Averia 1

Gyasti Averia
Professor Underwood
English 1A/31223
16 April 2015
Language Shapes The Self
In the same way that a painter visualizes his work using brushes and paints, a person
would paint the self in society as his/hers lifes work using language and words. Having more
linguistic skills would resemble having more colors to paint the self with; hence the self would
become more colorful and diverse in some way. In the diversity of the postmodern era, the self is
no longer looked at as something that was constituted solely and formed innately by each
individual, but rather as something that is shaped by communities, social reality that people live
in, and narratives that people partake in. Every discursive communities, which often times are
considered as cultures, use different symbols or languages with different vocabularies to
communicate. The multiplicity of the postmodern era allows people to engage in different
communities and speak various languages, which would be appropriate for each community.
Dialogues and monologues are used to adapt and reveal the self in society by painting a textual
image of the self, because otherwise there would only be assumptions. Languages ability to
conceptualize thoughts helps to interpret experiences into narratives or stories. Though words of
languages have the ability to bear different meanings and change values over time or over
different contexts, the use of them has always been a fundamental aspect of shaping the self.
Through dialogues with others and life experiences the self would be shaped partly by gaining
prejudices from embedded narratives. Whilst prejudices in the past have carried bad connotations
behind them because of their association with discrimination of certain groups of people, in the

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postmodern era having prejudices is a way to distinguish ones self from another. Therefore, the
self could be seen as something that unfolds through narratives that are put into action using
languages and words that meant to be used in certain communities.
In the postmodern era, the self is fundamentally shaped by language, and by engaging in
discourse communities and dialogues. Hubert J. M. Hermans, a Dutch psychologist known for
his Dialogical Self theory, in The Dialogical Self as a Society of Mind: Introduction (2002)
describes the self as society of mind (147), because he believes that the self is a role-playing
member of a community that is constantly interacting in it through dialogues, hence the self
would reflect its social environment. As Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist, similarly stated
in Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (1991), that the self is a
construction of made up narratives that people tell others in their communities. In the same way
as Roger Frie, a Professor and Clinical Psychologist from Simon Fraser University, claims in
Identity, Narrative, and Lived Experience after Postmodernity: Between Multiplicity and
Continuity (2011), that the self in the postmodern era is shaped by ones relation in discursive
communities and experiences, or self in action. However, some scholars, such as Ian Burkitt
from University of Bradford, agree to the Cartesian dualism theory that the self is isolated from
otherness or outside social environments. Although some philosophers claim that the self is fixed
and isolated from the outside, the self is continuously shaped by language because the self and its
identity are constructed through narratives that are based on experiences and shared through
dialogues within discursive communities.
Human beings are constantly engaged in dialogues with others and with themselves, a
dialogical self, and through these dialogues the self is elaborated because the self is carried in

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discourses. With the disappearance of individualism in the postmodern era, the self turns to
reflect its social environment. The multiplicity of ones social community shapes the self to be
diverse in language, personality, and in discourse. As stated by Hermans, In a sense the
dialogical self is a 'society of mind', because there is no essential difference between the
positions a person takes as part of the self and the positions people take as members of a
heterogeneous society (147). Therefore, multidimensional societies and the narratives they
immerse themselves in indeed form the self. In the same way that diverse societies and narratives
would determine the social language that people use and things they can and cannot say. For
instance, a person who is engage in one or multiple discourse communities, groups of people
who have certain goals and communicate through specified languages in purpose of achieving
those goals, would agree to certain social agreements of use of words and language context in
dialogues solely for their communities. To illustrate, in an educational institution, the discourse
between students and their instructors would abide formality in dialogues as it has been socially
established. By following the social agreement of formal dialogues, the self is justified as a
student whose role is subordinative in an educational institution. As Frie claims, from a
postmodern perspective, our relation to ourselves, to others, and to the world is constituted by
discursive practices. Our identities are ascribed to us by the multiplicity and fluid nature of
contemporary lifeby cultural, social, economic, and political contexts (57). By following
those rules in ways to communicate, people would justify or elaborate their self-identities to
others. As well as using language to rationalize the self, it is also used to put value of the self.
The self is conveyed through narratives, which establish ones identity and
simultaneously determined ones self-value. In the postmodern era, the value of the self is
determined by how people make themselves as in roles that they play. Self-identity, whether

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people are aware or not, is a social construction that can be modified at all times. As Giddens
states, Otherwise, however, what the individual becomes is dependent on the reconstructive
endeavors in which she or he engages (75). This affirms how narratives become one critical
aspects of the socially constructed self. Further, Giddens wites, It is made clear that selfidentity, as coherent phenomenon, presumes a narrative: the narrative of the self is made explicit.
Keeping a journal, and working through an autobiography, are central recommendations for
sustaining an integrated sense of the self (77). In addition to involving one self in multiple
narratives, a way to add the value of self-integrity is from managing continuity of the narratives.
Though people who still live in the meta-narratives mindset have tendencies to avoid people with
multiple identities due to their conservative beliefs, in the postmodern era the ability to shift
identity is considered a necessary character to adapt in a multidimensional society, because being
able to adjust the self in diverse circumstances is a way to be perceived as a normal person. To
avoid being seen as an imitator instead of an effort to adapt, it is necessary to conduct selfcontinuity without accidentally reifying just one social role as the self (Ewing 263). To illustrate,
a person who is engaging in multiple narratives or social roles, for instance a mother who is also
an actress, she must continue to be aware of her role as a mother who works to support her child.
Tough she is revealing herself as an actress, she is aware of her self-identity as a mother. The
multiplicity of her identity and how she is able to accommodate herself in different narratives has
become a prodigy of postmodernism; therefore acquiring the skill to do so is crucial for all
people in all sorts of occupations. Furthermore, the self-value could also be established through
prejudices.
The self is continuously revealed in time as people acquire life experiences because
experiences shape prejudices, one of the critical aspects to constitute the self. As mentioned

