The Illusion of Wholeness: Culture, Self, and the Experience of Inconsistency

The theory of multiple selves is contrasted with the dominant anthropological & psychoanalytical definitions of the self, which emphasize the difference between the Western concept of an autonomous decontextualized self, & the selves found in other cultures. Using examples from field conversations with a Pakistani woman on the child-parent conflict, it is argued that there is a universal semiotic process by which people in all societies manage inconsistencies of their cultures & inner conflicts, & reconstitute experience in all situations. An extensive critique of Heinz Kohut's "whole," "cohesive" self (eg, see The Analysis of the Self, New York: International Universities Press, 1971) is given, & an alternative model of shifting & inconsistent selves, observable in human dialogue, is proposed. Freudian concepts of condensation, displacement, transference, & identification help explain how individuals construct an illusory sense of wholeness & continuity in order to handle experiences incompatible with their conscious experience of self. The experience of wholeness that derives from a symbolic construction of the self & the accompanying shifts of that experience may be universal. 42 References. A. Devic