The Private Self

The concept of the self is the subject of intense debate in psychoanalysis, and similarly in neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy. Modell, an American psychoanalyst, here studies selfhood from the inside by examining variations on the theme of the self in Freud, and in the work of object relations theorists, self psychologists, and neuroscientists. His contribution is an interdisciplinary perspective in formulating a theory of the private self. Modell contends that the self is fundamentally paradoxical, being both dependent and autonomous-dependent upon social affirmation, but autonomous in generating itself from within: we create ourselves through the selection of values that are endowed with private meanings. (Modell presents an extensive view of these self-generative and self-creative aspects.) The private self is an embodied self, the psychology of the self is rooted in biology. By thinking of the unconscious as a neurophysiological process and the self as the subject and object of its own experience, Modell is able to explain how identity can persist in the flux of consciousness.
In arriving at his synthesis of psychoanalytic observations and neurobiological theory, Modell draws on the contributions of Donald Winnicott in psychoanalysis, William James in philosophy, and Gerald Edelman in neurobiology. This study boldly explores the frontier between psychoanalysis and biology. In replacing the "instinct-driven" self and the "attachment-oriented" self with the "self-generating" self, the author offers a stimulating perspective for our understanding of the mind and the brain.