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above, the self is constructed using narrations of experiences, and by using these narrations
people distinguish their selves from others by differentiating each life stories. In the multiplicity
of the postmodern era, the dialogic self that mirrors its social environment is also reacting to the
diversity of social cultures around it, forming prejudices that could somehow affect experiences.
As Frie explains, My pre-reflective understanding of myself as a member of a group, as
evidenced in my activities, can be challenged and defined by political, social, or economic
forces, or by prejudice and racism over which I have no control. These social factors will impact
on my experience and, in turn, potentially change the way I see myself and respond to others
(58). To illustrate, the social construction of race and the idea that some races are inferior to
others have been embedded deeply in societies to an extent that people are conditioned to think
in such mindset and treat people according to the stereotypes of their races. Though prejudices
often refer to social injustice, in the postmodern era prejudices act as a starting point of thinking;
they are also distinguishing the self from others. For instance, a history narrative about a war
between two countries that was written in a rather subjective perspective would side with one
which the story was written in. Although by reading the history text one would gain patriotism,
the belief would still count as a prejudice because the lack of real evidence or objective truth
behind it. Therefore, labeling the self as a patriot would automatically add to self-identity while
also setting the self apart from others. After the self-value in a discourse is distinguished, the next
phase would be the transcendence of the self.
Self-identity is constituted using a backdrop of a community in a way to transcend the
self and reflect on self-consciousness. Being self-conscious and self-aware of ones own
narratives and actions are ways for the self to transcend and grow. Michael R. Levenson, a
research professor from University of California-Davis, wrote in Self-Transcendence:

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Conceptualization and Measurement (2005), that self-transcendence can be best understood in
terms of the phases of development that precede it. Self-knowledge is the awareness of the
sources of ones sense of self. The sense of self arises in the context of roles, achievements,
relationships, and beliefs. It is also a sense of enduring duality that we conceptualize as self and
other (128), supporting that self-transcendence is an outcome of the ever-unfolding socially
constructed dialogic self.Therefore, self-transcendence is the final phase of the self; the
transcended self is the product of self in discourse, self in action and the self in community
backdrop. For instance, the self with multiple identities after experiencing self-transcendence
would feel content and belonging, not in the unitary sense of the self, but rather feeling the
unified unabridged self. For instance, the victims of 9/11 that had experienced grief and went
through that as a community have transcended together, because they had accepted and moved
on from the past as victims, identified their selves as survivors and united as a community.
Therefore, not only that self-transcendence is seen as a individual accomplishment, it is also
unifying the community which people consciously acknowledge as the backdrop of their actions.
However, some discourse communities still believe that the self is inherently fixed, or isolated
from the social dialogues.
Cartesian dualism theory believes in the isolation of the self. The dualistic theory
considered the self as a separated mind detached from its body, therefore also separating the self
from its social environment. As Burkitt explains the Cartesian theory, Descartes claims that if
we stop and reflect upon it, we cannot associate ourselves with any aspect of our own bodies, for
if many of the attributes of our physical presence were to disappear we would still continue to
exist as a self (64), in contrary to the dialogical self that embody the socializing, extending, and
open-ness to dialogues. In the postmodern era where individualism is fading away, it is critical to

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take into consideration that the self is fundamentally shaped by discourses and shared languages,
because people are in constant communication at all times. In addition to that, the self is valued
by the role it is playing; hence the self is depended on its narratives and how people in society
perceived it. As Hermans put it into words, in a similar vein, it can be concluded that the self
lies on the borderline between oneself and the other. The self is half somebody elses (124).
In sum, the self is greatly shaped by language, because language and its words helps
decipher life experiences into narratives, which would be shared through dialogues in discursive
communities insofar that they shape the dialogic self. Therefore, the self could be looked as a
narrative that is constantly unfolding through language and words because only through dialogue
the self is revealed. The narrative that has kept its continuity would form ones identity, integrity,
and self-value. Additionally, life experiences would also add to ones identity by forming
prejudices, affecting how one reacts in a situation. Furthermore, being self-conscious and
presently aware of the narratives and the community backdrops while allowing the self to be ever
unfolding would set the self into transcendence.

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Works Cited
Burkitt, Ian. "Bodies Of Knowledge: Beyond Cartesian Views Of Persons, Selves And Mind."
Journal For The Theory Of Social Behaviour 28.1 (1998): 63. Psychology and
Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Ewing, K. The illusion of wholeness: Culture, self and the experience of inconsistency. Ethos,
18 (1990): 251278.
Frie, Roger. "Identity, Narrative, And Lived Experience After Postmodernity: Between
Multiplicity And Continuity." Journal Of Phenomenological Psychology 42.1 (2011):
46-60. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford
University Press, 1991.
Hermans, Hubert J. M. "The Dialogical Self as a Society of Mind Introduction." Theory &
Psychology 12.2 (2002): 147-160. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Hermans, Hubert J. M. "The Construction And Reconstruction Of A Dialogical Self."
Journal Of Constructivist Psychology 16.2 (2003): 89. Academic Search Premier. Web.
21 Mar. 2015.
Levenson, Michael R., et al. "Self-transcendence: Conceptualization and measurement." The
International Journal of Aging and Human Development 60.2 (2005): 127-143.