The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are
There is a self-help industry built on the notion of becoming the person “we were meant to be,” but what is the self at the core of such striving?

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are answers this fundamental question by drawing on philosophy, psychology, various cultural traditions, and original research. The resultant method of mapping the self may revolutionize psychotherapy. The self, which is core to such concepts as self-esteem and self-actualization, is mapped using elemental units of culture called memes. To understand this self, we draw on Western philosophy, major schools of psychology, and the cross-cultural experience of the self in both collectivist and individualist cultures. With this grounding a diverse sample of eleven selves representing three genders are mapped, analyzed, and grouped in the following clusters:

1) North American selves built through participation in sports;
2) Selves centred on notions of North American aboriginality;
3) Selves of individuals following a secular humanist paradigm; and
4) Selves from China and Russia.

Two methods of self-mapping are described. The results support a hypothesis that a healthy or functional self is composed of fundamental elements including constancy, volition, uniqueness, productivity, intimacy, and social interest. The application of this research and the method of self-mapping to counselling and psychotherapy are explored. A disciplinary paradigm is proposed uniting major schools of psychotherapy. This work will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and all who have wondered how they come to define themselves in the ways that they do.

1136278334
The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are
There is a self-help industry built on the notion of becoming the person “we were meant to be,” but what is the self at the core of such striving?

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are answers this fundamental question by drawing on philosophy, psychology, various cultural traditions, and original research. The resultant method of mapping the self may revolutionize psychotherapy. The self, which is core to such concepts as self-esteem and self-actualization, is mapped using elemental units of culture called memes. To understand this self, we draw on Western philosophy, major schools of psychology, and the cross-cultural experience of the self in both collectivist and individualist cultures. With this grounding a diverse sample of eleven selves representing three genders are mapped, analyzed, and grouped in the following clusters:

1) North American selves built through participation in sports;
2) Selves centred on notions of North American aboriginality;
3) Selves of individuals following a secular humanist paradigm; and
4) Selves from China and Russia.

Two methods of self-mapping are described. The results support a hypothesis that a healthy or functional self is composed of fundamental elements including constancy, volition, uniqueness, productivity, intimacy, and social interest. The application of this research and the method of self-mapping to counselling and psychotherapy are explored. A disciplinary paradigm is proposed uniting major schools of psychotherapy. This work will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and all who have wondered how they come to define themselves in the ways that they do.

39.95 In Stock
The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are

by Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson
The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are

by Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson

Paperback

$39.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 1-2 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

There is a self-help industry built on the notion of becoming the person “we were meant to be,” but what is the self at the core of such striving?

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are answers this fundamental question by drawing on philosophy, psychology, various cultural traditions, and original research. The resultant method of mapping the self may revolutionize psychotherapy. The self, which is core to such concepts as self-esteem and self-actualization, is mapped using elemental units of culture called memes. To understand this self, we draw on Western philosophy, major schools of psychology, and the cross-cultural experience of the self in both collectivist and individualist cultures. With this grounding a diverse sample of eleven selves representing three genders are mapped, analyzed, and grouped in the following clusters:

1) North American selves built through participation in sports;
2) Selves centred on notions of North American aboriginality;
3) Selves of individuals following a secular humanist paradigm; and
4) Selves from China and Russia.

Two methods of self-mapping are described. The results support a hypothesis that a healthy or functional self is composed of fundamental elements including constancy, volition, uniqueness, productivity, intimacy, and social interest. The application of this research and the method of self-mapping to counselling and psychotherapy are explored. A disciplinary paradigm is proposed uniting major schools of psychotherapy. This work will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and all who have wondered how they come to define themselves in the ways that they do.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780776629308
Publisher: Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
Publication date: 09/15/2020
Series: Health and Society
Pages: 302
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is Lead Psychologist, Collaborative Centre for Justice and Safety at the University of Regina, and holds a PhD in Counselling Psychology. He has had a private clinical practice for the past forty years. He has published on the structure of the self, the use of prior learning assessment in self-construction, self-mapping in therapy, memetic mutations in religious transmission, residential school syndrome as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, free will and psychotherapy, mind viruses, and male stigma.

Read an Excerpt

By linking memes sharing connotative, affective, or behavioural dimensions with those prioritized by the client as more difficult to change closer to the centre, a self-structure emerged […] Over the course of about seven months, the new core we had developed became increasingly central to Suzie’s self-definition while those memes supporting her “depressed person” meme became fewer in number.

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

1 Necessity and Invention in Counselling 1

Mapping and Modifying the Self of a Client in Therapy 2

The Call of This Research 7

2 The Self Within Euro-American Thought 11

The Unitary Stable Self 13

Neurological Considerations in Understanding Self 16

The Constructed Self: Variations on a Theme 22

Social Constructionism and the Postmodern Alternative 26

Considerations of the Objective and Subjective 34

3 The Self in Collectivist Cultures 39

Grammar and Cultural Appropriation in Selected Amerindian Cultures 40

The Buddhist Experience of Self 48

Examinations of the Self in Selected Collectivist Cultures 52

Counselling Outside of the "Western" Tradition 60

4 The Potential of the Meme 67

The Meme "Meme" 68

Defining the Meme Using Selected Studies 73

An Evolutionary Account of the Self as a Complex of Memes 77

The Implicit Self Made Explicit 88

5 Mapping the Self from Personal Narratives 101

Finding One's Self through Sports 101

From Criminal to Counsellor 102

Athlete via Wheelchair 105

Environmentalism and Competence 110

The Aboriginal Self 116

"Against the Wind" 118

White Renegade 123

A Métis Mother 128

The Humanist Self 133

Not Métis, not Humanist 134

Judge, Jury, and Executioner 138

Born in the Wrong Body 144

Two Selves from Outside North America 149

A Competitive Spirit 150

I Am Robot 154

6 Memes, Themes, and Humanness 161

The Cognitive View: The Objective and Subjective 162

The Self as a Small-World Network 171

Teaching Self: Family and Community 176

Happiness, Transcendence, and the Evolution of Religion 183

Affirming and Strengthening Our Understanding of Self 196

7 Implications of Self-Mapping for Psychological Practice 205

Extending the Example of the Suicidal Youth 206

Resonance, Transition, and Self Change 213

Self-Map Co-construction in Effecting Therapeutic Change 225

Culturally Inclusive Counselling: Implications of Self 230

The Fourth Paradigm 243

References 255

Index 273

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews