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On the origins of self and the case of autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

R. Peter Hobson
R. Peter Hobson*
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
Address correspondence to: R. P. Hobson, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
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Abstract

This article examines what it means to have a self. My focus is on the essential components of self-experience, the kind of psychological architecture required to construct a self, rather than on the configurations or qualities of individual “selves.” I adopt a developmental perspective and indicate how early childhood autism may afford unique insights into the role of perceptual-affective and interpersonal experience in determining the normal child's developing awareness of self.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 163 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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