9 - Self-Pathologies

Summary

Pathologies of the Actual Full Self and of Self-Concept

Selves have their pathologies, medical as well as moral. Various classic theories in psychology propose that cognitive self-conflicts and self-inconsistencies produce emotional problems (see, e.g., Higgins, 1987). That is obviously the ‘dominant’ self-paradigm's take on the issue. My ‘alternative’ self-paradigm's suggestion would be that – because selfhood and affect are inseparable – such conflicts and inconsistencies are emotional problems.

It would be difficult to identify serious psychological or moral ailments – or indeed psychiatric diseases – that did not involve the self. One well-known model of addictions sees them, for instance, as ways of ‘escaping the self’. Alcohol and drug abuse as well as eating disorders are then understood as escapist behaviours to avoid distressing self-examinations and self-resolutions (Leary & Baumeister, 2000, pp. 49–50). Another common human ailment, depression, which hits about one in six people, has been shown to be most typically caused by serious life events that undermine self-constituting projects – events such as the loss of loved ones, important relationships or occupations (Oatley, 2007). Given the high frequency and pervasiveness of possible psychopathologies of selves, no single chapter could do justice to all of them – at least not if selves are understood in realist terms as actual full selves. I am therefore limiting my focus to a special category of self-pathologies involving self-concepts rather than full selves. Again, however, that category is too wide to be explored comprehensively within the confines of one chapter.