Essay - Mead and Freud One of the Most Fundamental Questions for...

Mead and Freud

***** of the most fundamental questions for the field of psychology - indeed of all human questing ***** knowledge - is how it ***** that we come to be the way that we are. What is it that makes us human? And to what extent is ***** nature shared ***** ***** what extent are ***** each unique? Two of the founding scholars of the discipline of ***** - Sigmund Freud and George Herbert Mead - both created models to explain how fundamental ***** arguably universal human psychic structures developed. Their models do not entirely refute each other, but they do propose distinctly different interior roadmaps of the human psyche as well as very ***** path*****s by which core ***** structures develop.

We may begin by examining Mead's model, which was an Interactionist one. Interactionism was ***** of ***** most important ********** in psychological (as well as educational and general social scientific) theory in the 20th century. The Interactionist view insists that the "mind" and the "self" are not an a priori part of human inher*****ance (i.e. we are not born with them) but rather ***** conceive of as these faculties is developed through our experiences and are constructed ***** a variety ***** social processed. We each develop ourselves, in ***** words, through the daily process of *****teraction between ourselves and ***** of the o*****r people in our ***** world. Our idea of the self ***** thus essentially an internalization of facets of all of our interactions with others.

***** was perhaps the most eloquent defender of this model, ***** has profound consequences. If one accepts it, it answers in the strongest possible way ***** we are ***** our brothers' (and sisters' keepers); *****deed, ***** are their geni*****rs. We each exist (in social and ***** terms) because we have incorporated (***** ***** integrated) the ways that o*****rs see us (Mead, 1967, pp. 21*****7).

***** the Interactionist, each of us is who we ***** because ***** ***** ourselves through the process ***** interaction ***** other people. But ***** ***** *****s are equally important to the development of self. Ra*****r, those ***** occur in *****timate, personal communication w*****h others are the most influential. ********** relationships include familial ones and those with intimate friends - but for the child they also ***** relationships with teachers and other educators.

The self, or self-concept, as developed ***** ***** and others, ***** thus ***** an ***** ***** aspects of an interpersonal ***** social ***** with ***** emphasis on interacti*****s with certain specific individuals. We are ***** out of the cloth of how other persons conceive us ***** ***** self-concept (********** constantly fluctuating and uncertain) nevertheless functions as a guide in social behavior. This *****cludes the social ***** of learning, for we learn not as isolated individuals but *****in the context of a ***** culture *****nd society and historical moment (Mead, 1964, pp. 81-6).

***** argue that we each tend to act in order ***** preserve the exist*****g or desired image of our self as