposes and circumstances of creative adjustment. They are the major
stages of figure formation, from the vantage point of the
individual, the aware organism.
Ego Functions and Id Functions
The second phase of figure formation is characterized by the
ego functions, by the individual's accepting elements of the
field which need to join the emerging figure and rejecting
others which do not belong. More often, there are not only the spontaneous dominances of interest that determine these inclusions and exclusions but also more deliberate choice exercised by the individual in the making of the figure. The
second phase is the time par excellence when the individual
feels himself or herself to be the doer, the figure maker. You
are not only attentive, you pay attention; you concentrate, you organize materials and time, you put things in order. The
workings of this phase, especially, call for healthy deliberation, restricting certain activities and concentrating exclusively on others.
Experientially, the ego functions give the individual a sense of being instrumental in the figure's forming. You feel yourself to
be the one who is making things happen. In this phase, you approach the environment aggressively, using and mastering
the elements of the field rather than merely cooperating
with them.
Phenomenologically, this gives you a sense that you make the figure, whereas at other times you are less instrumental, more
a partner in the enterprise, participating along with other
elements in its formation. Because of this, there is in the ego functions a feeling of being separate and different from the elements you are controlling and ordering. The contact
boundary's role as divider is clearly felt; differentiation is
foremost; joining is less noticed.
Counterposed to this are the id functions, wherein we
experience ourselves as passive, moved by things outside us. Our experience of our emotions is of this kind, as are rest and relaxation, situations which are vaguely organized and not problematic, and many of those situations as well in which we
are in touch with ourselves physically, sensing proprioceptively. This experience of the id functions is of course a familiar one at certain times--in sleep and sleepiness, at certain times in lovemaking, rest, being massaged. The language of the id functions says it all: We are fondled, we are moved to tears, we are tired, we are touched, we are excited, we fall asleep.
This description is typical of the experience of the first phase
of figure formation and the end of it as well. Though they exist throughout the phases of figure formation, the id functions predominate at those times. If there is contact and interplay, for instance, the ego functions alternate with the responsive id functions in the second, contact phase, in order that the effects
of our actions may be felt and in order that whatever is beyond
our control may be noticed. The self-awareness of the id
functions is unengaged, diffuse, acted upon. The boundary
here may hardly be felt at all when all the world is at rest, or it
may be clearly felt, when we are not only receptive but receiving.
Middle Mode and Personality
Middle mode is a term inspired by the study of languages. It
refers to a voice, the middle voice, which lies in between the active and passive voices and has qualities of both. The active voice is the voice of the ego functions, and the passive voice is the voice of the id functions. There is no middle voice in English (the intransitive is not quite the same), but it is suggested, perhaps, by locutions such as "We are taking a walk" (different from the active voice of "We are walking"). Or, "I would not have kept myself from .... " or "I am having a good time." The reader may find this description of middle mode obscure, but the experience of the middle mode is a common one. The middle mode is spontaneity. It is what we experience when activity and passivity are balanced, when we let go and give ourselves over
to an activity we care about and are deeply involved in. It is
making love once we are past technique and expectations. It is reading with absorption, giving ourselves over to the experience.
It is playing music or cards, or animated conversation, when we are beyond our worries about our performance or the impression we are making, and when the mental static of second-guessing ourselves has disappeared.
It is the experience which athletes these days are coming to call "the zone," when everything goes well, easily. We feel unified, balanced, whole thoroughly attuned to what we are doing, what we are involved with. The ego and id functions are balanced; we are neither doing it nor being done to, and at the same time we are doing, and we are being done to. It is somewhere in the middle, encompassing both. The result is a new gestalt, not the sum of the ego and id functions, but a new function with a character all its own: the middle mode. In terms of engagement, we might call the result impartiality, or use the Oriental term "nonattachment," or the old-fashioned term "disinterested," passionate but not biased. The feeling is not loss of self, but
self in interplay; immediate, concrete, thoroughly present. "A player's effectiveness is directly related to his ability to be right there, doing that thing, in the moment," wrote the veteran professional quarterback John Brodie. "He can't be worrying
about the past or the future or the crowd or some other extraneous event. He must be able to respond in the here
and now."
The middle mode has a special standing in relation to the self. While the other special aspects of the self, the id and ego functions and the personality, are separate and distinct aspects
of the self, the middle mode is this and more. On the one hand,
it is a distinct aspect of the self, with experiential qualities which markedly set it apart from the others. On the other hand, it partakes of qualities of both the id and ego functions. Beyond
this, the middle mode is a less partial, more pervasive quality
of the self which encompasses both the id and ego functions.
Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman term the middle mode "the
unity prior (and posterior) to activity and passivity, containing both" (1951). In part, they are suggesting what its name,
middle mode, also suggests, that the middle mode balances
the manipulative disengagement of the ego functions with the accommodating engagement of the id functions, the aggressiveness of the ego functions and the receptiveness of
the id functions, creating something else entirely. They are also pointing to another special quality of the middle mode: its pervasiveness. Middle mode is both a particular quality of experience in which the id and ego functions are balanced and also spontaneous free functioning itself, encompassing and subsuming most of what we feel as the ego and id functions.
The personality functions, as a structure of the self, consist of
the system of attitudes, beliefs, convictions, and assumptions about ourselves and the workings of the world to which we refer when we are asked to explain ourselves. It is also being aware
of oneself, studying oneself, reflecting upon oneself in the present moment, as well as referring to oneself. The personality is both a reproduction of ourselves in words--"a verbal replica of the self," Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman wrote--and the self-conscious activity of studying and replicating ourselves.
The personality involves speaking of oneself; therefore it exists in terms of our relations to others because speaking is a social act: We speak to others. (Of course, we also speak to ourselves; this is interpersonal, as well, since we make an object of ourselves.) When we are out of touch with aspects of ourselves and the world, the personality is replete with mistaken ideas, distortions, and introjects. We think we know ourselves, but we do not. In health, when there is nothing hidden, it is accurate (as far as it goes; its limits are our inventiveness, and what can be verbal). The personality is responsible--we feel we can be responsible
for what we know--for we can commit ourselves to something if we know ourselves through and through. We can say, "Yes, I would like to try white water rafting; I like things like that."
We refer to our ideas of ourselves and the world in the course
of forming figures, especially in the second phase of figure formation, as a way of facilitating the figure's emergence and development. At the same time, liking the idea of white water rafting because we like other similar things is eating the menu,
not the dinner. It is not it, it is only thinking about it. The personality is sometimes a menu, a shortcut to creative
synthesis, but it is not creative synthesis itself.
As "consciousness," awareness of oneself, the personality function of the self is a part of healthy living. For the most part, however, it is important only in those times when especial difficulties in figure formation occur, and those which involved reconsiderations of ourselves--including psychotherapy. In general, we consider the personality a minor aspect of the self
in healthy, free functioning. In fact, Gestalt therapists believe
the importance of thinking in daily life is overrated. Most of what we call thinking is not considered thought at all, but subvocal speech, talking to oneself. Nearly all useful mental activity goes on out of awareness, necessarily, where it can best function as
an instrument of the requirements of the present figure and
stand out of the way of the rest of our abilities when it is not needed.
It is a disease of humans, perhaps especially of educated
people, to believe that persistent and aware mental activity is important. The belief plays a large part in the excessive reliance on logic and the mental which keeps us from being fulfilled. The uniqueness of each present moment requires the kind of
flexibility which is usually precluded by the personality. Relying
on it as a substitute for the uncertainty and even mystery of the creative process is painting by numbers. And this habit of mind keeps us from becoming thoroughly absorbed in the here and
now of our lives. "We should take care," Einstein wrote, with this in mind, "not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality." Or, as the oft-quoted Yankee philosopher has said, "How can you think and hit at
the same time?"
We end with a conception of the self in which there is almost no constancy or regularity, except as the force for growth. And, differently from the way the self is usually thought of, there is frequently little or no sense of ourselves at all. Paradoxically, in health we often forget ourselves. At bottom, we could say, we
are virtually nonexistent, virtually selfless, because of the variety of our qualities and experience. "The true value of a human being," Einstein said, "is determined primarily by the measure
and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." It is this quality of the self which was referred to earlier in the section on health and its absence: the fear of experiences which do not assure us that we exist. The threat here is that without the solid ground of confidence in our ability to make and destroy figures
we will die. And yet, we must die, in a way. We must take no thought for ourselves or for the morrow. We must efface
ourselves in figure formation if we are to participate in it fully.
A multitude of artists, spiritual figures, and others attest to this.
"In every part and
corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy."
© 2005 Portland Gestalt Therapy Institute
-
‣Origins & Development
- Brief History
- Development
- Isadore From
- Current Trends -
‣Boundary Disturbances
- Confluence &
Projection
- Introjection &
Retroflection
- Egotism, Deflection, &
Other Disturbances -
‣The Self
- Wholeness of Contact
- Ego & Id Functioins
- Middle Mode &
Personality